In rushing, I forgot to deal with another major premise: "If an uncompromising stand is to be smeared as 'extremism,' then that smear is directed at ... any man of integrity." Here, Rand is qualifying virtually any uncompromising stand as an act of integrity -- and not only that, but any attack against that "uncompromising stand" is a "smear". In other words, Rand is saying not only that extremism is NOT negative, but is actually virtuous when/because it is based on an uncompromising stand (which, of course, is based on integrity). It's almost as tight a tautaology as I've seen since "God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived" and "All barking dogs bark," though falling short of the 'purity' of these..(more later?)