The term “radical,” as qualifying “politics,” has been too often misunderstood to mean a horrible and violent extremism, or an extremist who menaces everything good and decent in human life, and therefore a dangerous “ism” or creature who ought to be put out of the way by any

and every force possible. As here used, however, the term “radical” means simply its original signification, i.e. “of or pertaining to the root,” as derived from the Latin radix meaning root. Hence “radical” here refers to a program, or an advocate of a program,

which proposes basic change in the economic, social, and political order.

- Richard B. Moore, 1969