Violence on the Fanatical Left and Right

Abstract

Political violence—or, more properly, ideological violence—has gone hand in glove with political or ideological extremism through every period of American history. It has been the necessary weapon of the far-right crusaders and the far-left revolutionaries who, rejecting the electoral and con stitutional processes of democracy, reach for a swift, clear, decisive alternative. Historically, both have failed in their purposes—while spilling much blood in their efforts—a failure due not so much to the course they have pursued as to the course they have rejected.