To define Middle America, you must first define its extremes.

We hear the term Extreme applied to people who want lower tax rates, or who feel that actions have consequences. This extremism is portrayed as the fringe around the American tapestry as opposed to being the bulk of the material we call America.

You cannot describe the desire to post the Ten Commandments in a class room as extreme while categorizing the desire for two women to get married as normal, without sentencing middle America to a disenfranchised position outside the market place of ideas.

With this manipulation of terms, it is easy to understand the confusion over who middle America is. But if the polls are right, if the vast majority of people are classified as right wing radical extremists, and the minority who denounce God’s absolutes are considered a normal reflection of society . . . then society must accept the consequences of its redefining or it must work to remove these distorted labels that unravel our moral fabric.

This is Nina May for the Renaissance Women.