Decolonizing conservatism
As they tear down the civic tradition, Tucker Carlson and his fans come for Churchill.
The horseshoe theory of politics is that if you go far enough left or right you wind up at almost the same place. If you're not sure of exactly what that means, you can look at the career of Tucker Carlson, who just did a highly hyped interview with Nazi apologist Darryl Cooper. You can familiarize yourself with Cooper's take on World War II — short version: All Hitler really wanted was peace with England — if you are so inclined.
But to me the interesting part is not Cooper's view of Hitler, but of Winston Churchill, whom he calls the "chief villain" of the war. Cooper is not the first amateur historian to be driven batty by Churchill. The British prime minister has long been the ultimate bête noire for the hard left. When academics talk about "decolonization," where they want to start, just like Cooper and Carlson, is almost always with taking Churchill down a peg.
Why the animus? Churchill, a complex man with his share of faults, represents the triumph of the Western tradition, which makes him a magnet for haters. We've heard the Cooper line before. It's just "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Civ has gotta go" with a coat of right-wing polish. The hard right watched enviously as the Left found a market for identity politics, and the conclusion of MAGA conservatives was that it looked like a good line of business.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Of course, building up the politics of grievance and identity means tearing down historical tradition. If that's the future of the conservative movement, it's dark indeed. People before Cooper have speculated about where history could have gone if the U.S. and U.K. had minded their own business and let Germany and Russia fight it out on the continent. One was an Englishman not much liked by either the Left or Right: George Orwell. He wrote a whole novel about that kind of alternate history, which also investigates just where you get to when the ends of the horseshoe meet. He called it 1984.
This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Mark Gimein is a managing editor at the print edition of The Week. His work on business and culture has appeared in Bloomberg, The New Yorker, The New York Times and other outlets. A Russian immigrant, and has lived in the United States since the age of five, and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.
-
‘The worry is far from fanciful’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
How are Americans bracing for the end of SNAP?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Millions depend on supplemental federal food funds that are set to expire this month, as the government shutdown begins to be acutely felt
-
Book review: ‘Joyride: A Memoir’Feature A journalist’s story of how she chased and accomplished her dreams
-
Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House
-
No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history
-
Bolton indictment: Retribution or justice?Feature Trump’s former national security adviser turned critic, John Bolton, was indicted for mishandling classified information after publishing his ‘tell-all’ memoir
-
Chicago: Scenes from a city under siegeFeature Chicago is descending into chaos as masked federal agents target people in public spaces and threaten anyone who tries to document the arrests
-
Young Republicans: Does the GOP have a Nazi problem?Feature Leaked chats from members of the Young Republican National Federation reveal racist slurs and Nazi jokes
-
Push for Ukraine ceasefire collapsesFeature Talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were called off after the Russian president refused to compromise on his demands
-
Trump eyes regime change in VenezuelaFeature Officials believe Trump’s ‘war on narco-terrorism’ is actually a push to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s rebellion: Maga hardliner turns on TrumpIn the Spotlight The Georgia congresswoman’s independent streak has ‘not gone unnoticed’ by the president
