11.18

The not-so-subtle right-wing campaign to Make Hillary Lose Again

I spend a lot of time checking in with Fox News. Not because I enjoy it, but specifically because I disagree so strongly with the opinions of the network’s far-right hosts like Hannity, Pirro, and Carlson. My own political stances can sometimes seem so obvious to me, and I find it enlightening to see how these vocal detractors of the American left have manipulated rhetoric to their own advantage. Kellyanne Conway notwithstanding, these folks are some of the best at defending the indefensible.

But if you’re not a regular viewer of Fox’s elite team of right-wing propagandists, you could be forgiven for thinking the above interview as natural speculation by curious talking heads. It isn’t. Carlson doesn't typically speak so calmly and charitably about Clinton as he does in this interview. During the 2016 election, for example, Carlson would never have read a quote from Hillary Clinton bashing sanctuary cities - he needed Hillary to seem as far-left as possible. What is going on here? Is Tucker Carlson finally giving Hillary a fair shake? Is he really just a concerned journalist trying to uncover the truth? (Spoiler: He isn’t)

Because now Carlson and others on his side have started to suggest that if Biden doesn’t get the nomination (which it increasingly looks like he will not), Clinton is the best possible candidate to beat Donald Trump.

Fairly kind and generous for someone I’ve colored as such a right-wing shill, don't you think?

But it isn’t. Rather, I think this is part of a larger campaign on the right that will try to encourage Clinton to enter the race in the hopes of destabilizing the Democratic nomination process to reduce the chances of nominees like Sanders and Warren. Suggesting that Biden's nomination is flagging (it is) and that "much of the rest of the field is far too extreme to win an election," helps him to make the case that Clinton is the only possible choice. What Carlson and others like him are really hoping for is that this narrative takes hold to the point where Clinton does jump in the race again, gets the nomination, and then loses to Trump a second time.

Harold

November 18th, 2019