On Friday night, Tucker Carlson scrupulously avoided the racist aspects of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s yearbook photo in order to focus on what he claimed was the real issue – Northam’s support for “infanticide.”
Tucker Carlson is revered by white supremacists. So maybe that’s why he didn’t want to disappoint his fans with any pesky concern for racism.
Carlson opened the segment by playing video of the embattled governor speaking about a Virginia Assembly bill that expands abortion rights. Northam’s explanation of what happens when a woman delivers a non-viable fetus was not well articulated and opponents of the proposal (read Tucker Carlson) claimed that Northam was advocating infanticide – a truly preposterous claim but consider the source.
Carlson informed us that Northam “came out in favor of infanticide” and “we’re not exaggerating.” (No, you’re lying). He lamented Northam’s comment that “abortion at any stage is a positive good” because, quote “reproductive freedom leads to economic freedom.” He spoke against a backdrop of a fetus superimposed on an American flag.
Poster boy for rich, white privilege Carlson (who thinks that single mothers are irresponsible sluts) provided his own, er, unique interpretation of what Northam said: “In other words, abortion is virtuous because it makes women more efficient employees, better and more dutiful servants of Northam’s donors. They can work longer hours without worrying about anybody but their bosses.” (Guess women are too stupid to realize that they’re being exploited by the evil Northam and his minions.)
Carlson expressed dismay that the press isn’t satisfactorily covering the abortion thing: “The press covered all of this, of course, but not in the way you’d imagine.” He continued the little hissy-fit: “To the reporters at The Washington Post, the real crime here was Republicans complaining about Ralph Northam." (Uh, no, the real issue is the offensive, racist photos and now Northam’s changing stories about them.)
Carlson cited a Washington Post headline, “Abortion bill draws GOP outrage against Va. Gov. Northam, Democratic legislators” to accuse the Post of really saying that “Republicans whine too much! Infanticide? Not a big deal!”
With the now-infamous yearbook photo as a backdrop, it looked like Carlson was finally getting to the racist core of the controversy. Instead, he used the photo to complain about how, during Northam’s gubernatorial campaign, he accused his GOP opponent Ed Gillespie of racism: “The closing of that campaign was an unending flurry of ads putting his Republican opponent up against pictures of what happened at Charlottesville.” Carlson asserted, “There was no evidence that his opponent was racist, but Northam said it a lot.” (Gillespie’s campaign involved race baiting which Northam called out.)
In a bizarre little rant, Carlson provided us with a satirical (?) comparison of Democrats, who still support Northam, to – wait for it – abortion: “Those Democrats personally oppose blackface and Klan robes as a matter of conscience, but they don’t want them relegated to some back alley. They want blackface and Klan robes to be safe, legal and rare. A private matter between a politician and his donors.” In concluding, he invoked Northam’s abortion comment verbiage: Northam will be ‘kept comfortable [and] resuscitated if that’s what his party desires.”
Did you catch this not so clever attempt to whitewash (pun intended) the real issue; i.e., the offensiveness of a blackface yearbook photo of the Virginia governor? Given Carlson’s embrace of racism, one would think that he would be fine with it. But that might cause problems for the advertisers. And if he doesn’t think it’s OK, that would alienate his white supremacist fan boys. Nice try at diverting and distracting from the real issue by lying about Gov. Northam’s supposed embrace of “infanticide."
But Carlson did cover the racist picture controversy - "but not in the way you imagined."
Watch this excerpt from Carlson's white power hour, from the February 1, 2019 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
The Right Wing is hoping to plant the seeds for their next big move on medical procedures, which will be to say that a fertilized egg is actually a fully-formed human life, with the status of “personhood”. That will be about two or three Supreme Court rulings down the road, after the new precedent of state’s rights and then of public safety have been established. Once they get away with that one, Roe will be effectively erased. And that will lead to the Right Wing’s next step to follow – banning contraception as once again some kind of moral high ground issue. If people think that the Right Wing won’t try this, take one look at the Pence White House and their behavior over the last two years. Yes, they really will do it if they get the chance. It’s why they’re openly salivating at the prospect of replacing Justice Ginsburg.
Segments like Carlson’s as shown above are just another part of their approach here – to chip away firmly at even the notion that a woman should have any choice about how to handle her medical issues. And by playing these games around Northam’s racism issues, they’re just trying to establish a talking point that he’s an immoral person. So if he’s immoral, then his position on medical procedures must also be immoral, and therefore the medical procedures themselves must be immoral, and therefore they should be opposed. Anyone discussing this with a Right Winger should be prepared to note that the two ideas have nothing to do with each other, and to note that it’s shameful for anyone to be trying to score cheap political points as if this was a game.