Meths

There seems to be a general feeling among people that political extremism is a bad thing. People shun extremists and think that the moderate view is the correct one. They try to strike a deal between various sides and pick one that appears to be in the middle and is equally appealing and distasteful to both sides. 

This is not necessarily right. There are number of positions today which we take for granted that originated as extremist ones. Giving women the vote, giving most men the vote, treating black people as people, legalising same-sex relationships/marriage (legalising same-sex marriage was scarcely heard of just a couple of generations ago).

A few suggestions that seem extreme today that could easily be accepted ideas in 50 years time:

Complete nuclear disarmament. Few people think that we should get rid of all our nukes and advocate the keeping of just a small number as insurance. Most people agree that we don't need the huge numbers we do and pick a reduction in their numbers as a moderate view.

Legalising polygamy. There is a tentative acceptance of open relationships/marriages in some places. Permitting people more than one legal spouse is an extreme viewpoint that there is no rational reason to prevent.

Drug legalisation. Again, this appears to be an extreme point of view but in my other blog: 

http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/Meths/blog/3835 /

/shameless self-promotion of own blog in another blog

I show that it's actually a good idea that should be adopted.

People shun extremism because... well, it's extreme. Outliers are rare in most human characteristics and people are unsure of how to deal with them. However in politics, things change and they often change quite significantly. Things that seem extreme today will not seem extreme tomorrow. Dismissing an idea because it is "extreme" is foolish; a moderate idea is not necessarily better than an extreme one just because more people hold it. Extremism is relative (implied by above paragraph).