sign in sign up
<<
Home , Tucker Carlson

Winter 2019 The Social Contract Sailing with Tucker Carlson

Peter B. Gemma

undit Tucker Carlson has all the pedigree to be Various experts tried to explain [what hap- comfortably sitting among ’s ruling pened]. Was it sexism? Russian propaganda? Paristocracy. Born Tucker Swanson McNear Hillary’s failure to campaign in the upper Carlson, his stepmother, Patricia Swanson, is an heiress Midwest? Almost nobody suggested the to the Swanson frozen-food fortune and the niece of obvious: if voters think you hate them for Senator J. William Fulbright. His father, Richard Warner how they were born, they won’t vote for you. Carlson, served as U.S. Ambassador to the Seychelles Carlson points out, wagging his finger, that, and was president of the Corporation for Public “Instead of pausing, listening, thinking, and chang- Broadcasting and director of in the ing, America’s ruling class withdrew into a defensive Reagan administration. crouch.” He goes on to say, “Countries can survive war Carlson’s new book, : How a Selfish and famines and disease. They cannot survive leaders Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revo- who despise their own people.” lution, lays out his political views as populist and unpredictable, far from “mainstream” conservativism and its power brokers. And unlike the usual media conservatives — who quickly dash off books lambasting SHIP OF FOOLS Democrats and liberals — he can write. How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing In an article about Carlson in the Columbia Journal- America to the Brink of Revolution ism Review, one of his former editors, Vanity Fair’s Tina By Tucker Carlson Brown, was quoted as saying: “Tucker is a tremendously Free Press, 2018 good writer and I always thought it was a real shame that 256 pp., $28.00 he kind of like got sucked into this TV mania thing.” Mark Warren, who edited Carlson at Esquire, says, “He is an extremely talented writer. [Tucker’s] writing was In Ship of Fools, Carlson highlights the fact that done with such energy and vitality.” America has dissolved into a bi- oligarchy that The author has stated, “The premise of the book pretends to practice democracy, and that these moneyed is really simple: Why did Trump get elected?” In Ship elites “view America the way a private equity firm sizes of Fools Carlson writes, “Trump’s election wasn’t about up an aging conglomerate as something outdated, they Trump. It was a throbbing middle finger in the face of can profit from. When it fails, they’re gone.” America’s ruling class. It was a gesture of contempt, a As a commentator and critic, Tucker Carlson has howl of rage, the end result of decades of selfish and impressive credentials and few peers. His “Tucker Carl- unwise decisions made by selfish and unwise leaders. son Tonight,” on , was the third highest-rated Happy countries don’t elect president. cable TV news show as of March 2018. As of October, Desperate ones do. In retrospect, the lesson seemed with 3.2 million nightly viewers, it clocks in as second- obvious: Ignore voters for long enough and you get highest after Sean ’s show. Carlson, a Fox News Donald Trump.” He notes: political analyst since 2009, has hosted other TV and radio shows on MSNBC, PBS, and CNN. He has writ- ten National Magazine Award-nominated articles for Esquire, The Times Magazine, and Readers Digest. He co-founded and served as editor-in-chief of Peter B. Gemma is an award-winning freelance the popular conservative opinion website (12 million writer whose articles have appeared in DailyCaller. unique hits per month) (full disclosure: com, The , AmericanThinker. articles by this writer are published on that site.) com, and USA Today. One of his “” broadcasts

61 Winter 2019 The Social Contract reviewed a National Geographic article, “As America of the Union address: “All Americans, not only in the Changes, Some Anxious Whites Feel Left Behind,” states most heavily affected but in every place in this which centered on Hazleton, . Carlson country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of commented on the growth of Hazleton’s Hispanic pop- illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold ulation, which has increased exponentially since 2000, might otherwise be held by U.S. citizens or immigrants. signifies a change that “makes societies volatile.” Carl- The public services they use impose burdens on our son asserted that “our leaders ... caused all this,” and taxpayers.” Carlson says, “ never put it that they live in neighborhoods which “are basically more succinctly.” unchanged — they look like it’s 1960. No demographic Those who think the book will bash only the change in their zip code.” Carlson continued, “Our lead- Clintons, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ers are for diversity, just not where they live.” and other Democrats will be sorely disappointed. He calls In Ship of Fools, he argues, “Right now, the fault out Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for repeatedly undermining line is between whites and nonwhites. But as America legislative efforts to buttress border security and tighten grows more racially diverse, rifts will inevitably open enforcement. Ryan’s efforts are crucial between more groups. In a tribal system, every group to understanding why the administration’s attempt to finds itself at war with every other group. It’s the perfect secure congressional support in funding a border wall perversion of the American ideal: ‘Out of many, one’ has fallen short on Capital Hill. becomes ‘Out of one, many.’ This is the unhappy, blood- Carlson also sets a new paradigm for measuring soaked story of countless civilizations around the world. politicians and public policy: “The rift is between It never ends well.” those who benefit from the status quo, and those who Carlson also remarks, “But it does make for effec- don’t.” Just as many Republicans fit that definition as do tive electoral politics, and Democrats. that’s the point. There’s Ship of Fools is no apology for either. In no faster way to mobi- fact, in his book he calls Trump “vulgar and ignorant.” lize voters than to stoke Carlson, like his comrade in arms, commentator and their racial fears, while author , has run out of patience with promising to deliver for President Trump, pointing out that the emperor has no their particular tribe. clothes. However, he correctly points out that Trump It’s irresistible. At the “didn’t invade Iraq or bail out Wall Street. He didn’t moment, the coalition of open the borders or sit silently by as the manufacturing identity groups has held sector collapsed and the middle class died.” Carlson together because it is explained in a recent interview with a Swiss newspaper united against white male that “I don’t think he understands the system.... [Trump] power. But rapid demo- knows very little about the legislative process, hasn’t graphic change makes learned anything, [and] hasn’t surrounded himself with this unsustainable. When people that can get it done.” the traditional scapegoat just awarded its 2018 Sal- becomes insufficient, various factions will turn on one vatori Prize for American Citizenship to Carlson: “At a another. Chaos will ensue.” time when the press has become doctrinaire and is afraid Although Carlson’s writing style is breezy and to discuss what really ails America, Tucker Carlson is funny, Ship of Fools says things that polite people don’t one of the very few prominent journalists who hosts bring up at the dinner table these days: genuine debates and who challenges the pieties of both the Left and the Right,” said the powerhouse conserva- In a country where, virtually, every nonwhite tive think tank. “Thanks to his courage and insightful group reaps advantages from being racially probing, citizens of our republic can still find a public conscious and politically organized, how forum where the most serious questions confronting the long before someone asks the obvious ques- country can be discussed thoughtfully.” tion: why can’t white people organize and Carlson focuses little light on how to turn around agitate along racial lines, too? the Ship of Fools, but can be credited as the best navi- On television, Carlson signs off every night by say- gator to expose where America shouldn’t be headed. ing thanks for watching “the show that is the sworn enemy Ship of Fools will certainly make the reader think outside of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.” That is the conservative-liberal box which makes it refresh- a big target. For example, he writes that the definitive ingly new and different. This reader is looking forward statement of the Democratic position on immigration to volume two, perhaps entitled, “The Right Course to was made by President Bill Clinton in his 1995 State Smooth Sailing.” ■

62