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| Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes |
As I’ve mentioned in the past, antisemitism was once almost the exclusive domain of the far right. Over time, their numbers diminished and they
were pushed to the fringes of society. To the point of relative insignificance.
The new antisemitism was found most prominently on the left. The
further left one goes the more they will find anti-Zionist (Read antisemitic)
views.
That the media has long been more sympathetic to the left
and tend to “see” what the left sees and tends to validate their views.
By contrast, mainstream conservatives had been almost
uniformly supportive of Israel. Largely because of the influence of Evangelical
Christians, who comprise a large portion of the conservative base. Their
religious beliefs move them to support the Jewish claim to the Holy Land as
stated repeatedly in the Bible. They also support the Jewish people for the
same biblical reasons.
But it wasn’t only Evangelicals. Most conservatives had
become very supportive of the Jewish state and the Jewish people. A complete
180 from soft antisemitic bigotry that characterized the conservative base
before and during the Holocaust.
I felt comfortable with that support. And I still do. But a
recent article in Jewish Insider had a comment about young conservatives that genuinely shocked me. Never in a million years would I have believed the
following:
Conservative writer Rod Dreher recently estimated that 30 to 40 percent of young Republican staffers in Washington “are fans of Nick Fuentes.”
Those are staggering numbers. These are not fringe
characters. These are young people deeply involved in the party. Even though those high percentage figures are disputed, there seems to be broad agreement that the numbers
are still disturbingly high.
Nick Fuentes is a white nationalist, an open and rabid antisemite,
a Holocaust denier, and an admirer of Hitler. He says Hitler was right about
the Jews. If there is an antisemitic trope in existence, he has probably used
it.
Not long ago, someone like Fuentes would have been ridiculed
as a crackpot living on the fringes of society with little following. Condemned
by all decent people, right or left. And while he is still condemned by
most conservatives, he has nevertheless managed to worm his way into the
national conversation, gaining a degree of respectability thanks to Tucker
Carlson - one of the most popular conservative commentators in America, with
millions of followers and influential friends in high places.
Carlson, who has recently and repeatedly shown his own
antisemitic leanings, interviewed Fuentes on his podcast and agreed with much
of his rhetoric about Zionist (read: Jewish) or Neocon (read: Jewish) influence
in Congress, the Pentagon, and major American police departments. Influence he claimed
to be deliberately designed to benefit Israel rather than America, undermining
the ‘America First’ ideology central to MAGA Republicans.
That alone would be bad enough. But what happened next was
worse. Prominent Republican conservatives did not condemn the Fuentes
interview. Instead, they defended Carlson’s right to host him.
How prominent? Kevin Roberts, head of the highly respected
Heritage Foundation, not only defended Carlson but blamed the ‘globalist class’
(read: neocon Jews) for undermining the movement.
Instead of condemning the interview, Vice President J.D.
Vance defended his friend Tucker Carlson’s ‘right to interview whomever he
chooses’ as a matter of free speech. And now even the President has chimed in
with similar sentiments.
What they should have done is demonstrate moral
clarity by condemning the platforming of an antisemite of near-Hitlerian
proportions. Instead, they gave him a pass—thereby preserving Carlson’s massive
popularity and granting Fuentes’s antisemitism a veneer of legitimacy within
mainstream conservatism.
Let me be clear: the President is not antisemitic. Nor do I
believe the Vice President is. But they have placed popular support above moral
clarity. And that feeds the perception that antisemitism is becoming an
acceptable component of conservative dialogue.
This is not OK. Carlson’s softball interview with Fuentes cannot be dismissed
as an exercise of free speech. The lack of moral clarity shown by prominent
conservatives as a matter of political expedience is appalling in the extreme.
That being said, I do not believe that most mainstream
conservatives are antisemitic. I still believe the vast majority condemns
antisemitism in all its forms. But it is nevertheless shocking that any sane
individual - regardless of how conservative they are - believes the
conspiratorial garbage coming out of the mouths of people like Nick Fuentes. He
has millions of followers! And as many
as 30 to 40 percent of young Republican staffers in Washington are fans too. That
is terrifying.
This is not OK. This cannot be dismissed as mere free speech. The lack of moral clarity shown by prominent conservatives as a matter of political expedience is appalling in the extreme.
How can so many people be so gullible, so foolish? How is it possible that in 2025 - eighty years after six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust? There is montains of evidence about what happened, including archival footage taken of atrocities taken by the Nazis themselves. Footage of the camps being liberated with dead bodies left in piles and emaciated survivors barely alive. There have been so many survivors that have testified about the horrors they experienced. Recorded on video for posterity. Some of them still alive! How can anyone with a conscience think Hitler was right?
That just isn’t normal. And I don’t get it.
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