Am I Extreme?

What exactly is it that extremist liberals want policy-wise which separates them from regular liberals and non-liberal Dems?  I know our political goals are to impeach Bush, regain control of Congress, and to put an end to Joementum; among other things.  But what exactly is it that we want regarding actual policies?  

Over at MyDD, Matt Stoller suggests a list including “Social Security, the war, health care, wiretapping”.  But he can’t fool me, as I know that a good chunk of America agrees with us on these positions.  And if it got sent out as a strong Dem message, a clear majority would side with us.  And so those can’t be the extremist positions.

I’m only asking because I’d really like to know where I stand on the extremist spectrum.  I’m a strong liberal and Democrat who doesn’t want to take no crap from no GOP con-artists; so I know that supposedly puts me on the extremist fringe.  But frankly, I just don’t feel like an extremist.  I feel like a damn moderate.  Yes, yes, I know.  Those are fighting words to you loyal extremists out there; but that’s just how I feel.  And so if that means you’re going to have to denounce my family name and set my pants on fire; so be it.  

I feel like a moderate who’s sitting smack dab in the middle of America’s thinking.  I don’t want substantial change.  I don’t want to rewrite lots of laws, or wage a huge battle to shake the social fabric of our nation; like a good portion of conservatives do.  Guys who want to undo the last 100 years of American progress.  I think that things are pretty damn good in this country, and that we just have a few minor changes to go.  And at least some of those changes are just to undo/fix the crap that Bush and the GOP have inflicted upon us.

And hell, I think that the DLC’s Bush-lite agenda is far more radical than anything I’d propose.  And yet they get to use the “centrist” label.  But how does opposing extremism on one end of the spectrum automatically make you an extremist on the other end?  Can’t my extremist-opposition also be from a position of moderation?  And how does working with an extremist make one a moderate; rather than an extremist-enabling patsy?  

Overall, it would seem to me that the Lib v. Con extremist spectrum should be based on policy goals, rather than political goals.  And that it shouldn’t matter if I want Bush impeached or how strongly I word my criticism.  What should matter is how radical my policy agenda is; and I don’t think I have a particularly radical agenda.  So am I a moderate?   Or is the mere shrillness of my anti-GOP political goals enough to put me into the far far left commie-terrorist fringe of America haters?  And does that extremism make you people love me despite my moderate policies?  I’ve really got to know.