I received today an email sent to alert readers to the danger posed by Tucker Carlson, described as “the most dangerous demagogue since Donald Trump.” The notice focused on Carlson’s espousal of the “white replacement theory.” The theory is absurd, but it is a dandy BIG LIE that can delight xenophobes and racists by giving them a reason for their misdirected resentments and will increase those resentments very considerably.

Tucker Carlson calls to mind a remark by, if I remember correctly, Albert the Alligator: “That’s what you gets when you invites a pig into the parlor.” It is Carlson’s porcine qualities that give him so great an appeal with the “Trump base.” They feel that he is no better than they are and so will not “look down” upon them. The perception that he is “no better than they are” is created by his assuming a persona not unlike the persona assumed by people like Trump or Josh Hawley: down-home, good-old-boy, old-timey, straight talk masking vast cynicism and overweening ambition.

I’ve been reading about Tucker Carlson’s attempts to vilify Senator Tammy Duckworth. Carlson is following the now-traditional Trump method, i.e., use only short words to accuse your critics of the very faults of which you are yourself guilty. So in this case, Carlson, who if he doesn’t suffer from bone-spurs, surely could suffer from bone-spurs if needed, has called Sen. Duckworth a coward. That makes me think that cowardice is something he knows a thing or two about. Likewise, Tucker, a comedian who does a prime-time burlesque of political commentary, has called Sen. Duckworth a fraud. Again, that makes me think that this preppy-pseudo-populist-pundit knows a good deal about fraud. Finally, he denounced her as one who “hates America.” Here too he is closely imitating his Leader, for Trump has said that the members of the so-called Squad in the House of Representatives “hate America.” I’m guessing Carlson seized on this particular canard because Sen. Duckworth and members of the Squad share some notable features that are sure to make reactionaries pee in their pants. They are all courageous women, they’ve all been elected to high office, they are all terrifyingly smart, they are all women of color, and are all effective critics of the right-wing fraudsters whose camp-followers tune in to Tucker’s show. They are, for people like Carlson, menace incarnate.