On Thursday night I joined Tucker Carlson to consider the strange priorities of legislators in a land where it's easier for a teenager to get crystal meth than a glass of wine. Click below to watch:
You can watch the full hour of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" here.
Incidentally, there is a most interesting profile by Michael Anton in The Claremont Review of Books with the splendidly direct headline "Tucker's Right". Tucker is a North Country neighbor of mine - I'm in New Hampshire, he's just over the border in Maine - and, unlike so many of the opinion-formers of America, he (like me) sees the downward mobility on his doorstep:
I've been going to the same town in Maine for basically my whole life. Not for a week or two now and then, but three or four months a year for 40 years. I watched it change from clean, reliable, orderly, decent, and bourgeois into something different and diminished. Not just poor but degraded. I asked myself "Why is this happening? What led to this? How did this go from being such a great place to such a troubled place? And why is nobody noticing, or pretending it's not happening?"
The Donor-Industrial Complex stampeded to blame the above on the loser masses:
"Anyone who thinks the health of a nation can be summed up in GDP is an idiot," Carlson had said. Right on cue, as if to trumpet their idiocy, in rushed a platoon of policy wonks to defend the sanctity of markets and explain why creative destruction should and must apply every bit as much to people, families, and societies as it did to the buggy whip industry...
"The Right should reject Tucker Carlson's victimhood populism" whinged David French, who, when not exploring a presidential campaign, never misses an opportunity to moralistically lambaste those to his right.
The Democrats are at least savvy enough to import a new base even as they cast off the old. Conservatism Inc seems to think it doesn't need a base at all. Do read the whole thing.
~If you prefer me in a non-visual format, I'll be back later today with the final episode of The Island of Dr Moreau and with more audio entertainment as part of the second anniversary observances of The Mark Steyn Club.
I'm immensely heartened by all those Founding Members from that first week two years ago who've decided to sign up for another twelve months a few days early: it always pays to beat the rush. On the other hand, if you were waiting a couple of years to see if we were in it for the long haul, we do welcome new members, and you can find more details about the Club here - and, if you're looking for a present for a Steyn fan, don't forget our special Gift Membership.
