Are We "Extremely" Brainwashed?

I found this, ah, extremely disconcerting:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 35% of Likely Voters say it would be more accurate to describe the agenda of Republicans in Congress as mainstream, while 52% feel extreme is a more accurate description.

Have the American people been so conditioned by the media and the Democrats to associate any type of "Republicanism" as extremism that all thought in this matter is no longer necessary, that any notion put forth by the Republicans is de facto "extremist", and thus they require no thought or examination whatsoever, only condemnation?

If that is the case - if a simple attempt to balance the budget in 20 years is now an extremist agenda - then the Right is marooned in an ideological Dunkirk, surrounded by our advancing foes on one side and the deep blue sea on the other.

We can go backwards, and drown. We can surrender, and work with our adversaries to see to it that our nation is destroyed. Or we can fight like we have never fought before, voraciously, challenging every argument against us as if it may be our last, with new tactics and weapons, knowing that should we lose, there will be no safe haven for us to fall back to.  We can work to gain converts to our cause along the way, convincing them through word and deed that our course is true and just, and that the "extremism" lies on the other side.

If we fail now, America as we know it is gone forever.

I hope General Romney has the stomach for the fight...


UPDATE: In the same vein, see this piece from RS McCain...