Elisabeth Epps, meet Lauren Boebert.

Tim Hernandez, let me introduce you to Dave Williams.

And so on.

Nationally and here at home, purveyors of extremism on both political poles are gaining currency at the same time they grow ever more annoying and poisonous to any attempt at improved discourse and governance.

Off the top, let me rebut the reflexive retort that this constitutes a false equivalency. Clearly, players on the hard left and hard right are not cut from the same cloth. Antifa’s Nicole Armbruster, even with her fondness for violence and penchant for getting arrested, is hardly a menace on the order of avowed white supremacist and Jan. 6th instigator, Nick Fuentes.

But while their worldviews could not be farther apart, their rhetoric is frighteningly similar. From Fuentes with reference to state legislators who refused to overturn the 2020 election results: “What can you and I do to a state legislator besides kill them? We should not do that. I’m not advising that, but I mean, what else can you do, right?”

Meanwhile, Armbruster, one of the few Antifa-types public about their identity, refers to others in the movement as “comrades” and to police officers as “pigs.” She regards bloodshed as a retaliatory duty.

In light of the antics of Epps during the recent special legislative session, when she joined pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the State House gallery to scream slogans and shout at her colleagues below for a half-hour or longer, let me pose this question to those on the blue side of the aisle:

Given your dismay and high dudgeon when Boebert and her then girl pal, Marjorie Taylor Greene, disrupted President Biden’s 2022 State of the Union speech with their juvenile heckling, how can you fail to sanction Epps’ even more disorderly conduct?

Put otherwise for Democratic leaders at the Colorado Capitol, will Epps still have committee assignments when the legislature reconvenes in January? Or will she be stripped of all such duties and perks to free up her time for her real passion of high-decibel outrage?

If there is no reprimand and consequence, then please spare us the howls of protest when Republicans misbehave.

Epps is the latest miscreant on the sanctimonious left, but hardly the only one.

Just hours after Hamas broke what had been a ceasefire prior to October 7 and launched the deadliest assault on Jews since the Holocaust, freshly appointed State Rep. Tim Hernandez thought it wise and appropriate to join a state Capitol demonstration waving a Palestinian flag.

No one denies Hernandez or Epps their First Amendment right to make a fool of themselves. Similarly, the likes of Boebert, Williams and Taylor Greene are free to spout their lunacy.

But how constructive it would be if serious, thoughtful, civil people, whether under the blue or red banner, adopted a singular, unitary standard for handling such excesses.

The growing radicalization of our politics has many fathers. Sadly, it is not unique to America but is a phenomenon occurring in far too many western democracies.

Donald Trump, and the reaction to him, sent the tribal hatred into overdrive but the roots of it were well planted well before he fatefully descended that escalator.

Long ago, too many on both sides started seeing their opposite numbers not as wrong, but as dangerous, even evil. Instead of political adversaries, they became enemies. Slowly, inexorably, this has led to the scary increase in the acceptance of actual political violence, not just the rhetorical kind.

Per a survey released at the end of October by the Public Religion Research Institute, nearly one-quarter of Americans agree that, “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” A full one-third of Republicans endorse that statement.

This is the America in which we live. It is the hysteria that envelops us. Crazies on the political right are both symptoms and propellants of it. The same goes for their mirror images on the nutty left.

The likes of Boebert and Epps are in the vanguard of this rising fanaticism, but they are far from alone. Whether in Congress or the Colorado Legislature, the center of gravity of both party caucuses has shifted notably toward the fringes.

The main commonalities between those ever-louder voices on the hard right and hard left are a growing illiberalism and a sense that desired ends justify all means.

The former is evidenced by the rising tendency on both poles to silence and cancel those with whom they disagree. Those on the political edges share a conviction of free speech for me, but not for thee.

Jan. 6 was the ultimate indicator of the confusion between ends and means.

But those on the left flank succumb to such exaggerated urgency, as well. While of a different magnitude, how else do you explain Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s knowing choice to pull a fire alarm to forestall a vote during a recent funding debate?

In their self-righteous myopia, loudmouths on both extremes would forsake critical, time-tested, foreign alliances. Led by Trump, the right would hang Ukraine out to dry and let Putin’s expansionism go forward unabated. While the left, spurred on by Epps and her accomplices, turn terrorists into heroic figures and seek to leave Israel to the neighboring wolves.

Let’s jump ahead one year. Odds are that Boebert will be a former congresswoman and Williams a failed party chair who couldn’t raise a dime. However, Epps and Hernandez, along with their compatriots in D.C., are likely to continue in office with their numbers growing.

Both sides require an intervention. That may be a pipedream on the right so long as Trump remains in charge. But Democrats would be advised to dial back on the high and mighty rhetoric about extremism until they cleanse their own house.

A full 48 hours after the 2017 white-supremacist protest in Charlottesville that turned deadly, Trump belatedly mustered up a comment referencing “very fine people on both sides.” In that moment, those words were pure ugliness.

However, in the current context, it can fairly be said that both extremes contain more than their share of obnoxious, revolting, repulsive types. And that is not fine.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for Colorado Politics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann