Snip:
On Monday, influential ultraconservative journalist Tucker Carlson apologized for having openly supported U.S. President Donald Trump, a decision he said has left him “tormented.”
Carlson made the remarks during a conversation on his podcast with his brother Buckley Carlson, who also backed Trump and wrote speeches for the Republican leader.
“This will torment us for a long time. It will torment me. I want to apologize for having misled people. It was not intentional,” Carlson said.
The journalist, who for years was one of the star hosts on Fox News and among the media figures who most strongly supported Trump, now maintains a tense relationship with the U.S. president due to the Republican leader’s backing of Israel and the war on Iran.
There is something very insidious and real-politik about Tucker in the way he shapes his rhetoric.
He knows the way the populist tides blow and senses the Trump platform (which is something he 100% supports still) is no longer tenable for cultivating an alt right base, but is able to critique Trump and his policies without giving any credibility to left-wing ideologies and preventing his audience from turning against the ruling class. It’s kinda admirable seeing how easily he does this when almost no other mainstream right-wing political commentator can pull it off right now, including many “progressives” who are Democrat-aligned.
He is the bourgeoisie who realizes Trump is endangering their power by destabilizing the state structures that maintain class relations enough to keep the proletariat docile and in their place. To that extent he is very similar to social democrats like AOC in purpose. Unlike social democrats though, he does not want a welfare state (at least not one like modern day European states), but rather a return to the 1950’s American social order where a strong, state-backed industrial base allowed White Americans to prosper while repressive social policies (ala segregation which Tucker is a supporter of) will keep minorities out of the way.
Culture war rhetoric, which is Tucker’s forte, will do the rest of the work to keep the majority White population from questioning this. Foreign policy wise Tucker is no different to Trump or his predecessors, as I’m sure he knows his class position can only be maintained through Imperialism, but he is pragmatic enough to throw certain US vassals under the bus (like Israel) as long as the base at home is appeased.
If he runs for President one day, he will be the competent Trump that everyone has been dreading for years.