Just because Tucker Carlson regularly dog whistles to white supremacists, that’s no reason to call him a racist! That’s what Carlson argued in a nearly four-minute commentary whining that a Mediaite editor said he has “white nationalist leanings.”
In a column called, “Tucker Carlson Isn’t Even Trying to Hide His White Nationalist Leanings Anymore,” Mediaite’s Justin Bargona wrote:
Embracing former President Bill Clinton’s ‘90s stance on illegal immigration, Carlson claimed that the Democratic Party “has morphed into something that bears no resemblance to what it was even ten years ago.” He added that for decades the Dems were a coalition of Liberal intellectuals, the urban poor and the country’s working class.” According to Tucker, they lost that last group, which was the only thing that kept them “grounded in the vicinity of reality.” Meaning, essentially, that the party was nothing more than poor minorities and the so-called liberal elite.
Tucker went on to target black House members Keith Ellison and Maxine Waters for their rhetoric related to DACA and the alt-right, wondering aloud when Democrats started “talking like this” while claiming that it represented a “war cry.” Furthermore, he asked where the “adults” in the party were, noting that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was now leading a party that was determined to “destroy” it, highlighting her praise for DREAMers as “perverse.”
Not only is Baragona 100% accurate in his assessment of Carlson, he’s far from the only one to make it. We’ve been calling out Carlson’s bigotry since before he got his own show – and after. As has Media Matters. In July, Vox’s Carlos Maza put together a terrific video explaining how Carlson cloaks his bigoted dog whistles under a veneer of earnest wholesomeness.
Apparently, Carlson is very irritated that people are noticing and calling out his tactics. But he also suggested that being called a racist means nothing any more – because people have become too racially sensitive! From tonight’s commentary:
It wasn’t that long ago that calling someone a racist was a big deal. It was a devastating attack on a person’s character, if not blood libel. Now, everywhere you look, people just barely to the right of Al Gore are being denounced as white supremacists white nationalists, neo-confederates.
Ironically, as Carlson protested, “We didn’t mention race at all” in the segment Baragona wrote about, b-roll footage showed (presumably Mexican) immigrants sneaking into the country by climbing over the border wall, riding atop a train and sneaking under a fence.
This is exactly the underhandedness Carlson regularly employs. No, he didn’t mention race but everybody heard his meaning loud and clear.
“Skin color is not the most important thing about a person,” Carlson continued. “What matters most is how you live, the choices you make, what you love, what you hate, how you treat others. Now, that puts us at odds with the modern left which classifies people first and foremost by their race.”
Carlson went on to complain that the left embraces “tribalism” which is “dehumanizing.” Carlson’s rejection of that, he argued, is why he is being called a bigot. In other words, he’s the one dignifying minorities by being willing to criticize them.
And I might buy that were it not for the fact that he always seems to obsess about Minorities Behaving Badly and buddies up to the more blatant bigots who are openly antagonistic.
I don’t know what’s in Carlson’s heart but I can see clearly how he behaves.
Watch Carlson’s argument below, from the September 27, 2017 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
“F**ker” — er, I mean — Tucker Carlson is just like his predecessor Bully O’Lielly and his dear Fuehrer Adolf Twitler: all of them sure love to dish it out, BUT THEY JUST CAN’T TAKE IT!