The Left Fears A Tucker Carlson Presidential Campaign

It’s hard to imagine a national political figure that could possibly derange the progressive left more than Donald J. Trump. But New York Times writer Farhad Manjoo already has done exactly that, admitting in a Times opinion piece that populist commentator and Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson would in fact be “worse” than Trump as President.

According to Manjoo, Carlson would be poised to deliver on the economic, nationalist populism most prominently proposed in Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and frequently featured on Tucker’s primetime Fox News show.

Majoo admits that Carlson’s pro-American platform would have a broad appeal across diverse elements of American society, reaching out to the great portions of Americans whose livelihoods are threatened by the conglomeration of wealth on the coasts by massive, soulless, and delusional San Francisco tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. He would be poised to offer policy solutions to offset the effects of automation in an era where most conventional conservatives simply don’t care to think outside the box in order to solve one of the most pervasive problems facing American society.

The progressive columnist goes on to claim that Tucker would use said broad appeal to incite racial division. Of course, he’d maintain that literally any political opposition to immigration would represent precisely that.

Majoo imagines Tucker as a potential Presidential candidate in a scenario in which Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Biden would be an utterly clueless incumbent in a debate with Carlson, offering absolutely nothing but empty anecdotes to assist Americans suffering from the effects of automation, mass immigration and the consolidation of wealth among massive tech corporations and neoliberal oligarchs.

Carlson has thrown water on the prospect of a potential presidential candidacy, citing a desire to keep more of his family life. But with a few notable exceptions such as Missouri Senator Josh Hawley(a potential running mate), there are few national political leaders with an ability to channel the populist energy first touched upon by Donald Trump for a political movement that lasts beyond his presidency.

As a Presidential candidate, Carlson could potentially not only represent a political threat to the Democratic Party, but the entire liberal oligarchy progressives have sought to empower in American cultural, political, economic and social life. Manjoo’s fear of his potential future candidacy is something Republicans should keep in mind.