Tucker Carlson’s Sad Shift Toward Socialism

While he has never been that solid on markets, very unfortunately Tucker has opened 2019 taking all sorts of cheap shots at libertarians and markets.  Last week he referred to both as “disgusting” and “devastating to American families.” Progressive Vox has registered approval:

[W]hether or not he likes it, Carlson is an important voice in conservative politics. His show is among the most-watched television programs in America. And his raising questions about market capitalism and the free market matters.  “What does [free market capitalism] get us?” [Carlson] said in our call. “What kind of country do you want to live in? If you put these policies into effect, what will you have in 10 years?”

Tucker refuses to specify what interventions he thinks will “save the working class and the family.”  He just vaguely alludes to Teddy Roosevelt:

Using Theodore Roosevelt as an example of a president who recognized that labor needs economic power, he told me, “Unless you want something really extreme to happen, you need to take this seriously and figure out how to protect average people from these remarkably powerful forces that have been unleashed.”

Tucker likes Amy Peikoff as his “libertarian” straw opponent (video below). She’s abstract, boring, and an objectivist (not a libertarian). He hisses at her (2:55) that he was once a libertarian, so he knows “the nature of the fantasy.”  And being her usual inept self, it took her almost 5 minutes (long after the audience’s attention had wandered) to get to the most important point: the U.S. isn’t a free market and Tucker’s complaints were really against corporatism.  Unfortunately he ignored her and resumed his attacks on markets and libertarianism the rest of this week.  Sad.

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6:56 pm on January 11, 2019