In case you missed it earlier today Ezra Klein, the uber-liberal Washington Post blogger who has no problem appearing on news networks while claiming to be a health care reporter (integrity!), slammed Rand Paul as an extremist because of his objections to certain provisions of the 1964 civil rights act. What makes Paul and extremist according to Klein? Well here’s what he has to say:
So I take Paul at his word that he’s not a racist. What he is, however, is an ideological extremist. He is so categorically opposed to public regulation of private enterprise that he cannot even bring himself to say that the Woolworth lunch counter should’ve been desegregated. Instead, he falls back on the remedies of the market: “I wouldn’t attend, wouldn’t support, wouldn’t go to,” a private institution that discriminates, he told Rachel Maddow. But he would let them discriminate.
Basically Ezra is claiming that since Rand Paul is ideologically consistent even in uncomfortable situations where many would not be that makes him ideologically extreme. Ok… that’s fine. We can go with that definition if Ezra likes.
Unfortunately for him, if we do go with that definition, that makes Ezra an “ideological extremist”. Take for instance this post from his days at the American Prospect entitled “Nazi Ideas“: Continue reading Ezra Klein may not be a Nazi, but he is an extremist