Tucker Carlson’s embrace of Nick Fuentes might perhaps be what finally divides the base between those who want to remain on Carlson’s sinking ship and those who would return to constitutional conservatism.
I have never been a fan of Tucker Carlson. Fifteen years ago, however, I could forgive conservatives for enjoying his brand of political entertainment. It was McDonalds, yes, but as Jim Gaffigan says, “everyone has their McDonalds.” But in the last few years, Carlson has become increasingly deranged in his public persona, whatever his actual beliefs or motives. From defending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the platforming of a fake historian with Nazi sympathies who considers Churchill the true villain of World War II, he has moved far beyond the pale.
Increasingly, conservatives are waking up, too. His anti-Israel, even antisemitic, insinuations have become increasingly evident, never more so than in his recent softball
of the antisemite Nick Fuentes, who has professed admiration for Hitler and the eradication of Israel. How did we get here? For years, Carlson from his perch on the primetime slot at Fox News gained the trust of the right by attacking the left and reliably supporting Trump. He was, at times, a maverick voice against the overreach of government power during the covid crisis and the left-wing identity politics that thrived during this period. Having earned that trust, he gradually led his audience from some form of American conservatism to a right-wing, reactionary stance — more tribal than intellectual — and more useful to foreign autocrats than to American citizens. Conservatives should get off this sinking ship before it is too late.. . .
So, how bad has Tucker Carlson become? If one considers how radical, illiberal, bigoted, and anti-American Nick Fuentes is, one sees clearly that Tucker Carlson is leading an army of fury and unreason. Those who have followed Carlson to this point had better jump off if they do not want to lose everything that ever mattered to American conservatism and to our country.
All one has to do is compare Tucker Carlson’s interview of Nick Fuentes with his
of Ted Cruz to see that Carlson is easily capable of asking his interviewees tough questions to challenge them, but in the case of Fuentes, he offered him softball after softball, nodding along despite Fuentes’s open hatred for Jewish people and Israel and many other groups of people, whether it was affirming mass murderer and enemy of America, Joseph Stalin or blaming women for the marriage crisis. Nobody who has paid attention to Carlson or Fuentes saw it as anything but an attempt to normalize Fuentes, who now has over a million followers on X.
Tucker Carlson’s Sinking Ideological Ship
Idiots gotta idiot