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Tucker Carlson Has Sparked the Most Interesting Debate in Conservative Politics
Vox ^ | 1/10/19 | Jane Coaston

Posted on 01/11/2019 8:13:59 AM PST by ek_hornbeck

Last Wednesday, the conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson started a fire on the right after airing a prolonged monologue on his show that was, in essence, an indictment of American capitalism.

America’s “ruling class,” Carlson says, are the “mercenaries” behind the failures of the middle class — including sinking marriage rates — and “the ugliest parts of our financial system.” He went on: “Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society.”

He concluded with a demand for “a fair country. A decent country. A cohesive country. A country whose leaders don’t accelerate the forces of change purely for their own profit and amusement.”

The monologue was stunning in itself, an incredible moment in which a Fox News host stated that for generations, “Republicans have considered it their duty to make the world safe for banking, while simultaneously prosecuting ever more foreign wars.” More broadly, though, Carlson’s position and the ensuing controversy reveals an ongoing and nearly unsolvable tension in conservative politics about the meaning of populism, a political ideology that Trump campaigned on but Carlson argues he may not truly understand.

(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...


TOPICS: Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: capitalism; conservatism; populism; tuckercarlson
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Tucker Carlson isn't the first to realize that the priorities of cultural conservatives - those who want to conserve a nation and a way of life, don't always align with the priorities of libertarian fiscal conservatism or with internationalist neoconservatism.

The most obvious points of conflict are over mass immigration: traditionalists oppose it because it changes the character of the nation, fiscal conservatives and neocons support it because it provides an underclass of foreign serfs and peasants to replace uppity American workers. We see the same conflict on the tariff vs. free trade (outsourcing) issue and between America-first vs. nation-building foreign policy.

1 posted on 01/11/2019 8:13:59 AM PST by ek_hornbeck
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To: ek_hornbeck

I thought it was great monologue, and I agree with him.

Part of the reason this country has gone downhill is because of people whose only goal in life is to collect as much money as possible before they pass away. Consequently, just about everything we buy these days is cheap garbage and our quality of life has deteriorated a LOT in the last half century.


2 posted on 01/11/2019 8:17:15 AM PST by Pravious
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To: ek_hornbeck
Was Tucker's monologue connected to discussion of “Hillbilly Elegy?”
3 posted on 01/11/2019 8:17:49 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: ek_hornbeck

Now if we could only find two liberals intelligent enough to “spark a debate” on liberal politics. Right now all we’re getting is liberal retardism.


4 posted on 01/11/2019 8:17:56 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (#NotARussianBot)
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To: ek_hornbeck

Globalist corporatism is what Tucker was talking about, not American capitalism.


5 posted on 01/11/2019 8:18:18 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: ek_hornbeck

Huh. I saw Tucker last night and his opening monologue sounded much like the one in this article. But he finished up with the fact that his monologue was sarcasm. Did Tucker give a monologue on Wednesday like this? Or did Vox just not add the ‘sarcasm tag’?


6 posted on 01/11/2019 8:18:22 AM PST by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell)
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To: Pravious

Net: godless, amoral capitalism *IS* a problem.


7 posted on 01/11/2019 8:18:35 AM PST by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: non vehere est inermus)
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To: ek_hornbeck

Years ago one Northern argument against slavery was that Southerners just wanted cheap labor now Southerners (more conservative now) argue that Northerners (libs and GOPe) want cheap labor via illegal immigration.


8 posted on 01/11/2019 8:20:02 AM PST by frogjerk (We are conservatives. Not libertarians, not "fiscal conservatives", not moderates)
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To: ek_hornbeck

Capitalism will never go away. It is a natural state of business.

Socialism will always die under its own weight wherever it pops up.

The ‘elites’ of both systems are the ones that profit the most from it.

The capitalist system promotes class movement of your own making.

The socialist system locks you into a class and makes you a prisoner of it.........................


9 posted on 01/11/2019 8:20:10 AM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: ek_hornbeck
libertarian fiscal conservatism or with internationalist neoconservatism.

As a breakdown of party membership I'd say it is 90% to 10% "cultural" vs. "globalist". Globullists are a tiny fraction of the party but control all the power in the party. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

10 posted on 01/11/2019 8:20:24 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: ek_hornbeck

“Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society.”

As we see liberalism wreaking havoc on families and society.


11 posted on 01/11/2019 8:21:14 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: ek_hornbeck

It’s not capitalism that is the problem but rather globalism. Capitalists who are also Nationalists understand their responsibility towards “the people” and the nation.


12 posted on 01/11/2019 8:21:47 AM PST by MichaelRDanger
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To: ek_hornbeck

The country needs a moral revolution. A market-based economy is a good thing. Private property is a good thing. But a society focused just on consumption of material goods is not a healthy society.


13 posted on 01/11/2019 8:22:19 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Pravious

Making it safe for banking.

That’s the goal of both parties. Government Sachs anyone?


14 posted on 01/11/2019 8:23:03 AM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: MichaelRDanger

Their are citizens that love their stocks and Wall Street more than they love their country. That is fact.


15 posted on 01/11/2019 8:23:05 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
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To: ek_hornbeck

Left unsaid, is the old rule: ‘You can’t legislate morality.’
It has to come from somewhere other than government. In other words, good upbringing.


16 posted on 01/11/2019 8:25:16 AM PST by ArtDodger
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To: Lurkinanloomin
American businesses used to be concerned about the United States. Loyalty to the US and patriotism were the foundation of their business models.

They have changed their practices to a global business market.

The US is just one small country so we no longer matter to them.

These businesses keep all the benefits, safety, security, stability, of doing businesses from inside the US but they no longer care about the US.

17 posted on 01/11/2019 8:25:35 AM PST by yesthatjallen
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To: ek_hornbeck

Elected “conservatives” have been far too concerned with giving the business community everything on their wish list over the past four decades. They have not paid nearly enough attention to cultural rot and decay.

Indeed, giving business absolutely EVERYTHING on their wish list is NOT good for the overall health of society.

One does not have to be a flaming Socialist to admit that.


18 posted on 01/11/2019 8:25:45 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: ek_hornbeck
Tucker Carlson isn't the first to realize that the priorities of cultural conservatives - those who want to conserve a nation and a way of life, don't always align with the priorities of libertarian fiscal conservatism or with internationalist neoconservatism.

Cultural conservatism is a dead issue right now, because the culture has moved so much, there is little left to conserve.

We need to ROLL BACK much of the changes. We need to be concerned about our own nation more than those who are not of our nation.

19 posted on 01/11/2019 8:25:55 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: Red Badger

An opposing view, from Robert A. Heinlein:


“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.”

“This is known as ‘bad luck’.”

- Robert Heinlein


While I often disagree with Heinlein, there is a large element of truth in his observation.


20 posted on 01/11/2019 8:27:18 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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