Libertarian Girl

MSNBC has cancelled Tucker Carlson’s show. Reaction has ranged from “Tucker Who?” to “Hallelujah!” to a sense of sadness to see a non-typical right-winger get kicked off a channel (from a liberal) to “Now he can be McCain’s vice presidential nominee.”

Many people describe Tucker Carlson as a libertarian or a conservative-libertarian, so it’s important to see what he was bringing to the table– he’s going to be used to represent us. He seems to hold many libertarian views, but many that are not (he thought that the 82nd Airborne soldiers who said our Iraq policy was not succeeding in a New York Times op-ed had lost their “moral authority,” for instance). Overall, he may not be the best promoter of libertarianism, considering the reactions he garners from people: he’s called “a petulant little child,” some think he’s a racist or fascist or that he is giving libertarians a bad name with his bullying or that he’s not conservative enough for various reasons. However, he did feature Libertarians on his show and bring up some libertarian ideas and arguments that are not usually brought up in the mainstream media. In that way, it’s quite unfortunate that MSNBC has cancelled his show.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about Tucker. At first he won my heart by always hosting Ron Paul on his show, but then he had to go and ruin it all by so so oddly bringing in a Nevada brothel owner to a Ron Paul press conference in order to sex up his New Republic article on Congressman Paul. It wasn’t just weird (why would a married man just happen to be friends with a Nevada brothel owner and his “bunnies”?), it did nothing to help the principled candidate that Carlson said he’d vote for (and voted for in 1988). Ron Paul finished 2nd in the Nevada caucus, after Mitt Romney. Whether he was hurt or helped by brothel owner Dennis Hof’s endorsement, I’m not sure, but Romney always did have the advantage over the good doctor in Nevada since so many Mormons live there (it’s right next to Utah). In any case, I didn’t appreciate Tucker’s introduction of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch into Ron Paul’s campaign, nor how the media approached the issue– implying that Ron Paul had directly asked for Hof’s endorsement, which is ludicrous.

Tucker will be replaced by the quite boooring David Gregory.

Anyway, I’ll end with a few gems from Tucker Carlson (courtesy of Steven Latimer).

“I’m utterly opposed to abortion, which I think is horrible and cruel. I think affirmative action is wrong. I’d like to slow immigration pretty dramatically. I hate all nanny state regulations, such as seat belt laws and smoking bans. I’m not for big government. I think the U.S. ought to hesitate before intervening abroad. I think these are conservative impulses. So by my criteria, Bush isn’t much of a conservative.”

“I’m just for marriage generally. I’m for people making a lifelong commitment. Do you know what I mean? I’m not against gay marriage, actually, and I’m the most right-wing person I know… Marriage has been a great thing for me, and I think it’s a really civilizing force, and I think it would be a civilizing force for gay people too.”

UPDATE: Yesterday, Tucker said of Eliot Spitzer:

“If you’re against Eliot Spitzer– and to me his career has been shameful– this is not the way to get him… Spitzer’s true sins, in my view, are the ones that he commits in public, crushing other people for the sake of his political career, for instance… To see the press, a group which has unconventional personal lives… getting all high-handed that a grown man went to a prostitute is nauseating… So he’s a hypocrite, unlike the rest of us.. the way he hauled his political enemies into court… A lot of us are like him, frankly … I’m not, but I’m just saying… there’s something unattractive about public self-righteousness.. whre were they when Spitzer was crushing his enemies using public tax dollars? They cheered him on like some kind of Robin Hood, now just because he goes to a hooker they’re going to be getting all high handed on him… I’ve thought Eliot Spitzer is a deeply sleazy person… I just think this is one of the least sleazy things he’s done.”

I agree with Tucker Carlson completely. For me, the issue is not that Spitzer went to prostitutes, it’s that he prosecuted other people for that, while acting like he was superior to them. It’s abuse of power in the worst way– and how too many politicians act. Has any politician who wanted legalization of drugs (and been demonized for it by a political opponent) ever actually been caught with drugs? Has any politician who advocated legalization of prostitution (and who most certainly would have been demonized for that position) ever actually been caught with a prostitute? Of course not, the ones who are doing those things are going to be the hard-liners against it in their day jobs.

What’s even worse is that a bad politician can’t be brought down for his or her actual policies, only incidental sex scandals. Bill Clinton did much worse things in office than anything he ever did with Monica Lewinsky, and by the same token, Eliot Spitzer should have a lot more to be ashamed of than his time with prostitutes. The public should also demand better from politicians. It’s sickening, and it’s why I’m a libertarian.

Tags: Tucker Carlson, MSNBC, Tucker Carlson canceled, Ron Paul, Eliot Spitzer

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Media, libertarianism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.