Summer 2019 - It wasn't too many years ago that Tucker Carlson was a young, up-and-coming conservative who could argue the case for conservative domestic and foreign policies with minimal need for name calling and distortion of Democratic positions. Unfortunately, in his middle age, and since replacing disgraced Bill O'Reilly as one of the nightly talking heads on the Fox network, Mr. Carlson has sold out and become one of Fox's biggest Trump apologists, willing to say anything in support of Donald's latest outburst.

Which is why it was surprising to hear that Carlson spoke favorably about the economic positions Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed in her recently released "A Plan for Economic Patriotism". After spending roughly four minutes reading from the Warren document, Carlson asked his viewers to consider whether they disagreed with any part of what he had just read. He then added, "Was there a single word that seemed wrong to you? Probably not."

(Carlson image from foxnews.com)
Specifically, he cited the following Warren proposals and characterized them as "making obvious sense":

The US government should buy American products when it can
America needs more workplace apprenticeship programs because four-year-college degrees aren't right for everyone
Taxpayers ought to benefit from the research and development that they pay for {through taxpayer-funded federal research grants}

Carlson's reading of the Warren document also included, "Politicians love to say they care about American jobs. But for decades, those same politicians have cited 'free market principles' and refused to intervene in markets on behalf of American workers. And of course, they ignore those same supposed principles and intervene regularly to protect the interests of multinational corporations and international capital."

Carlson expanded on that statement from the Senator with his own criticism of traditional Republican thinking:

"Here's the depressing part: Nobody you voted for said that, or would ever say it. Republicans in Congress can't promise to protect American industry. They wouldn't dare to do that. It might violate some principle of Austrian economics. It might make the Koch brothers mad." For proof that Carlson is right about that and that he agrees with one of our own long-standing disagreements with the GOP, see our article "Congressional Republicans Reject 'Buy American' Provisions"

(Warren image from time.com)
Senator Warren's document continued with a more traditional Democratic position toward American business: " 'American' companies show only one real loyalty: to the short-term interests of their shareholders, a third of whom are foreign investors. If they can close up an American factory and ship jobs overseas to save a nickel, that's exactly what they will do - abandoning loyal American workers and hollowing out American cities along the way."

Of course, being the Trump cheerleader that he is, there had to be a catch to Carlson's praise of Senator Warren and there was: Carlson tried to argue that these historically Democratic proposals actually were proposals that, if Trump espoused them, would be "Trump at his best".

Maybe if Trump still was a Democrat that would be true. But, other than trying (so far, unsuccessfully) to take a pro-America position on trade, Trump has forgotten all his previous Democratic economic positions and has fallen in line with the standard Republican orthodoxy of lowering taxes on the rich and powerful.

Or maybe Mr. Carlson is smart enough to recognize that Senator Warren's arguments are politically winning positions and his praise for those positions was an attempt to push Mr. Trump in that direction?

Regardless, it's just more proof for us that when it comes to economics, we'll stick with the Dems.

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