In the wake of this week’s primary results across the country, but especially in New York City, it’s time to revisit a bit of a Political Science lesson, one I learned many years ago. If you want to understand what happened in Tuesday’s primaries, and what has been evolving for years, there’s a book you should read.

I had an incredible teacher in high school named Joel Gottlieb, who taught me how to apply critical thinking to everything, especially to history and geopolitics. One of the key texts we used was Crane Brinton's The Anatomy of Revolution, written in 1938. It is as incisive now as it was close to 100 years ago.

Brinton analyzed the English Civil War, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution. He looked for commonalities and disparities in these experiences. He drew a number of key conclusions from his analysis, and more than one apply here. But I'll stick with one.

Brinton understood that in any politically evolutionary or revolutionary process, a point will come where moderates who have initially led change are overwhelmed. He describes it as "no enemies to the left"; a fatal ideological flaw of moderate revolutionaries and changemakers.

As change or revolution begins, moderates don't want to confront radicals and extremists because they have been allies against the existing usually conservative order. I can recall being in the room when former Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told thousands of Jews gathered for a conference in Washington in 2019 "there's 232 of us (non-radical Democratic Congressional Representatives) and 3 of them”, when AOC, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar first gained prominence.

A desire to have no enemies to their left exposes the moderates to ideology and action they don't want and can't control. They try to find some areas for compromise but are rebuffed by both sides, but their former allies turn on them with special viciousness and vindictiveness. This opens a path for radicals to control the actions and/or the narrative as a moment of crisis approaches.

At this point, the radicals, such as the French Jacobins or the Russian Bolsheviks kick out the moderates, and terror ensues. In the context of the French Revolution, an actual 'reign of terror' that lasted almost a year and claimed tens of thousands of lives. All the while, extremists on the far opposite end of the spectrum mirror and echo the dangerous depravity and violence of the extreme left.

In the final phase Brinton describes, a tired and scared population has enough of such madness and turns to an authoritarian figure to restore 'normalcy'.

While there are some distinct differences in our current environment, the marginalization of those ready to accommodate or find common ground to bring people together is clearly apparent right now, in places like New York City.

This is a very dangerous time for people like me, who consider themselves 'radical centrists' who abhor extremists of all kinds and want to wrestle with hard compromise and knock heads together when necessary. It's even more dangerous to identify as a Jew in these circumstances, because for an extremist, of any stripe, the only target more worth attacking than a moderate is a Jew.

And so, Jewish residents of New York - who prioritize their identity and their peoplehood - and of other places where this dynamic is playing out, are left with a few choices. One, they can look for another political home. Two, they can remove themselves from the equation, an electoral version of the “sha shtill” mentality that didn’t serve or save previous generations from being targeted. Three, they can do their best to build a narrative and a constituency that is true to the values they once saw in their party, while not having any illusions about their adversaries and what they are willing to do for power.

To be sure, similar dynamics play out on the extreme - but increasingly and alarmingly less so - parts of the other side of the spectrum. Voices like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and the likes of Marjorie Tayler Greene and Thomas Massie create a growing sense that by virtue of the push coming from these extremists, the right is also becoming inhospitable to moderates, and to the Jewish community. Mainstream Republicans have been warning about this for many months.

For both ends of the political spectrum and for the center, it is wise to recall that a pendulum does not only hang suspended - it moves. It crosses all parts of the spectrum, and what may be ascendant now will not stay that way indefinitely. So, I suppose, the message is to stand up for yourself and your community; be patient, and be prepared for your moment. And when, in the fullness of time, that moment comes, be the opposite of those extremes. Be generous, not vindictive. Be kind, not vicious. And make room for the large majority of folks who are not on the extremes but who may be cowed and silenced by them. You’ll have a bigger coalition than you expected.