{"id":11579194,"date":"2025-07-26T11:30:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T15:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11579194"},"modified":"2025-07-25T14:10:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T18:10:42","slug":"armstrong-moderation-constitution-exremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/26\/armstrong-moderation-constitution-exremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Armstrong Williams: Moderation in all things | STAFF COMMENTARY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moderation in all things is our deliverance from the strife and upheaval of extremism. The Aristotelian mean recognizes that wisdom and truth are more chiaroscuro than prime colors. Drawing lines are the heartland of civilized law. It can be said without exaggeration that civilization was born when the first human reflected, \u201cI could be wrong. I need to entertain alternative views.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Thomas Jefferson underscored in his first inaugural address, \u201cAll, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater stumbled in thundering, \u201cExtremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.\u201d The storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution began the Reign of Terror and Napoleon\u2019s self-coronation. The moderate American alternative gave birth to the United States Constitution and the Statue of Liberty. Extremism in the defense of liberty prompted Senator Goldwater to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act, emancipating Black people from a century of Jim Crow earmarked by lynchings and the dastardly murder of Emmett Till.<\/p>\n

Yet extremism on both the left and right flourishes, tending to shipwreck moderation. Poet William Butler Yeats versified, \u201cThe best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity.\u201d The media fuels extremism by courting guests eager for gladiatorial combat that makes for wonderful ratings. Balanced commentary is shunned as lacking verbal pyrotechnics. President Donald Trump was right in stating regarding his White House jousting with Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, \u201cThis is going to be great television.\u201d<\/p>\n

The extreme right conceives any criticism of American history as treason \u2014 even acknowledging the horrors of slavery, the extermination of Native American Indians, or female disenfranchisement until the 19th Amendment. Extreme rightists have defended slavery by arguing it cultivated skills that could be turned to personal benefit. But if slavery were so advantageous, why did whites fiercely resist slavery for themselves to enjoy its putative advantages? The extreme right embraces the \u201cGreat Replacement Theory,\u201d which postulates white supremacy indistinguishable from Adolf Hitler\u2019s master race. The Jan. 6 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power in accord with the Twelfth Amendment and the Electoral Count Act was an attempted reprise of South Carolina\u2019s firing on Fort Sumter, triggering the Civil War.<\/p>\n

The extreme left preaches that because the United States is imperfect, it is entirely evil \u2014 that the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater. Their cures are vastly worse than the disease: defunding the police; disparaging merit-based enrollments or employment; sclerotic government substitutions for private enterprise; and lighting a match to the United States Constitution, a masterful blueprint for limited, balanced government which William Gladstone praised as \u201cthe most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.\u201d The extreme left salutes sacrificing the good on the altar of the perfect.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Franklin displayed the ideal of moderation and anti-zealotry at the constitutional convention. The grand statesman is worth quoting at length to teach a standard of self-doubting which should be inculcated in every home or classroom:<\/p>\n

\u201cI confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it: For having lived long, I have experienced many Instances of being obliged, by better Information or fuller Consideration, to change Opinions even on important Subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own Judgment and to pay more Respect to the Judgment of others. Most Men indeed as well as most Sects in Religion, think themselves in Possession of all Truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far Error. [Sir Richard] Steele, a Protestant, in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only Difference between our two Churches in their Opinions of the Certainty of their Doctrine, is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the Wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moderation is our deliverance from the strife and upheaval of extremism, writes Armstrong Williams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":87266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-07-26T15:30:45Z","apple_news_api_id":"53ec6f9e-2cd6-41bb-92dc-345c03c9f605","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-07-26T15:30:45Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AU-xvnizWQbuS3DRcA8n2BQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"subheadline":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83,96,99],"tags":[24874,24457],"feature":[],"location":[],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[24791],"class_list":["post-11579194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-headlines","category-opinion","category-opinion-columnists","tag-armstrong-williams","tag-social"],"post_status":"","edit_last":0,"edit_lock":0,"highlights":"","original_byline":"","original_canonical":"","original_category":"","original_email":"","original_id":0,"original_pubdate":"","original_source":"","primary_section":"99","primary_tag":24874,"print_workflow_body":{"deck_headline":"","print_title":"Armstrong Williams: Moderation in all things | STAFF COMMENTARY","print_subheadline":"","print_priority":"","print_placement":"inside","print_planned_ready":"","print_pub_date":"1753588800","print_slug":"TBS-L-ARMSTRONG-0727","print_budget_line":"","print_excerpt":"Moderation is our deliverance from the strife and upheaval of extremism, writes Armstrong Williams.","print_notes":"","photo_limits":"Photo limits are: 1 featured image, 5 featured gallery images, 5 embedded gallery images and 5 in-article embedded images. Articles that exceed these limits will not export. Please adjust images to reflect these limits.","print_featured_gallery_richtext":"","print_inline_galleries_richtext":"","print_inline_images_richtext":"","print_content":"

