In this instance, from 2018, involving none other than Tucker Carlson, showcasing his newly-red-pilled status in his pre-Fox-juggernaut days. Via Brother Bob:
An Interview With Tucker Carlson on What Makes Trump a ‘Political Genius’
Tucker Carlson, host of the popular Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” spoke to Daily Signal Editor-in-Chief Rob Bluey at The Heritage Foundation’s 41st annual Resource Bank meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Carlson received the prestigious Salvatori Prize, recognizing his work to uphold and advance the principles of America’s founding. The full video, plus an edited transcript of the interview, is below.Rob Bluey: It is a true honor to celebrate the work that you’ve done, and I want to begin with the advice that you left this audience on how conservatives can take back the culture. You had two pieces of advice. Tell us about them.
Tucker Carlson: Well, have more children. I grew up in a world where it was considered embarrassing to have more than two children. I don’t think that’s the case now among middle-class, upper middle-class people, but it was.
First of all, it’s the most rewarding, greatest, most fun thing you can do. But it’s also the most profound thing. If you don’t like the direction of the country, have children, raise them the way that you want, consistent with your beliefs. It seems like all the answers are basic, nature-based answers, in my opinion. To everything. That’s the most basic of all, have more kids. Raise decent children.
And the second was just say what you think is true. I don’t actually think you get a ton out of confronting people and getting in people’s faces. I don’t think you’re going to convince anybody that way. But I think there’s inherent value in speaking principle out loud without shame or fear. And again, without the expectation that you’re going to win people over right away, because most times you’re not going to.
Aggression really doesn’t help much. I’ve definitely concluded that after years of being aggressive. But I think telling the truth is an inherently valuable act.
Bluey: You’ve had tremendous success with your show. It’s highly rated and millions of people are tuning in. How does that last point inform the work that you do on a day-to-day basis?
Carlson: The show’s successful because it’s on Fox News, which is successful. I’ve worked at a lot of different TV networks, and the network is what matters most.
I don’t imagine that my show is successful because I’m so great. I do think much more about what I say because there’s a bigger audience and because we’re in the middle of this revolutionary moment, and I’m counterrevolutionary.
I don’t say a lot of things without thinking them through, which is good. I mean, occasionally I do and get in trouble for it. But I really try to think through what I really believe and what I really think is true.
Good stuff so far, to be sure, but now we come to the real meat of the matter, at least in regards to the Trump mention in the piece’s title (bear in mind, Trump was still President at the time this interview was published).
Bluey: But I’d say the topics you cover and the way that you conduct your questioning is different and unique from other TV hosts.
Carlson: Well, I don’t have a lot to add. I would just say two things. I think President Trump is interesting, and I agree broadly with his agenda. I certainly agree with immigration, that’s for sure. But I don’t think that every story is about Donald Trump, and most other people at the other networks think every story is about Trump.
I don’t have anything to add to that; I don’t think it’s that interesting. I don’t want to talk about Trump five hours a week, I just don’t. And not because I have some political agenda and it’s bad to talk about; I’m just not that interested, actually. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on. I try to talk about that.
…The book, like the show, is based on the most obvious questions. I’m not a super-clever person, I try to keep it very simple. Why would America elect Donald Trump president?
And the explanation in Washington is, well, they didn’t really. Putin did. Or voters were just so dumb, they didn’t know the difference. Or America’s racist, so they elected a racist. Those are contemptible nonexplanations. Those are stupid.
The real answer, obviously, is that people were so dissatisfied with the leadership in place as of the first Tuesday in November of 2016, that they decided to punish them by electing Trump.
This was a referendum on the ruling class; and by the way, we have a ruling class, and I’ve lived in it most of my life, so I know it’s real. It’s not a conspiracy, but we have a class system, increasingly, in this country.
The people in charge have done a really bad job on the big things, on foreign policy and the economy; and they’ve gotten us into a number of counterproductive wars. That was a bipartisan effort. It was started by Bush, but it was applauded by Clinton. So it wasn’t one party, it was both parties.
They made a bunch of assumptions about the economy that turned out to be wrong, and they helped destroy the American middle class, and then they don’t care. So they’re terrible. They’re deeply unwise and selfish and stupid.
Trump is the result of decades of unwise, selfish, and stupid leadership. It’s so obvious. I’m not a genius, I’m hardly a genius. It’s just so clear, and no one says that. I’m not sure why.
Lots more to it yet, and it’s all fascinating. I’ve read before in many other places that Tucker was a pretty solidly anti-Trump guy early on, and maybe he was at that, I couldn’t really say. But from this interview, it’s quite clear that Carlson really GOT the whole Trump phenomenon better than just about any other of his big-media confreres did, well before they did—those few of them who actually did come around to understand it, that is.
