But always in the American tradition of reforms that are not perfect, but taken one step forward, one important step forward. Today I fear many Americans are forgetting about the vital center. Too often, in today's politics, on all sides, people are confronting tough problems, and retreating to extremes and simple solutions, instead of embracing the complexity that problem-solving always demands, and that democracy requires. But the alternative is not to throw up your hands or turn to violence. What we must do is to sit down together as reasonable people and make our government do what is right, and stop doing what may be wrong-headed or wasteful.
Extremism wants to spread, when the race is really a marathon.
Extremism wants to escape the complexity of democracy, and the staggering diversity of human nature, but it never can. Extremism argues that problems are easy to solve, but if they were, we would have licked them a long, long time ago. As Attorney General, I deal with problems that frustrated previous Attorney Generals for years, such as crime, terrorism, and domestic violence. There is no vaccination for crime, as there is for polio. The only thing we have is hard work, seven days a week.