If you’re reading this, you’re either likely an avid viewer of Tucker Carlson Tonight or gobble up the various video clips you see floating around the internet at any given time. You can often find them posted here at RedState, and they usually become very popular articles.
As my colleague Sister Toldja recently covered, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson has achieved the highest in cable-news ratings in history, beating out Sean Hannity who held the title as number one at Fox News for years.
It’s pretty easy to understand why, though many would disagree on describing the reason.
From my angle, I can see two reasons.
The first one is obvious. Carlson is incredibly articulate and personable. He has no trouble getting his points across. In a show of knowledge, it’s likely he’d still get stomped by Ben Shapiro, but Carlson is capable of getting his point across in a much more engaging way. His monologues are capable of grabbing your attention and keeping it for extended periods.
That’s not an uncommon trait among talking heads and show hosts, however. Carlson’s real magic is that he’s one of the few people describing the world as it is, not as many would like you to see it. We’re so thirsty for honesty in this day and age that Carlson’s monologues are an oasis in a vast desert of “wokeness” and partisan worship.
Carlson doesn’t pull punches depending on what side you’re on. Screw up with an “R” next to your name you’ll fall into his crosshairs as anyone with a “D” in their title. Unlike Hannity, Carlson isn’t interested in running defense for a party. He’s more focused on the upkeep of principles and ideals, not towing a party line.
His recent slam on the do-nothing GOP on Tuesday is a breath of fresh air that many people probably didn’t know they needed, and now that they have it, may begin lighting fires under the backsides of various politicians.
If the GOP, President Donald Trump, or right-leaning activists screw up, too many people from the conservative news media to regular voters are terrified of calling them out for fear of ratings and funding drops.
Carlson has stepped into a time when Republicans have seemingly fallen back to its pre-tea party days. It’s become fearful of the left and inept. The fire that brought down the Democratic party seems to have dimmed to a flicker. Even Trump seems to have gotten lazy on his responses to the point where many Republican voters are asking where his leadership has been on various issues. His interviews seem clumsy and his focus erratic.
It’s been devastating to morale, and Trump and the GOP’s saving grace is that their opponent is someone who is even more absent and by necessity.
Carlson doesn’t fear backlash from anyone and he’ll happily call out whoever needs to be called out.
Carlson’s surge in popularity and the need to feel that fire again are the effects and the cause respectively. Carlson lashes out at Google’s censorship, Black Lives Matter’s corruption, and our education system’s fall to avowed socialists and asks where the politicians we elected are and why they aren’t doing anything about any of it. Americans are worried and want these worries to be heard.
We need a megaphone and Tucker Carlson is filling that role.
It’s a necessary one as well. The GOP is allowing a very real collapse to happen. We’re now standing in our front lawns with rifles and watching as hostile takeovers of city blocks go, not just unopposed, but welcomed by its Democratic leaders. The GOP is being presented with a very hot iron that it’s failing to strike.
Blatant censorship is happening on social media in defiance of certain laws and Republicans seem to give us lip service about standing up to Big Tech while doing next to nothing about it.
Hannity isn’t going to call them out on it, but Carlson will.
That’s why we’re tuning in. We don’t have to cringe while he attempts to paint the GOP’s shortcomings as positives and leave feeling empty, unheard, and angrier than before as we watch our nation descend into chaos.
