The Friend-Enemy Distinction

A key concept of political radicalism is the friend-enemy distinction.  This is not a new concept but one that is mostly forgotten, or at least ignored.  The idea is simple and comprehensive, but rarely taught or considered in our day of objective reasoning and toleration.  Thus, it becomes difficult to express the concept of a clear-cut enemy to the system of Constitutional government and liberal democracy.  The distinction is at its root understanding that tolerating an enemy of the established order is allowing such to gain entrance and participation in a congress, parliament or presidential office, and could cause a complete takeover of that established order in a legalized manner.  It is obvious from our advantage point in history that the friend-enemy distinction was used to gain power in totalitarian regimes and then they proceeded to eliminate the enemy either by re-education, hard labor, or extinction.  Nevertheless, if all ideology is considered equal then a democratically elected government can be overturned by an enemy philosophy (just give a few years).  Enemy here is distinguished as the opposite of the true liberal (free) democratic order.  When this occurs the enemy of freedom & liberty can thus turn the wheel of change through legal means and bring about A NEW ORDER of things.  Consequently, THE NEW ORDER can change the laws through legal means and outlaw or make obsolete the old order which was the friend to freedom.  Thus a complete revolution (a turning around or rotating, as on an axis) in the established order has occurred and the friend-enemy distinction is no longer tolerated.