I’ve never thought about it that way before. Trump’s true superpower in connecting with the base was that he himself watched at least 6 hours of FOX News per day and believed everything they said wholeheartedly. I can’t imagine any of the actual politicians earnestly and excitedly watching multiple hours of Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade every day. Maybe Tommy Tuberville.
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Also the Boomer “run the country like a business” Republicans were exposed to several decades of lies about Trump being a big NYC business icon. They probably still think of him as a successful businessman. The MTG types may rile the Own The Libs types but won’t have much appeal to the business oriented Republicans.
Right. Every other GOP politician, even the dumb ones, knows right wing media is propaganda for the rubes. Trump actually believes it, and his voters can tell!
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Tucker Carlson.
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You beat me to it. The GOP nomination is absolutely Tucker’s if he wants it.
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Trump voters are idiots and/or horrible people. You’re out of your minds if you think the mantle of Trumpism can’t be carried by someone else with the full-fledged support of Trump and his voters.
Unfortunately I think Tucker is just smart enough to realize that he has a really good thing going and jumping into politics would ruin it
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I think it’s a mistake to write off Trump voters as idiots. There are tons of them that are well-educated and otherwise intelligent (I know degrees aren’t necessarily a good indicator of intelligence). The fear and anger that the right taps into is something that lots of people smart and not so smart are vulnerable to.
I really don’t get why Tucker doesn’t run. Sure the FOX money is nice, but he already has plenty and he is the heir to a massive fortune. He doesn’t need the money. I think he would crush a non-Trump primary and win the EC (still loses pop vote, but who cares). Even if he doesn’t win, he can just go right back to Fox. Are they really not going to hire him back?
Actually typing that out makes me more convinced. BRB, gonna try to get some money down on this. I’m not sure I can win enough to make me feel good about President Carlson, but maybe a tiny consolation prize will dull the pain for a couple of days.
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Is he the heir to a fortune? Swanson is his stepmother, right?
Tucker has a sweet and easy life wrapped up right now. So long as he doesn’t pull a B’OR, he can host his show as long as he wants and be at the center of the Republican party and decision making.
If he runs, he risks all that. Probably no harm if he doesn’t get the nomination, but if he does and loses, that hurts his brand quite a bit. It would be harder to host a show complaining about President Kamala, when you were the one that led to her election.
There is also the question of whether he wants to be President. Not clear if it’s better to be a King-maker for the rest of your life, or King for 4-8 years. I think a large part of the reason Trump ran is that no one in politics took him seriously and he wanted to change that. While Trump liked to tell the story about Romney meeting with him in 2012 for advice, I doubt that really happened.
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I haven’t actually researched the veracity of the claim, but I’ve seen reports of Tucker himself saying that he has a lot of family money. Not sure what “a lot” is, though.
I think the clear winner for most egomaniacs is being President, and it’s not even close. The risk of losing is the only thing I could see holding him back.
Tucker Carlson was 34 during the famous Jon Stewart episode of Crossfire and had already been on CNN for years.
Perhaps it reflects poorly on me that I find this amazing.
Yeah its pure ego. A lot of these rich folks aren’t well adjusted enough to actually enjoy just being rich and privileged. They’ve gotta constantly seek more validation.
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Bolded are the actual trump-level and more importantly trump-style morons. Carlson not one imo.
He went to a Rhode Island boarding school that has a current tuition of $65k, so his family has that kind of money.
With Trump
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1384711962081308673?s=20
The cult will only die when he does.
At least it’s good to see that his kids don’t have the same pull he does…so far.
Tucker, Hannity, MyPillow guy, there are so many derposphere guy who could step up and grab the GOP nomination if they want it using Trump’s basic formula. Who’s going to stop them? Mike Pence? Niki Haley?
DeSantis is basically a politically savvy Trump. I’d go so far as to say that he’d be worse for democracy than Donald Trump.