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| 1964 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater's support for ultra-conservatives contrasted with the long tradition of Republican moderates. In the cartoon above Herb Block depicted these moderates as drowning. |
In Northern Ireland we have seen many model moderate politicians - constitutional and conciliatory - summarily vanquished by the extremist who practices the most inflexible and pitiless declension of unionism or nationalism.
By contrast in the United States of America, the moderate has often out-played the extremist. As I said in the Huffington Post here:
"Let's look at the DUP. These are the political offspring of Ian Paisley, Ireland's answer to Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton. Foaming religious fundamentalists. Except none of these reactionaries made any serious in-ways into political office. Unfortunately ours did."
