Barbara Mezeske: Extremism as a political strategy

One thing you can say about political extremism: It keeps the journalists and lawyers busy.

Start with Ottawa County. Every marathon board of commissioners’ meeting generates news: the former administrator being fired on day one; the new administrator placed on leave of absence just over a year later; the censuring of an elected commissioner; the prolonged court battles over the health department’s leadership; lawsuits over ageism and religion; the messy budget process; the creation of a veterans’ department no one knew we needed.

This generates not only news but also legal fees. How much did it cost county residents to dismiss the former administrator? How much will it cost to eliminate the current one? What about litigation costs, which resulted not only in judgments but also appeals? The billable hours keep piling up.

National politics is on a parallel course. Trump is all over the media for his criminal and civil legal cases, and for the delaying strategies he is using to prolong them past the November election when, presumably, he will pardon himself of all federal crimes. Just last week he got a two-month extension, thanks to the Supreme Court. Never mind that other people who participated in actions Trump incited are serving jail time.

Meanwhile, reproductive health care has become conditional on where one lives: There have been terrible stories coming out of Texas, Ohio, and elsewhere, where women have been denied standard-of-care treatment for difficult or failed pregnancies. In-vitro fertilization, the morning-after pill, and even birth control might disappear from certain states. OB-GYN physicians can be jailed or lose their licenses if they practice standard maternal/reproductive medicine in some states.

How about immigration? The discussion of the southern border is characterized by jockeying that is nothing but raw political cynicism: in February a bipartisan border bill was torpedoed when Trump told House Republicans to scuttle it, even though it contained measures they themselves had demanded. It suits Trump’s campaign to make the border a “Biden problem.”

We are tied in knots over Ukraine and Israel. Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine threatens Europe and NATO; can America afford to look away? Israel’s brutal response to an equally brutal Hamas attack poses a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t moral and political dilemma.

The Republican Party is rotting from within. They did not update their platform in 2020, instead resolving to “continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda,” thereby becoming the Party of Trump. Old-style conservative Republicans are losing elections, or retiring before that can happen: Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Adam Kinzinger, Justin Amash and Peter Meijer have gone. There are leadership battles at the national level and here in Michigan.

Does this mean the MAGA movement is poised to take over our country? Does it mean that the Christian nationalists will be ascendant, as they are in Ottawa County? Is the nation ready for “the end of democracy,” as was proclaimed at a recent Conservative Political Action Conference?

Only if you think that extremism is a viable long-term strategy to get us a better country.

The consequences of the 2022 Dobbs decision are extreme: who benefits when government inserts itself between women and their doctors?

Trump’s threats to leave NATO are extreme. Does encouraging Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” make our world safe?

Pardoning Jan. 6 rioters convicted of federal crimes would negate the judicial process that led to their convictions. Does the country really want to give rioters a pass for attacking the capitol and its police?

Turning the Justice Department into an instrument of revenge against political opponents, as Trump has suggested he will do, would be extreme. It’s what Putin did to Alexander Navalny. Is that what the country wants?

Extremism has a short shelf life because the fever pitch of emotion is unsustainable. Voters tire of hot-button issues that push immigration, access to health care, national security, or the economy off the table. Voters are as tired of the Trump show as Ottawa County is tired of the Ottawa Impact show.

There is danger, certainly, in these political movements. But reason, decency, and a long history of American democracy is alive and well. We can’t afford to be complacent, but now is not the time for despair, either. The struggle to put our county and our country back on course won’t end on election day in August (for Ottawa County) or in November (for the nation).

We must work at this for the rest of our foreseeable lives. The good news is that, together, we can choose to move on from this frenzied, emotion-driven, cultish political discourse that has been central since the failed overthrow of the 2020 presidential election. We can restore both our county and our nation so that governance becomes less about personalities and vendettas, and more about the real problems of civic life.

— Community Columnist Barbara Mezeske is a retired teacher and resident of Park Township. She can be reached at bamezeske@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Barbara Mezeske: Extremism as a political strategy