Perhaps unrelated, but purely in the interests of safeguarding my prized rep as a gadfly-contrarian against any unfounded accusations of being a Trump-licker, I’ll just throw this in too, from Margolis’s Meme-manic Monday email.
For whatever it’s worth, I checked a cpl of the above quotes I wasn’t totally sure about, and yes, it appears he really DID say all those puzzling-at-best things. I dunno, go figure; I ain’t even gonna try to explain what, if anything, it might mean. I’ve defended Trump plenty over the last six-eight years; I’m just about all “defended” out over here, frankly.
At this point, either you love him or hate him, and are probably no longer subject to persuasion either way. As I’ve said, I believe Trump could still have a significant, positive role to play in what’s to come, but not as President; that, he oughta just give up and walk away from, it’s a total waste of his time and effort.
- Entries
“…that Tucker was a pretty solidly anti-Trump guy early on…”
Absolutely true. I think this was primarily because he bought the hype from the neverTrumpers that Trump was not a conservative, that he was really a democrat, and a friend of the clintons.
Of course, it was the neverTrumpers who were not truly conservative and support the democrats. Carlson figured this out along the way like some others did. My opinion anyway.
Put all those quotes in the context of a man trying to unite the country for the cause of making it a better place and then you should be able to understand it. You don’t have to agree with him, but it’s quite easy to understand. A president is not a dictator when they follow the constitution, they need allies in the congress, even if some of them are less than stellar.
Here is what is clear, as a bell:
Trump was the most successful conservative president since Ike. If you want to argue Reagan was better, fine. But under Reagan we lost our manufacturing, and our economy. It is a certainty that Trump is the best among every republican since Ike other than that one possible exception.
Proven. And the one “they” fear the most. Why on earth you* would want someone they fear less is beyond me. They have spent hundreds of millions of $$$ to try and stop Trump. They wrecked not just the economy of the USA but that of the entire world to try and stop Trump. They were willing to spread a virus into vulnerable populations to try and stop Trump.
*that’s a generic “you”.
Oh, and Georgia? Kemp is a crook, an election thief, as is Abrams. I’d as soon have no crooks pretending to be on my side. I no longer accept the lesser of two evils. Never again.
Agreed on all points, Barr. Although I absolutely HATED the man when I lived in NYC back in the 90s–due mainly to his being a CONSTANT presence on the TeeWee all day, every day–I don’t feel that way at all about him now. I still do like the guy and wish him nothing but the best, although he does baffle the shit out of me now and then. That’s okay, though; as I said of DeSantis the other day, pobody’s nerfect. All the right people hate his guts, and that tells me all I really need to know about him. 😉
To my way of thinking, the best possible contribution Trump could make now–aside from not being indicted and imprisoned, which he has no real control over–is to go out and hold those YUUUGE rallies of his, all over the whole country. That would serve to remind TPTB that we’re all still out here, still pissed off as hell, bloodied but unbowed, despite everything.
The office of “President” has been exposed by the Biden junta as essentially meaningless, not worth a bucket of warm piss anymore; the people who actually DO run things aren’t known to us, they never do come up for “election” or “re-election.” So get out there and do something that MIGHT actually be worth the doing, then.
I get why some people don’t like Trump, or didn’t.
I never watched a single one of his TV shows or paid any attention to him until he decided to run for office. I already F’ed and voted Bush instead of Perot, so I made sure I knew who the man was before I let my normal anti TV personality / NY’er throw me off. I went to the library and read his books.
I knew immediately he was not what the entire uniparty was trying to proclaim him to be and that the core principles were the right ones. A few months later I knew he was going to win. Why? Because people that had never uttered one word about politics, the people on the plant floors, the machinery operators, were asking me what I thought about “that Trump fellow”.
He now has a record and that record is this – he would do or try to do what he said he would on the important stuff. He did turn the economy around, from which all things flow, including “family” matters. He did not put up with tinpot powerless dictators. He wasn’t afraid to put himself on the line to achieve the un-achievable. He did wipe out ISIS quickly. He did reign in the mullahs of Iran. He did get the Saudi’s along with other ME countries to talk to and make peace with Israel.
He did put the USA into the energy independence column and brought down energy prices to record lows. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, gasoline was cheaper than when I was a kid.
He did stop the illegals from coming across the border, putting it at levels that have not been seen since the 50’s. The very republican party that is trying to stop him now refused to appropriate the money to build “the wall”, so he found other ways to do it, getting Mexico to pay for it directly by using their Nat Guard to stop the illegal border crossings.
