Antisemitism is officially back in mainstream American political discourse. It is being pushed, it is being exploited, and it is being normalized, and it is being brought right into the center of priority agenda items. What is happening to America’s MAGA movement, as it finds itself embroiled in an onslaught led by Tucker Carlson and friends? And what can be done?
Over the past year especially, Carlson has invited guests to his show, whom he has afforded a virtual unfettered platform free of probing questions and fair pushbacks, who have attacked Israel, attacked American Jews, attacked the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and attacked Christian Zionists.
This past June, US Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene from Georgia who is now being targeted by President Donald Trump, was afforded an hour and a half to spout off her prejudices, assisted by Carlson.
Carlson put it to her that there’s a feeling that “we have a moral obligation to support the secular government of Israel, that God tells us that we have to fight these wars for the secular government of Israel... that supports abortion and supports LGBTQ and trans....” Framing the matter as religious thus pits American conservative theory against Jews and Judaism.
Moreover, Carlson misstates the Evangelical commitment to Israel. Its identification with Israel’s struggles, ever since Menachem Begin welcomed Jerry Falwell, Ed McAteer, and Mike Evans, among others, into an alliance of Bible-based thinkers, was not tied to a government. It was predicated on an identification with the concept that the nation of Israel was fulfilling a prophecy even if Jews remained Jews. It was a worthwhile Christian project.
Greene, however, reframes the matter, telling Carlson, “Americans have been taught that they have to do whatever Israel says. And it’s the secular government of Israel. The secular government should not be telling Christians in America what they should and shouldn’t do with their tax dollars.”
That framing is not only a misrepresentation of the reality, but its intent is to cause Americans to dislike Israel and its supposed agents, like AIPAC, not for what is being lobbied but because somehow Israel is secular but she and Carlson are, well, religious. Is that faithful to the principles the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution?
Already back on June 23, 2002, at a Turning Point USA summit in Florida, Greene declared, “I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists.” It is one thing to proudly point to biblical and faith principles that drive one’s politics but another to stigmatize non-Christians for not sharing your religious beliefs even while they may share your political concerns and positions.
Carlson, though, is assuming a resurrected Father Coughlin status. Reaching a huge radio audience in the 1930s, Charles Edward Coughlin, a Catholic priest based near Detroit, turned his microphone to the subject of Jewish bankers and broadcast antisemitic commentary. He expressed some support of policies of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to his tens of millions of listeners.
Carlson, purposefully picking fights with Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, and David Friedman, not to exclude his utmost antipathy for Benjamin Netanyahu, has, it would seem, picked up Coughlin’s fallen mantle.
He has invited on to his show Father Munther Isaac in April 2024 and Sister Agapia Stephanopoulos in August this year to maliciously and with the utmost prevarication relate falsehoods within a religious configuration of Jews versus Christians. Despite Islamic persecution of Christians across the Middle East and in Africa, the subject has not been addressed by Carlson.
In another development, Carlson invited Sen. Ted Cruz to discuss matters of interest and, in a total turnabout of his interview style, attacked and pressed Cruz repeatedly, and in a subsequent show referred to his distaste of Cruz and even mocked him.
Carlson incites extremist views
Carlson's most bizarre engagement of Christianization of politics in a perverted way was during his hosting Hitler and Stalin admirer Nicholas Fuentes earlier this month. Ranting against his Jewish critics Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro, he said they routinely categorized opponents of Israel as “Nazis.”
Bizarrely, he worked into that the anti-Nazi Lutheran theologian who opposed Hitler and saved Jews, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Carlson suggested the German pastor ultimately advocated murder. He continued and said, “Once you start calling people Nazis, we really have no choice but to start shooting them,” thus planting the idea in his listeners’ heads that Levin and Shapiro are also advocating shooting people, perhaps even himself.
If that convoluted reasoning appears odd, Carlson went on and told Fuentes, “To be Dietrich Bonhoeffer and sort of reach the end of reason, or even Christianity... Bonhoeffer decided Christianity’s not enough, we have to kill the guy.” We are now back to the Christianization aspect.
The conservative National Review’s editor, Phil Klein, was apoplectic, writing “Tucker Carlson is a Jew hater. He is the most vile and influential Jew hater in this country. And he is doing more to try to mainstream Jew-hatred in this country than anyone alive. He is tearing apart the conservative movement.” With Candace Owens employing the same tactics, danger looms large.
Mark Tapson, of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, wrote, “The illogic here is flabbergasting.” He added, “Will Tucker now condemn David for killing Goliath?”
Carlson, though, has an escape route. In February 2023, he claimed he was attacked by a demon in his home and “physically mauled” by that unseen force while he was sleeping. Awaking, he found “claw marks on both sides, on right and left side on my ribs, and they’re bleeding.”
One can only assume that if you are willing to believe his anti-Israel, anti-Jewish rantings and those of his guests, being clawed by a demon is not beyond the realm of acceptance. Somehow, though, being weird is not an excuse for causing so much damage to America’s body politic.
The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.