Tucker Carlson and the GOP

For John, BLUF:  What is Tucker Carlson's relationship to the Republican Party and what does it mean?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Tucker Carlson and the Right

Here is the sub-headline:

The big question for the G.O.P. during the Biden era is whether the legacy of Carlson’s culture wars adds up to a viable platform for a major political party.

From The New Yorker, by Benjamin Wallace-Wells, 30 April 2023.

Here is the lede plus two:

When Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News last week—so suddenly that he reportedly learned about it only ten minutes before the world did—the most acute notes of regret came from young conservative intellectuals who had seen his nightly hour of programming as an interesting, and perhaps essential, experiment in what right-wing populism could be.  “The Tucker Realignment,” Ross Douthat called that experiment, in the Times, adding that young conservatives “increasingly start out where Carlson ended up—in a posture of reflexive distrust, where if an important American institution takes a position, the place to be is probably on the other side.”  Part of what was appealing about Carlson’s point of view to thinkers on the right was that, in his curiosity about fringe ideas and his occasional highlighting of antiwar (Ukraine) and anti-corporate (Silicon Valley) themes, he was testing out a form of conservative populism that did not hinge on Donald Trump personally.  Michael Brendan Dougherty, of National Review Online, wrote, “Since January 2016, Tucker Carlson has consistently and relentlessly advanced one thesis about American politics:  ‘This isn’t about Donald Trump, but our corrupt liberal elite.’ ”

Ever since Trump lost first the political initiative, in the twists of a COVID crisis that he could never get ahead of, and then the Presidency, to Joe Biden, Carlson’s programs have been where the right’s future was incubated.  They could be racist (stoking fears about the “great replacement”), bizarre (proposing that men tan their testicles as a solution for apparently declining levels of testosterone), and fixated on liberal power in a way that could be hard for an unindoctrinated viewer to follow.  But Carlson was smart enough to identify ideas that could travel.

Both the movement against the teaching of critical race theory and the right-wing interest in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary blossomed on Carlson’s show.  J. D. Vance rode regular appearances on it to a seat in the U.S. Senate.  After Senator Ted Cruz called the January 6th insurrection a “violent terrorist attack,” Carlson forced him to walk back that comment.  Carlson grilled Governor Greg Abbott, of Texas, about why he hadn’t called up more National Guard soldiers to the border, and Abbott did so.  The host also suggested that, if people who live in places like Martha’s Vineyard were so keen on diversity, someone should send undocumented immigrants there.  Not long afterward, Governor Ron DeSantis, of Florida, took him up on it.

This is an interesting article on Talk Show Host Tucker Carlson, recently dethroned by Fox News' Rupert Murdock.  I think the article does a fairly good job of covering what is happening.  That said, there are some sorces who say Mr Carlson wasn't fired, but merely taken off the air.  I do think the author uses short-hand terms for Republican positions, which, in turn, obscure more nuanced Republican positions.  For example, "teaching about race and gender in school", which asks for younger children to not be indoctrinated, rather than bans all such teaching in K-12.

The last sentence of the article is "There is Trumpism with Trump, and there is Trumpism without him."  I agree with the sentence, but I think the author misses the point.  It isn't about Donald J Trump.  It is about millions of voters who think the Progressive elites♠ are out to transform the nation, and in the procress restrict freedoms those voters think are their's.  When President Trump says "In reality they're not after me.  They are after you.  I'm just in the way." he is confirming what they believe.  What the author calls "Trumpism" has been abroad in the land for some time, Ms Lois Lerner notwithstanding.

If the Democrats and the Media manage to drive Mr Trump off the campaign trail, the Republican Voters will go looking for someone who understands their needs.  The question is, is that person on the campaign trail or willing to throw their hat in the ring.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Many use the term "Liberal Elites", but that slimes the Liberal values that made this nation and other Anglaphone nations great.  Liberal values focused around individual freedom and univeral participation.  Progressiveism has been a tool for restricting freedoms.