Extremism, or the Art of Smearing Summary and Analysis

Rand examines the concept of smear campaigns in this chapter. These smears are done at all levels of government and are evident during political campaigns. She uses a Republican National Convention as an example of a call for a repudiation of extremism. The people calling for the elimination of extremism did not ever define the word or the activities they wanted eliminated. They kept it going by not explaining any of their reasons or criteria for selecting which groups to smear. People are willing to fight for something they strongly believe in. Rand mentions various groups like the Communist Party, the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society. Nothing links these three groups together no matter how hard the moderates try. They try to claim evil is the common denominator...