That middleground is just an excuse to not put up as much of a fight. I mean think about this. The Left has the media, and pretty much the entire government at their disposal, as well as the will and determination to wield their power like the hammer it is to crush their enemies. You can't beat that by just shrugging and smuggly saying, "I won't stoop to your level." If that tactic was going to work it would have by now. The Left doesn't care what we think about them so nothing we say or do to reason with them will work. They are beyond reason. They are Yuri Bezemenov's "demoralized" so to speak.
If we want to fight them effectively we have to first understand why their tactics are effective and then use them to our advantage, while not making the mistake to thinking this is a game with rules. There are no rules. No rules that matter, and it doesn't matter how many times either side threatens to do "x" to each other. It's a propaganda war, and the right is incredibly resilient but losing.