Opinion: Social media allows extremists to come out of the woodwork

In response to the reader's letter appearing in Thursday's The Sumter Item, which expresses concern if not disdain about some of the current and more extreme members of the Democratic Party, I respectfully offer the following response.

It's my view that both major political parties have their share of members who espouse positions that can safely be called extreme. In the past, these extremists were kept in the shadows if not the woodwork, but the proliferation of social media provides a platform for them to come out and make a lot of noise beyond their actual support. And both parties relish amplifying the other's extremists even more, as this reader does.

But among the current caravan of Democrats who are vying for the party's nomination to run in the upcoming general election, one of the older and more experienced moderate candidates has thus far consistently shown greater approval in public opinion polls than the other candidates. This tells me that most voters who identify with the Democratic Party yearn for a president who espouses more moderate and nuanced solutions to our country's many challenges while also maintaining high moral standards. And I strongly suspect a fair number of those who struggle to identify with the current Republican Party along with most who don't identify with either of the two major parties feel the same. But the road to the nomination is long, winding and littered with Russian land mines; so stay tuned.

WILLIAM Q. BRUNSON

New York City

Formerly of Sumter