Tucker Carlson – Ship of Fools

Recently, I spent an enjoyable afternoon reading Ship of Fools, a fast-paced, dead-on-target expose by Tucker Carlson.

From the book: “Trump’s election wasn’t about Trump. It was a throbbing middle finger in the face of America’s ruling class. It was a gesture of contempt, a howl of rage, the end result of decades of selfish and unwise decisions made by selfish and unwise leaders. Happy countries don’t elect Donald Trump president. Desperate ones do.”

Why Did America Elect Donald Trump?

Tucker admits Donald Trump was an unappealing figure in many ways – seemingly vulgar and ignorant to many. But as Tucker notes, much to the chagrin of Hillary supporters, voters concluded the alternatives were worse. It was not just Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, but the Bush family and their donors along with the whole Republican leadership, hedge fund managers, media luminaires, corporate executives, Hollywood taste makers, think tank geniuses, and everyone who created the world as it was in the fall of 2016. In other words, the people in charge.

Tucker correctly summarizes how voter distrust of these people just keeps getting more intense. Meanwhile, with Donald Trump delivering much of what he was voted into office to achieve, it is getting harder for Democrats to achieve any semblance of a foothold. Along with Trump’s post-election achievements has come the strongest American labor market in memory. And workers know it full well. Trump has delivered in spades. And the message from the backbiting progressive liberals has fallen flat. There are no takers in working class America for the Democratic Party.

Trump Not Responsible for Disasters America’s Previous Leaders Created

Trump didn’t invade Iraq, or bail out Wall Street.
Trump didn’t lower interest rates to zero.
Trump did not open the borders or sit silently by as the manufacturing sector collapsed and the middle class died.

Suddenly – America Has a New Class System?

Traditionally, income inequality was a core Democratic concern, Tucker notes. But the party, long the standard bearer for the working class, has reoriented completely. The party’s base has shifted to the affluent, and its priorities now mirror those of progressive professionals in Washington, New York and Silicon Valley. Forty years ago, Democrats were running elections on the decline of the middle class, and winning. Now the party speaks almost exclusively about identity politics, abortion, and abstract environmental concerns like climate change.

Carlson continues, explaining that thanks to mass immigration, America has experienced greater demographic change in the last few decades than any other country in history has undergone during peacetime. You may not recognize your own hometown.

For more than 50 years, Gallup has polled Americans on whether or not they want more immigration, less immigration, or about the same amount. Not a single time has a plurality supported higher immigration levels.

America has been totally and permanently changed, against the will of its own population, by the people who have been running the country.

Carlson reminds readers that America has embarked on repeated military adventures in the Middle East. None of these wars were waged in response to a genuine existential threat, and none were popular over time. Polls have repeatedly shown that Americans think the country is overstretched and its leaders are too willing to take on global commitments. Thousands of Americans have died fighting abroad.

I have only scratched the surface here. Tucker clearly has a better grasp of America’s political process than any other analyst I’ve come across in America today.

The Progressive Liberal crowd has been stripped down to the disgraceful core of its bankrupt domestic and foreign policy. And voters are not buying the far left, class warfare pitch of Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, never mind the geezer approach of a very tired Biden and Sanders.