My combined theory of board dynamics Polarization.

[JavaBlack]

The theory has some truth to it. Most people filter out "the obvious", which in most cases is what moderates stand for. Also most will tend to argue most harshly against those they find scary- not only disagreeing but sympathetic toward ideologies that are the antithesis to their own. Moderates ave a stronger tendency of arguing things issue by issue and based on their interests, arguing most harshly against those that are hostile toward their interests (or believed to be sympathetic with ideologies that would do so). A lot of ideologues see this as weasally and tie it in to the behavior that disgusts us in politicians... but I think that's unfair.
Realistically if everyone voted on their interests and we debated more about compromises concerning those issues, our system would run cleaner. Rather, and this is what alienates much of the population or leads to apathy, we tend to argue over abstract ideological concepts that have little to do with anyone's reality.
But on the other hand, ideologues should stand for what they believe in. And to some extent all moderates have a bit of ideologue in them- and should stick to it when necessary. To some extent, too much emphasis on ideology tends to turn people into cultists of a political group. I would hope more ideologues would find their inner moderate from time to time.
I tend to think the extremely ideologically inclined are people who either lack experience in real life trouble, have been lucky enough to avoid failure (if that's lucky), or contrastly have so little to lose they do not need to bother with reality. To give up personal interests completely for ideology, especially when we're not exactly talking good vs. evil here, seems to me an inability to visualize problems. All ideologies have flaws.
I was much more ideological (went from the right to the far-left to anarchism) when I was young, both as a suburban kid and as a struggling, depressed adult with no clear future. I've become much more moderate with age and marriage and a decent job and perspective, and especially after bad experiences with drugs, psycho girlfriend, and loss of control over my fate (moving back home for a while set my priorities a bit straighter). The most ideological people I know are either carefree (this includes people who have worked hard even, but only if they have never experienced true failure or if they have but create a belief system turning it into a breeze or an epic struggle- humans have a great imagination when it comes to coloring their own past) or living in Hell. Usually young too, but not always.