SPRINGTIME FOR TUCKER: Tucker Carlson Is Now a World War II Revisionist.
Tucker Carlson makes a great deal of Hitler’s insistence that he “did not want to go to war with the U.K.” But Carlson steadfastly ignores that not wanting to go to war was the pose that Hitler struck at every step of his journey across Europe. In September 1938, he promised in writing that acquiring the Sudetenland would satisfy Germany’s territorial ambitions in Europe and then made a speech in which he declared that once that issue was settled — an issue, you will note, that was only an issue because he had made it one — “there will be no more territorial problems for Germany in Europe.” Six months later, in flagrant violation of his vow, he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. Six months after that, Hitler invaded Poland — a country with which he had until recently had a peace deal. This was a pattern. Nine days before his invasion of Poland, Hitler had struck a ten-year non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union — a pact that, like all the others, was broken just two years later when, to the great surprise of Joseph Stalin, he invaded the Soviet Union with 3.8 million troops. Narrowly, it is accurate to suppose that, during this period, Hitler did “not want to go to war with the U.K.” But it was also true that, at various points in the past, Hitler had not wanted to go to war with Czechoslovakia, Poland, or Russia — or, for that matter, with Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. It is fair to say, I’d venture, that in the realm of not wanting to go to war, Hitler lacked aptitude.
And apparently, lacked skill in planning as well. Darryl Cooper, Tucker’s favorite “historian,” who kicked off Tucker’s then-newly pro-Axis worldview claimed in September of 2024. Or as Steve asked back then: Seriously, What the Hell Is Wrong With Tucker Carlson?
“We can’t feed these people, we don’t have the food to feed these people,” Cooper imagined the Germans thinking after fighting on the Eastern Front accidentally created more prisoners and refugees than Germany could cope with. “And one of them actually says, ‘Rather than wait for them all to slowly starve this winter, wouldn’t it be more humane to just finish them off quickly now?’”
At the Daily Wire today, James Price explains: How Tucker Carlson Was Rees-Mogged By Conservatism.
Carlson conservatism seems to share the same outlook regardless of where it goes, a habit of the Left. Socialism is the same in every country, because it is an internationalist credo. But classical conservatives are trying to conserve different things in different places: an American his written Constitution, an Englishman his King.
In the end, Carlson conservatism doesn’t seem interested in conserving very much, which leaves American conservatives with a choice about who will speak for them. They could do worse than the Honorable Member for the 18th century. America has taken its conservatism from 18th-century Englishmen before, and it worked out rather well, gifting the world the likes of Jefferson and Madison.
It is not just a theoretical question. There is a time for choosing, to paraphrase another classical American conservative, and that will be asked more earnestly after the U.S. midterms. Will they embrace Carlson conservatism, or is there life in the time-honored traditions of old?
Defending Putin, attacking Churchill, defending radical Islam, and defending the fella with the tiny toothbrush mustache – that doesn’t sound like any recognizable form of conservatism to me.
Related: Conrad Black adds that Tucker’s poor choice of guests has hurt his debating skills, much like a boxer constantly sparring with inferior opponents. “As a free-speech and free-market advocate, I think Tucker is entitled to say what he wants, and I congratulate him on his commercial success, even while finding many of his views idiotic. What troubles me is not so much the outlandish claims, but the skill atrophy — the phenomenon whereby any skill sharpened by adversarial pressure dulls without resistance. In boxing, the term ‘ring rust’ is sometimes used to describe the way a boxer who stops facing strong opponents loses their timing, power, and urgency, until nothing’s left but a shell of their former selves. Looking back over his podcast guest list, with the exception of this Rees-Mogg segment, Ted Cruz last year, and perhaps a handful of others, it has been a long procession of hundreds of people brought on to confirm his own worldview back to him, in their own words. And the ring rust has set in.”
