There are rabble-rousers and hyperpartisan commentators on the Left just as there are on the Right. But I can't escape the suspicion that nobody on the Left is as ridiculous as people like North. Think of those perceived as extreme partisans on the Left: Reverend AL, Jesse Jackson, Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky. None are anywhere near as wacky as the typical Right Wing talk radio host or media troublemaker. You may disagree with the views of someone like Liz Warren, but she is nowhere near as extreme or absurd as some of the louder voices on the Right.

To put it another way, the extreme Right is a lot farther away from the Center than the extreme Left. There appears to to be a fundamental asymmetry in our political landscape. This asymmetry manifests itself not only in the shrillness and vitriol of the discourse, but in how it is articulated. It is clear that the fire on the Right is directed to a very different audience. And maybe that's just another way of saying that the Center has been artificially and deliberately pushed too far to the Right. Sure, maybe this entire classification is handicapped by a perception of the political spectrum that is much too one-dimensional. Still, it must be obvious, even to the most thoughtful Conservatives, that their crazies are a lot crazier than ours.

And unfortunately, not all those Right Wing nut cases are media hucksters. Too many are elected officials.