Just when it appears that the Republican Party has become unbeatable after the re-election of Donald Trump, and the attainment of majorities in the House and Senate, we’re seeing the beginnings of a fracture that could shatter the GOP’s hopes for the midterms and the 2028 campaign for president.  Tucker Carlson, once a highly rated conservate commentator with his Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, from 2016 to 2023, was canceled after Fox was sued by Dominion Voting Systems because of alleged defamation statements Carlson made on his show.  Fox ultimately settled with Dominion for $787.5 million.  Since leaving Fox, Carlson has hosted a very popular podcast, The Tucker Carlson Show.

During the past few years, I’ve been an avid fan of his show, just as I was when he was on Fox.  Yet for several months lately, he seems to have made a U-turn in his support of our country’s strongest ally in the Middle East.  Although he contends to be a supporter of Israel, he refers to it as a “tiny, inherently insignificant country.”  He tells his viewers that the U.S. spends too much money in a foreign country that, geopolitically, is not at all important to our nation.  He goes on to say that China and India combined represent more than a third of the world’s population, and our relationship with them has gotten worse because of our relationship with Israel.

While Tucker was smugly dismissing Israel’s importance because, according to him, the Israelis have no natural resources, Benjamin Netanyahu was announcing the approval of the largest export deal of liquefied natural gas in the country’s history with Egypt, valued at about $35 billion.  That deal occurred shortly after Israel made a deal to sell its Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany for $6.5 billion.  One wonders how Tucker can possibly conclude that Israel is insignificant.

Then, evidently dismissing the attack on our ally in 2023, Tucker says Israel is engaged in an extremely controversial war in Gaza, which Tucker claims is a massive killing of unarmed people, including women and children.  Isn’t that precisely what Hamas and other Palestinian militants did to Israel on October 7, 2023?  Moreover, isn’t the Palestinian nationalist slogan, “From the river to the sea,” an antisemitic call for the destruction of Israel?  What Carlson has been saying seems to support the violent, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses.

When Carlson publicly proclaims that Netanyahu is an enemy of Western civilization, he is demonizing the leader of the Jewish homeland and calling our ally our enemy.  With an illogical statement of bizarre proportions, he’s attacking the leader of a country that has fought wars against our common enemies in the Middle East.

Tucker is not alone in this recent political transmogrification.  Such conservative figures as Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and Steve Bannon have made similar assertions.  In fact, at the recent Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event, Bannon took verbal shots at Ben Shapiro, a die-hard supporter of Israel, as “a cancer in the Republican Party.”  These back-stabbing attacks during a monumental celebration of Charlie Kirk’s vision of a more values-oriented America were, in my opinion, repugnant.  When did some of our most conservative podcast hosts choose to engage in this internecine war?

Tucker, the most strident of the divisive voices, is fond of saying he has the right to ask questions and give opinions without being called names.  “I should be able question why we’re supporting Israel without being called antisemitic,” he intones.  I think he’s more than a bit naïve to think his opinions and questions are merely innocuous talking points.  He, and anyone with a similar megaphone, is a powerful influencer.  When the former Fox News host said he planned to buy a home in Qatar, after doing an interview with the Qatari prime minister, he must have known that it would lead to suspicion concerning his sudden criticism of Israel.  After all, Qatar has been a key financial supporter of Hamas.

That’s why it’s a bit baffling to me that he would suggest he’s being deplatformed when someone wonders where his loyalties lie.  If he can pose questions about our ally’s motives, we should be able to question his.

Ultimately, Tucker seems to be dealing with the mental stress that comes from holding conflicting beliefs.  Whatever is at the root of his cognitive dissonance, the GOP must get to the bottom of it and decide how to deal with its deleterious effects on the party.  Because if the Democrats win the House in 2016, our country is in for a bitter, hateful few years as the Dems engage in more feckless impeachments and frivolous obstacles to President Trump’s agenda to make our country great again.