Moderation in all things is our deliverance from the strife and upheaval of extremism. The Aristotelian mean recognizes that wisdom and truth are more chiaroscuro than prime colors. Drawing lines are the heartland of civilized law. It can be said without exaggeration that civilization was born when the first human reflected, \u201cI could be wrong. I need to entertain alternative views.\u201d<\/p>

President Thomas Jefferson underscored in his first inaugural address, \u201cAll, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.\u201d<\/p>

Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater stumbled in thundering, \u201cExtremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.\u201d The storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution began the Reign of Terror and Napoleon\u2019s self-coronation. The moderate American alternative gave birth to the United States Constitution and the Statue of Liberty. Extremism in the defense of liberty prompted Senator Goldwater to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights Act, emancipating Black people from a century of Jim Crow earmarked by lynchings and the dastardly murder of Emmett Till.<\/p>

Yet extremism on both the left and right flourishes, tending to shipwreck moderation. Poet William Butler Yeats versified, \u201cThe best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with passionate intensity.\u201d The media fuels extremism by courting guests eager for gladiatorial combat that makes for wonderful ratings. Balanced commentary is shunned as lacking verbal pyrotechnics. President Donald Trump was right in stating regarding his White House jousting with Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, \u201cThis is going to be great television.\u201d<\/p>

The extreme right conceives any criticism of American history as treason \u2014 even acknowledging the horrors of slavery, the extermination of Native American Indians, or female disenfranchisement until the 19th Amendment. Extreme rightists have defended slavery by arguing it cultivated skills that could be turned to personal benefit. But if slavery were so advantageous, why did whites fiercely resist slavery for themselves to enjoy its putative advantages? The extreme right embraces the \u201cGreat Replacement Theory,\u201d which postulates white supremacy indistinguishable from Adolf Hitler\u2019s master race. The Jan. 6 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power in accord with the Twelfth Amendment and the Electoral Count Act was an attempted reprise of South Carolina\u2019s firing on Fort Sumter, triggering the Civil War.<\/p>

The extreme left preaches that because the United States is imperfect, it is entirely evil \u2014 that the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater. Their cures are vastly worse than the disease: defunding the police; disparaging merit-based enrollments or employment; sclerotic government substitutions for private enterprise; and lighting a match to the United States Constitution, a masterful blueprint for limited, balanced government which William Gladstone praised as \u201cthe most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.\u201d The extreme left salutes sacrificing the good on the altar of the perfect.<\/p>

Benjamin Franklin displayed the ideal of moderation and anti-zealotry at the constitutional convention. The grand statesman is worth quoting at length to teach a standard of self-doubting which should be inculcated in every home or classroom:<\/p>

\u201cI confess that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present, but Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it: For having lived long, I have experienced many Instances of being obliged, by better Information or fuller Consideration, to change Opinions even on important Subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow the more apt I am to doubt my own Judgment and to pay more Respect to the Judgment of others. Most Men indeed as well as most Sects in Religion, think themselves in Possession of all Truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far Error. [Sir Richard] Steele, a Protestant, in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only Difference between our two Churches in their Opinions of the Certainty of their Doctrine, is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never in the Wrong.\u201d<\/p>

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.<\/em><\/p>"},"print_workflow_exported_ts":"1753467066","print_workflow_exported_username":"Philip Caldwell","print_workflow_shapes":"","print_workflow_side":{"print_section":"24225","print_status":"24232","add_export_buttons":"","print_endpoint":"tribune"},"really_short_title":"","short_title":"","syndication_source":"","market_neutral_title":"","social_title":"","dfm_hub_post_id":0,"paywall_level":"premium","featured_media_content":{"content_type":"image","content":{"id":87266,"title":"O3DXYCV53JFQ3DCU5CIPNPLSLA","filename":"O3DXYCV53JFQ3DCU5CIPNPLSLA.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migration\/2023\/06\/30\/O3DXYCV53JFQ3DCU5CIPNPLSLA.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2023\/06\/30\/constitution-in-need-of-a-serious-rewrite-reader-commentary\/O3DXYCV53JFQ3DCU5CIPNPLSLA\/","alt":"","author":"154","description":"","caption":"A close up of the first printing of the final text of the United States Constitution on display in 2021 in New York City. 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