Tucker Carlson had the nerve to look into a TV camera and pretend that he cares about unity in this country. That was shortly before Carlson teamed up with his hate-mongering pal Mark Steyn for an on-air shout out to white supremacists and a smear of Arizona as more Mexican than American.
In reality, Carlson's talk about “unity” is sugar coating for his trademark bigotry, nativism and dog whistles to the white nationalists who are among his most devoted fans. As Carlos Maza wrote on Vox (with my emphases added):
Carlson’s immigrants-are-criminals shtick is just part of his broader rejection of multiculturalism, which he sees as a threat to “European culture” and “Western civilization.” That kind of language is eerily similar to that of white supremacists, who use similar coded speech to argue that immigrants are a threat to white America. And it suggests that Carlson’s anti-immigrant rhetoric isn’t actually about immigration — it’s about teaching the largest audience in cable news to view difference as dangerous.
Last night, Carlson made that more explicit in an odious commentary that opened his show:
Sitting in front of a large graphic that blared “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIME,” Carlson harangued about the sticking point of protecting DREAMers, or DACA, in the government shutdown negotiations.
But rather than argue that DACA is not worth shutting down the government or looking for the “unity” Carlson claimed to revere, he set about demonizing and demeaning those with a different point of view – with a clarion call to white nationalists.
“It’s now clear that for many of our elected leaders, it’s not even worth having a country if that country comes with real borders,” Carlson began. “There’s a striking fanaticism to their position,” he continued without, apparently, noticing the irony. In fact, protecting the DREAMers, the young immigrants who illegally came to this country as children, is wildly popular with Americans.
But Carlson insisted that allowing DREAMers to stay is anti-American:
CARLSON: For Democrats, it’s understandable because the calculus is simple. Having abandoned the concerns of the middle class here, they need millions of new voters and they need them fast. Otherwise, their party risks becoming a permanent minority.
Did Carlson’s nose just grow? The fact is a generic Democratic ballot is heavily favored over Republicans for the upcoming midterms. Fox’s own Chris Wallace reported that the GOP is “very” worried about the elections.
Carlson’s hideousness grew even if his nose didn’t.
CARLSON: Replacing ungrateful citizens with obedient immigrants is [Democrats’] only hope. Every Democrat who’s thought it through for even a minute knows this well. They can’t say it in public, though, because, obviously, it’s horrible. So, instead, they’re trying a new talking point: illegal immigrants are terrific people.
How Carlson got this "inside scoop" about Democratic strategy, he never explained. Instead, he trotted out highly questionable data, which he never sourced, that in Arizona, “illegal immigrants” are “about twice as likely to be convicted of all crimes.” He went on to cite an “illegal alien” criminal in California who “murdered two police officers” after being deported multiple times.
As Jack Holmes wrote in Esquire, this was “an exercise in propaganda.” Carlson seems to have gotten his Arizona crime statistics from the discredited John Lott. “There’s plenty of evidence illegal immigrants are actually significantly less likely to commit crimes and be incarcerated,” Holmes noted. “Carlson is demonizing people by cherrypicking the worst possible case and presenting it as the median. By the way, what does Bracamontes [the California cop-killerl] have to do with DACA? He was deported and returned as an adult.”
But after presenting dubious, outlying and un-sourced statistics and “insights” into Democrats, Carlson pretended he wants to be a unifier. It was part of his next rant which was about "the Senate's most celebrated moral philosopher," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, saying, “Diversity is our strength.”
CARLSON: Now, you’ve heard that phrase before, obviously. … In effect, it’s our new national motto, soon to replace the outdated and, in fact, polar opposite sentiment, “E pluribus unum.” “Diversity is our strength,” it’ll be in our currency before long, trust me. But what exactly does it mean?
… And, more pressingly, is it true? The less we have in common, the stronger we are? Is a marriage stronger when spouses have radically different beliefs? Are you closer to your kids when you share no common points of reference? Do you speak the same language as your best friend? Could you be best friends if you didn’t?
[...]
In other words, diversity isn’t our strength. Unity is our strength. Don’t [let] the left lie to you, that doesn’t mean we have to look alike. It doesn’t mean we have to come from the same places. It does mean we have to share common beliefs. Otherwise, we’ll hate each other and the whole enterprise will fall apart. That’s true in families, it’s true in friendships and it’s true in countries, too. You already knew that because it’s obvious. Our leaders spend most of their time denying it. They are lying to us. (transcript excerpt via Media Matters)
You have to wonder what “common beliefs” Carlson wants us to share. He’s already rejected the common belief of the 90% of Americans who think DACA recipients should be allowed to stay in the U.S. – with dishonest and divisive rhetoric.
I can only conclude that either Carlson thinks “unity” means we should all see the world through the same white-nationalist perspective he promotes night after night… or else his stated love for unity is just another lie.
Watch Carlson’s sickening display below, from the January 18, 2018 Tucker Carlson Tonight.