Good piece. "The demonization mob" in the US isn't centrally controlled like the USSR's, but it's influenced by extremists who see it, accurately, as a path to personal power. They want outrage, not justice. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/american-soviet-mentality https://twitter.com/tabletmag/status/1272876585079631874

They should be glad that the United States is such a young country, because going after little statues of Washington & Jefferson (and Grant and Gandhi?!) is easier than tearing down products of slave labor like the Roman Colosseum!

Trump and Trumpism are the clear and present dangers and must be not only defeated, but repudiated completely in 2020. My fear is the pendulum swinging just as far in the other direction, pushed by extremists exploiting that backlash.

The opposite extreme of Trumpism isn't progressive liberalism, it's a similarly illiberal leftism that attacks the openness and freedom that permits their voices to be heard in the first place. The extremes empower each other against the middle.

Moderates and progressives who fail to stand up against their illiberal faction will be no better than the moderate GOP & conservatives who failed to stand up to Trump and prevent his takeover of the party.