The amount of “he did’s” are phenomenal. And he gets no credit from the very people that should be crediting him every single day. There will not be another man like him any time soon, maybe never. We have one, just one, more opportunity to see what he can do. Don’t waste it on another republican GOPe engineering project. The GOPe is no different than the D party.
I tire of the idiots (not Mike to be clear – he’s never done this) that try to pretend you are a Trump worshiper for recognizing the truth. I’d be fine if there were truly another choice or several. There just isn’t at the moment. It’s difficult to run for president with any chance and not be supported by the party. Trump is one of the very few that can do this and the only one at the moment that can and has a 100% American economic and America first agenda. That is what matters.
I’m anti DeSantis for one reason – he is part of the GOPe engineering plan to stop Trump. And that’s all the plan is, stop Trump.
Giving up is not an option. Never was and never will be. I will continue to oppose the anti freedom forces, in word and deed, and when all else fails in the only way that works when all else has failed.
“Oh, and Georgia? Kemp is a crook…”
I should have said “Deep State Kemp” is a crook –
Reagan hit Japan with tariffs.
It was the Bush/Baker axis in 1986 and the Plaza Accords who took advantage of a declining Reagan to start the anti-Reagan Agenda and the “Free Trade” movement that was actually the opposite of what Reagan fovored.
That is true. However, with my own ears I heard it when Reagan essentially stated we didn’t need manufacturing, that we could just “service” each other. The real decline in manufacturing as a percentage of the economy began under Reagan. Finding the precise quote is not something I’ve been able to do, but others have made note of it over the years.
OTOH, the rest of his economic program was good. Lower taxes, lower regulations, etc. Get government out of the way…
OTOH2, IIRC, some of the tax reductions were offset by increases in other places, like SS.
On balance, I think it unclear any miracle economic gains were made under Reagan.
I cannot find ANYTHING about Reagan saying we could have a Service Economy over a Manufacturing Economy.
His whole point of tariffs were to get Japan to stop manufacturing there and dumping their goods here. As a result the Japanese actually were moving car manufacturing and other manufacturing into the US. They shunned unionized Detroit and went to the Right to Work Southern States instead.
I believe you are misremembering something either attributed to Reagan that he didn’t say OR someone else, most likely a Bush or Clinton, saying it in the 90s – 2000s.
When Reagan left Office the ChiComs were still not open and the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries were still in existence. No one was moving mfg overseas from the US. That happened in the 90s under BJ as they moved mfg here to there.
What WAS happening was that Unfair Trade practices by Japan plus their efficiency in making smaller, fuel efficient autos and other mfg goods meant they were starting to manufacture THERE and send it here.
It was NOT yet US manufacturers shutting down here and making things there, except for some of the Maquiladoras across the border in Mexico.
Trump: 6-3 SCOTUS majority.
TWO judicial appointments from flipping the Ninth Circus to majority Conservative, which returns nine states back to America overnight.
Has weathered an endless 8-year continual shitstorm of vitriolic and judicial hatred that would have folded any nine other people into a coffin.
Anybody else: bupkus.
You want perfection? Good luck with that voyage, Captain Ahab.
Like Lincoln said, when told that U.S. Grant was a drunkard:
“I cannot spare this man. He fights.”
The U.S. Grant reference is particularly apt.
Here is the thing about Trump in 2017-2019.
All the things they say were “mistakes” by Trump did not matter. He was getting things done and had the country moving in the right direction despite the whole of DC and many States arrayed against him.
Why did this work? Because WE had his back. The silent majority who knew right from wrong, good from bad, and knew who was evil and who was good.
The profound moment that changed history came when those of US who had his back suddenly pissed our pants over a Flu and went insane about it. Trump responded reasonably and expanded the health care system and made federal resources available to places that had been “hardest hit”. Had we, the silent majority, simply responded with our usual “Trump is handling this the right way” and calmed the fuck down, the Left would have been dealt another serious blow to their credibility.
The problem is that at least 50% of the Trump supporters lost their minds and bought the Narrative of the Scamdemic hook, line and sinker. Bought it so hard that even expressing any doubt about the seriousness of The Plague could get you banned at supposedly Hard Right Blogs for not buying in yourself.
If we stand for Trump solidly he may be able to pull it off. I really don’t think anyone else can and I’ve given my reasons here before. So I will leave it at that.
Well said.
“I really don’t think anyone else can…”
No one willing to run and pay the price at least. One of the things that really burns me are the so called “conservatives” that don’t give Trump the credit he is due, and even worse, can’t recognize the personal sacrifice the man has made / is making for this country. He risks his own life and that of his family, along with his economic well being.
It has been a high price to pay.
I’m kinda surprised he looks about the same physically as he did in June 2015. That kind of pressure is something very few could take and he seems to thrive on it.