Tucker Carlson delivered a speech on Friday contending that the American political debate has moved beyond a contest between rival policy positions and is now driven by factions with fundamentally “evil” objectives.
The veteran television host and journalist, whose Fox News show attracts millions of viewers every evening, remarked at an event for the Heritage Foundation that fellow conservatives must swiftly adjust their approaches to the national conversation since some political forces desire to tear down the nation rather than engage in legitimate political dialogue.
“We write our papers and they write their papers, and may the best papers win. I don’t think that’s what we’re watching now at all. I don’t think we’re watching a debate on how to get to the best outcome. I think that’s completely wrong,” Carlson said. “There is no way to assess, say, the transgenderist movement with that mindset. Policy papers don’t account for it at all. If you have people who are saying, ‘I have an idea, let’s castrate the next generation, let’s sexually mutilate children,’ I’m sorry, that’s not a political debate. That has nothing to do with politics.”
LGBTQ activists and Democratic lawmakers have indeed opposed legislation in various states which prohibit sex change surgeries and hormone treatments for children, ban sexually explicit drag shows for minors, and protect female sports leagues from men who identify as women. President Joe Biden and other senior White House officials have meanwhile hosted roundtable discussions with prominent activists about “gender-affirming health care” for children.
Carlson also referenced Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asserting last year that regulating abortion would have “very damaging effects on the economy” as women leave the labor force to care for their children. The commentator noted the drastic pivot which the conversation about the sanctity of life has taken in recent years toward seeing abortion as a “positive good.”
“If you’re telling me that ‘Abortion is a positive good,’ what are you saying? Well, you’re arguing for child sacrifice,” he continued. “When the Treasury Secretary stands up and says, ‘You know what you can do to help the economy? Get an abortion,’ well, that’s an Aztec principle, actually.”
Carlson likewise described such a sentiment as a “theological phenomenon” that fundamentally cannot be considered a rational policy position. “And that’s kind of the point I’m making: none of this makes sense in conventional political terms,” he added. “What you’re watching is not a political movement. It’s evil.”
Carlson told the Heritage Foundation audience that older conservatives must shift their mindset in order to effectively engage in the current political arena. “I’m just noting what’s super obvious. Those of us who are in our mid-50s are caught in the past on how we think about this,” he remarked. “One side’s like, ‘I’ve got this idea, and we have this idea, and let’s have a debate about our ideas.’ They don’t want a debate. Those ideas won’t produce outcomes that any rational person would want under any circumstances. Those are manifestations of some larger force acting upon us.”
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Despite multiple self-deprecating remarks about his affiliation with the Episcopal Church, a communion widely regarded for socially and theologically liberal standpoints, Carlson noted that Americans should turn to heaven for hope as the nation’s foundations collapse. “Maybe we should all just take 10 minutes per day to say a prayer about it,” he concluded. “And I’m saying that to you not as some kind of evangelist. I’m literally saying that to you as an Episcopalian.”