Every damn second of every stupid day in this brain-dead nation, the insipid overlords of America's inane corporate news media put out the same message: Extremism is extremely bad.
9/11? Carried out by Muslim extremists. The couple who murdered two police officers in Las Vegas this week? Right-wing, anti-government extremists. Washington gridlock? A Republican Party taken over by intransigent extremists (read: tea party types).
In this official narrative, unquestioned by left and right alike, moderation and centrism are equated with reasonableness. So Hillary Rodham Clinton describes herself as a middle-way realist who values compromise — as a moderate and therefore a Very Serious Person qualified to be president.