Tucker Carlson’s defense of Vladmir Putin has been not only disconcerting to many, but puzzling to others. Pre-Trump Republicans in general and conservative Republicans in particular were, at the very most, skeptical of those in power in Moscow.
Remember “Trust but verify”?
Ronald Reagan was under no illusions when it came to the leaders of the then-Soviet Union. The verification part of that commandment was to indicate that there would be no suffering of fools.
Here’s a funny thing: In the late 20th and early 21st century there were conservatives who decried those in what they considered to be the leftist academic world for their support of postmodernism and deconstruction, which those on the right said created conditions for a “post-truth” world, where there was no core truth of values.
Arguably it was Trump and his acolytes who have had a far bigger effect on undermining reality with, in Kellyanne Conway’s telling, “alternative facts.”
While statements made by all who have any connection to politics – including statements made here -- must be taken with at least a shaker full of salt, it is evidently the case that correctitude is something that is no longer considered by those, particularly in the Republican Party (why them: look at the polling of those who question the validity of the 2020 presidential election: With no factual evidence to the contrary, more than two-thirds of Republicans think that the election was “stolen”), to matter.
To bring this back to Putin: One day he says that he is sending “peacekeepers” into the Ukraine. The next day those forces are killing people.
At the top of his show on Tuesday, February 22, Carlson gave his defense of why he is defending Putin, with a litany of things that Putin didn’t do to him (actually the setup was such that the viewer at home was the person that Carlson was putting words into the mouth of, a rhetorical slight-of-tongue).
One of the things Carlson says Putin didn’t do to him has pretty much gone unremarked, something that says volumes of what has happened to the Republican Party as it has gone from standing for things like values to a supine position except when it comes to ginned-up outrage for things that often don’t exist. (Railing against the teaching of critical race theory in places where critical race theory isn’t being taught, for example.)
Carlson said, referring to Putin, “Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?”
And that’s the money quote.
It explains what has happened to Republicans, especially elected officials.
They are afraid of losing their jobs.
This has brought them to a place where they have gone from harsh criticism of Trump (I’m talking to essentially all of you who were running against him in the 2016 G.O.P. presidential primaries) to utter flattery.
They have decided that principles aren’t as important as a paycheck, so why risk Trump’s wrath? Say whatever soothing words he wants to hear, even if they are lies.
The truth doesn’t matter to these people. They will twist it any way necessary if only to keep their jobs. They don’t care about the good of others, about the polity. They only care about themselves. Ten years before The Art of the Deal was published there was another book published that was right in line with the thinking that has come to characterize Republican Party leadership: Looking Out for Number 1.
Russell Kirk, who was once revered by conservatives, wrote, “If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.”
When there are so many people who are worried about their positions and trappings, the integrity of their souls become something of disinterest. In fact, these people would probably publicly scoff at the mention of something so metaphysical (though one hopes that in the dark and still of the night they would be troubled by the spirit put within them by their Creator).
As St. Augustine wrote: “Purity of soul cannot be lost without consent.”
Lies, no matter how widely they are told, or by whom, are still lies.
Trump lost his job because the majority of the American people fired him. He didn’t like that. Carlson is siding with authoritarians because they, as yet, haven’t fired him.
This is what it has come to: Disorder caused by those who are promulgating self-serving lies.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.
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News & Notes becomes Meanwhile on Monday, February 28. Meanwhile, read News & Notes at https://thehustings.news.