After Tucker Carlson’s monologue of bigoted dog whistles over a Congolese immigrant’s protest at the Statue of Liberty on July 4th, he got a pass on his hideous tactics from liberal radio host Ethan Bearman.
Bearman, a regular guest on the Tucker Carlson Tonight show, put up a spirited and principled argument. But he either did not recognize or else was not concerned about the fact that he was legitimizing Carlson’s white-nationalist demagoguery by acting as though they were engaging in a righteous debate.
“I’m not a fan of the divisiveness that is happening right now in politics,” Bearman claimed. Yet he never said a word about the kind of divisiveness-on-steroids Carlson was promoting. Even when Carlson blew such a loud dog whistle, it’s impossible to believe Bearman didn’t hear it.
Carlson’s monologue was horribly disturbing , or should have been. But even if Bearman somehow missed it, he would have gotten the gist when Carlson responded to Bearman’s argument that “the issue is how we treat” immigrants.
CARLSON: How about how they treat us? If you come here from Congo … one of the worst countries in the world. So you come here from there and you immediately take over one of our monuments and accuse us of racism. Where’s the gratitude part? Where you express happiness that you’re in America and thankfulness for all the things that you got from this country? How do you wind up at a place where you’re taking over the Statute of Liberty when you’re not even an American? I don’t understand. Why should we put up with that? Why should we like that?
This is not just a bigoted smear, it’s a lie. Statue of Liberty protester Therese Patricia Okoumou did not just arrive here from the Congo and “immediately take over one of our monuments.” She has been here for more than 20 years and is a naturalized citizen. And the reason we "should put up with that" is because our Constitution says so.
Almost as astounding as Bearman letting Carlson get away with this whopper was his failure to confront the shout out to white nationalists behind it.
BEARMAN: It is a great tradition here and we, many of us, are very upset about the separation of the families at the border, the massive reductions in legal immigration was just announced, that the president himself just is rolling back through his administration. The Army program that allows people to become citizens - again this, this diversity is a great strength …
Bearman even failed to challenge Carlson’s outrageous claim, “I’m for the First Amendment, that’s why I’m not a liberal.”
Look, I’m not trying to pick on Bearman who seems like a worthy advocate for American values, laws and democracy. But they are all under assault by Donald Trump and his Fox News BFFs. Acting as if that is not the case does our side no favors.
I firmly believe that liberals should appear on Fox News and take part in the network’s debates. But they have to play the game they’re in, not the one Fox wants them to play.
Watch Carlson use Bearman as a fig leaf to cover up demagoguery as legitimate debate below, from the July 5, 2018 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Tucker is also a liar projecting faux evil on liberals. While many liberals are sympathetic to cause of Patricia Okoumou I didn’t see a huge number of liberals celebrating her actions. Quite the contrary. ‘Liberal’ CNN where I watched the police live bringing her down was quite critical of her risking people’s lives, costing the taxpayer a lot of money, redirecting security resources needed elsewhere on the 4th, and ruining the 4th for thousands of tourists hoping to visit the Statue of Liberty.
Most disturbing to me is Tucker’s immoral lack of empathy for his fellow man. Like Tucker I’m an Episcopalian and my minister has been quite clear in preaching our moral obligation to immigrants. I don’t know which church Tucker attends but maybe he needs to stay awake during their sermons.
It would not take too many patriots (actual patriots) to pull it off and send the clearest possible signal to the world.