Tucker Carlson Manages To Out-Racist Tucker Carlson In Rant Against Ilhan Omar

Wow. Just... wow.

Last night, Tucker Carlson answered the question "Is it possible for Tucker Carlson to say something so appallingly racist that anyone would be surprised that even Tucker Carlson would say it?" with an appallingly racist rant against Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. If you think you are so jaded that you cannot, at this point, be surprised by any words coming out of Tucker Carlson's mouth ... well, prepare to feel like a wee innocent babe in the woods again, because this shit is nauseating .

Said rant was in response to a recent Washington Post article in which Omar discussed the "racism, cruelty and injustice" she'd witnessed since coming to the States from Somalia as a 10-year-old refugee, and how her desire for America to be the America that stood for "justice for all" inspired her to push for positive change. That seems nice and normal and heartwarming, but according to Carlson, this is VERBOTEN.

Take a deep breath, because we're going in.

Carlson begins with a complaint that Omar is not "grateful" enough, and that her desire to change things that are bad in America means that she hates it.

Ilhan Omar has an awful lot to be grateful for, but she isn't grateful, not at all. After everything America has done for Omar and for her family, she hates this country more than ever.

While Tucker Carlson was not a refugee, he still has a lot to be grateful for himself! For instance, he was a rich kid who was able to have every possible opportunity and everything he ever wanted handed to him, owing to the fact that his stepmommy was a TV dinner heiress. And yet, it is his job to go on national television every night and air his grievances. It is his job to talk about how very hard things are for white guys like him.

Carlson then goes on to complain that our immigration system is not doing enough to weed out 10-year-olds who might hypothetically grow up to criticize America sometimes:

Omar isn't disappointed in America, she's enraged by it. Virtually every public statement she makes accuses Americans of bigotry and racism. This is an immoral country, she says. She has undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people. That should worry you, and not just because Omar is now a sitting member of Congress.

Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country. A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it. Some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately.

He then suggests that the "problem" is really that perhaps America is too kind, that we don't do enough to force immigrants to assimilate.

Maybe that's our fault for asking too little of our immigrants. We aren't self-confident enough to make them assimilate, so they never feel fully American. Or maybe the problem is deeper than that, maybe we are importing people from places whose values are simply antithetical to ours. Who knows what the problem is, but there is a problem, and whatever the cause, this cannot continue. It's not sustainable.

What the hell does he mean, "make" them assimilate? How would he like to see this done? Will they be required by law to vote Republican? Will they be force-fed Fox News for weeks on end until they are successfully brainwashed? That doesn't seem too legal, but we suppose John Roberts's Supreme Court would probably not have a problem with it.

Not only is this incredibly insulting to Ilhan Omar, by the way, but it is also insulting to any American who was born here and is not a raging asshole. To suggest that we share any "values" with Bow-Tie Boarding School Boy simply because we were born here, that we share more "values" with him than we do with Ilhan Omar, is just rude .

There was, of course, a time when "forced assimilation" was a thing in America. Starting in the 1910s, over 30 states passed laws requiring "Americanization" programs. They started out okay, as many things do — providing English and American Civics classes for new immigrants — but soon became heavily influenced by the xenophobic attitudes at the time, coercing those immigrants to give up their own cultural customs in favor of becoming more, as some of my older relatives might say, Medigan. It was very, very bad and that is why that is not a thing anymore. Or if you prefer your examples a little more horrifying, you could start with "How Boarding Schools Tried To 'Kill The Indian' Through Assimilation." 

Tucker concludes this rant by declaring that Ilhan Omar is a "living fire alarm," warning "us" that "we" really need to do more to screen out 10-year-old refugees for anti-American sentiments.

No country can import large numbers of people who hate it and expect to survive. The Romans were the last to try that, with predictable results. So, be grateful for Ilhan Omar, annoying as she is. She's a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us that we better change our immigration system immediately, or else.

This may come as a shock to Tucker Carlson, but citizens of the United States of America have every right to criticize anything they damn well please, here, in the United States of America. It is in the Constitution. There is no "except for immigrants" clause in the First Amendment, and to quote the great American thinker Cher Horowitz, it does not say "RSVP" on the Statue of Liberty.

Notably, Tucker Carlson does not appear to have a problem with other Americans who weren't born here going around criticizing the actions of Americans. He loves Milo Yiannopoulos, who says ghastly things about Americans all the time. They just happen to be things that Tucker Carlson agrees with, about the same Americans Tucker Carlson hates. Also, he's a white guy, so that just might have something to do with it as well, who could ever say.

It is worth noting, by the way, that just last week, The Spectator issued an op-ed suggesting that Carlson ought to replace Mike Pence as Donald Trump's Vice President in 2020. Wouldn't that just be a delight?

[ Media Matters ]

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