Thursday
When I was a Fulbright scholar in Slovenia in 1994-95, the liberal socialist party had a goal: Sweden by the year 2000. It was an unrealistic goal, but at least it was nobler and healthier than that of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson: he wants America to become Hungary.
In other words, he wants the democracy that for so long has inspired people around the world to become an authoritarian Christian nation that rigs elections, suppresses dissent, and hates diversity and immigrants.
But why settle for Hungary when you could aspire to be Mordor? That’s the challenge thrown out to Carlson by Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri.
Speaking in the persona of Carlson, Petri writes,
I’ve found a place I like even more. My next travel will take me to a land I find infinitely more congenial and consider in even better keeping with the new tendencies of the conservative movement.
I am honored to announce I will be speaking next week at the Mordor Summit in Barad-dur at the invitation of Dark Lord Sauron! This is the future of conservatism, and I’m excited to throw open the Overton Window and let in the nazguls.
The Overton Window is a political science term for the range of political possibilities that politicians feel comfortable espousing. It was once considered extreme to entertain thoughts of overrunning the Capitol. Now Carlson and others are calling the insurrectionists “patriots.”
But even this doesn’t open the window far enough, according to Petri’s Carlson:
We, as I’m always telling my millions-strong television audience, we don’t have real freedom here (whoever wins the election gets to be president, even if I don’t like them), and I often wish we were more like Mordor. I wish that instead of getting to yell at me and try to shame away my advertisers when I said objectionable things, dissidents would simply be trampled underfoot by an oliphaunt. We can’t waste another minute: We have got to replace all our institutions with orcs. The floating eye on the back of the dollar bill can stay.
And further on:
I liked a lot about what was going on in Hungary, but it absolutely pales in contrast to Mordor. Everyone has been so welcoming. The Witch-king of Angmar and I are going to brunch Monday, and then we’re going to appear on a panel together.This is my new spiritual home, and the more I learn about it, the more I find myself unable to bear the noisome sunlight of the United States. Where are our hosts of orcs, all roaring with vitriol for those beyond their borders? Where is our enormous fortress of dark magic surveilling all the subjects of the land? I want to live in a place that seethes with hatred of outsiders at all times and is willing to trade almost any amount of freedom in exchange for that privilege. Also, I love the rivers of molten rock. Very scenic!
Petri doesn’t mention the character that Carlson most resembles, which is Wormtongue. A Saruman sycophant, Wormtongue uses his nearness to power (Fox News in Carlson’s case) to lord it over others. Take away his platform, which occurs a couple of times in Tolkien’s novel, and Wormtongue comes across as no more than a pathetic groveler.
Gandalf releases Rohan’s King Theoden from Wormtongue’s spell with the words, “I bid you come out before your doors and look abroad. Too long have you sat in shadows and trusted to twisted tales and crooked promptings.” And Theoden, when he rides off to his final battle against Sauron, forbids those who urge caution not to speak “the soft words of Wormtongue in my old ears!” He is prepared to be great again, come what may:
Long years in the space of days it seems since I rode west; but never will I lean on a staff again. If the war is lost, what good will be my hiding in the hills? And if it is won, what grief will it be, even if I fall, spending my last strength?
A significant portion of America has fallen prey to Tucker Wormtongue’s poisonous words. May we say of America what Gandalf says of Theoden when he shakes free and prepares to face his people: “Open! The Lord of the Mark comes forth!”
The future of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.
Further thought: To complete the picture, you can read my post where I compare Trump to Saruman. Sauron in this scenario is Vladimir Putin.