Would Donald Trump or Joe Biden destroy America? Moderation usually wins out.

Amid all the caterwauling about which candidate is up or down in 2024, let’s keep the long view in mind. With a landslide victory, the British Labour Party has just shown that people will tolerate extremism (such as the screwball Brexit policy) for only so long.

In US politics, the pendulum swings across the years. Harding/Coolidge conservatism was followed by Roosevelt’s New Deal because people had been badly hurt. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, for good or ill, was sufficiently out of tune with middle America to prompt the Reagan revolution. Which, in turn, brought us Obama, which brought us Trump. Whoever wins the 2024 election will head in a direction that will inevitably be reversed when the public tires of excesses that the hubris of electoral victory brings.

So, no, Armageddon will not follow either a Donald Trump or a Joe Biden win. If either one moves too far to the right or left, voters will (if history is all predictive) ultimately call for a reversal — partially or totally. It all depends on how the policies of the president work and how the lives of the great middle go. Contrary to Barry Goldwater’s infamous exhortation, extremism is indeed a vice.

Moderation is a virtue for many reasons. No one knows enough about the effects of any given policy (although the Federal Reserve has done pretty well with interest rates recently) to go to extremes. Like “normal science,” policy making is best when it take small steps, records the results, adjusts as needed, and marshals reasonable consensus. If politicians had the humility of scientists, they’d embrace honest trial and error, embrace reasoned consensus, and keep their experiments contained to the lessons of experience.

We’re all tired of the shouting, blaming, exhortation, and irrationalism that the media encourage. I’d like politicians to just shut up and reason with us to help the nation come together to solve problems. I’d especially like politicians to add a dose of exemplary behavior that we can show our kids and grandkids as worthy of following.

The news media don’t help at all. Trying to attract eyeballs and clicks and to promote sensationalism to assure profitability leads to an insidious “both sides" -ism that is shallow, cowardly, and ultimately damaging to the public’s understanding of what’s at risk. Courageous editors take stands, some right like the Register’s abortion coverage, some wrong like the New York Times’ premature call for Biden’s withdrawal. But serious editorials give the public a clear analysis and transparent rationale for positions they take. Politicians almost never do. They owe us more than we’re getting.

And voters have responsibilities as citizens. As Ben Franklin warned, we are responsible for “keeping” the republic we’ve chosen. It is a fragile experiment — and will always be an experiment in self-government. What politicians do is ultimately what we’ve elected them to do. It’s on us as voters to assure that they “preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution with equal justice for all. Or, as Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

I’m moving away soon to live near family. I have found Iowa to be a superbly livable state. But I fear the extremism that has overtaken its government will lead to an ultimately damaging insularity. I wish my friends and neighbors well, and hope reason will ultimately prevail.

David W. Leslie is chancellor professor of education emeritus at the College of William and Mary. He lives in West Des Moines.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Would Trump or Biden destroy America? Moderation usually wins out.