Extremism Seems To Have Become Mainstream, But Not For Long.
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/opinion/right-wing-america-politics-culture.html
This op-ed by David French in The New York Times lays out the terms of the battle within the Republican Party between those who support the extremist views of people like Tucker Carlson and his interview subject, Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, and the conventional, mainstream of the Republican Party, which, although shrinking in the face of the Trump MAGA onslaught, still exists. The latest storm arose in the Heritage Foundation caused by its leader, Kevin Roberts, supporting Carlson.
Here’s a quote from French that sums up the Republican dilemma.
“Even if you are uncomfortable with the words and actions of your fellow Republicans, there is relentless pressure to swallow your tongue.” No Republicans willingly stand up to Trump and the President has some extremist views on just about everything at one time or another, including the integrity of the voting system in the United States and his own intelligence. Mr. Trump scares people like me who object to many of his policies (tariffs), but like some others (sealing the border). He really scares people in his own party who might consider standing up to him. Standing up to Trump is incompatible with having a place in his administration or his party. No wonder he is surrounded by so many toadies.
But let’s be honest. Things are really no better in the Democratic Party. The Democratic senators who finally voted to unblock the government shutdown are viewed as traitors. None is up for re-election next year and a few are retiring. Not exactly real courage.
After the Mamdami win in the New York City mayor’s race and the loud cheer it got during Saturday Night Live on November 8, any Democrats who oppose his extreme agenda will be labeled disloyal. Being practical is not being disloyal. It is still unclear if Mamdani will be able to govern America’s biggest city with absolutely no managerial experience.
There seems to be no room for moderation and no room for compromise because of the tug-of-war between ideological extremism and practical governability. This is not how the country is supposed to run. The Senate is supposed to be a great, deliberative body of compromise and conciliation. It is anything but. The House has always been unmanageable (except by Nancy Pelosi). It has become like herding cats, except the Republican cats are so afraid of the lion in the White House, that they just roll over and beg. Can you herd dead cats?
Both parties seem to be running hard to their extremes making governing impossible and deals hard to come by, no matter what Mr. Trump says.
Not surprisingly perhaps, the power of extremism has hit institutions outside of government and politics as well. The Texas State university system has come under the thumb of extremists in Austin who are unchallenged in their effort to control curricula, dictate hiring, and eliminate shared governance. In essence, with the full support of the Texas State Legislature and the Governor, university presidents can summarily dismiss faculty, dictate what faculty teach, and effectively what anyone is allowed to think. Worse, the faculty have taken this without so much as a whimper.
Even at the state’s cancer center, MD Anderson, the president can fire anyone he wants without cause, boost his own salary through the roof, and further cancer research not at all without so much as a peep from anyone. And, with the Faculty Senate eradicated, the faculty have no defense against the actions of the executives at Anderson or at any UT institution. Extremism governs the day.
A wise faculty member at MD Anderson will see his or her patients and do his or her research, without protest or even the verbalization of an opinion. Having an opinion at MD Anderson can undo job security so who can blame the faculty for its silence.
In Congress, in New York City, and in academia, expressing an opinion counter to the one harbored by autocratic and extremist leadership is a high-risk endeavor.
In Congress, relief will only come if the Democrats can take a majority of one of the houses and thus block Trump’s riding roughshod over the Constitution. Split government is better government. Everyone behaves better.
In New York City, I believe that no matter how many Gen Z supporters Mamdami has, someone is going to have to pay for his giveaway programs of free housing, free child-care, and free transportation. I think this one will take care of itself. I just do not see how a socialist can govern the nation’s largest city and the global center of capitalist economic activity.
At MD Anderson, I do not see a solution in the near term. The Board of Regents seems pleased with President Pisters even as he destroys one of the great cancer centers in the country, not by active decisions he makes, but by neglect born of his own ignorance of where the solution to the cancer problem lies. Here’s a hint. It’s not in seeing more and more patients so that Pisters can fill the MD Anderson coffers and his own pockets. It’s not getting five- star ratings from quality mavens who know nothing about patient care. Rather, it is in the performance of world-class research at the bedside and the bench, neither of which does Pisters know a thing about.
Extremism is not a good plan for the governance of anything—the federal government, New York City, or MD Anderson. Will the people of each jurisdiction wake up in time? We shall see.
