Tucker Carlson’s Aesthetics Arc

Due to his unconventional approach to politics, Tucker Carlson has received many labels, including conspiracy theorist, populist, and conservative. However, one label has been overlooked by both the left and right: art critic.During the annual Turning Point USA America Fest event, they gave a distinct speech that checked all the usual boxes in terms of campaign rhetoric. However, it was Tucker’s aesthetic criticism that veered into different territory. Usually, a conservative indictment of liberal politics never goes beyond a policy proposal or partisan insult fit for a pep rally. After a series of jabs at Nikki Haley and Hunter Biden, he said, “The most beautiful things were made by God.” Liberals for too long have had the monopoly on art, music, and creation, but all they’ve done is make the world mundane, ugly, and bleak. Therefore, the war against the left is not exclusively a political one, it’s aesthetic as well.Furthermore, Carlson described the decline in modern architecture from his experience driving to the event. He likened the texture of buildings within the population’s line of sight to prison grounds, uninviting and utilitarian. The role of architects is not simply to create useful structures but beautiful buildings to remind citizens of their dignity and purpose. Architects and artists have no less a role in enshrining the public good than politicians and lawmakers. According to this thesis, it’s not just policymakers that produce nihilism, it’s “the ones building dollar stores in your town.” Carlson struck an unfamiliar chord at the conference, insisting on the primordial value of aesthetics rather than rambling on about inflation or myopic political events. “If it increases the amount of ugliness and human degradation, I’m against it,” he declared.This tone is a far cry from the policy takedowns of woke politics in academia and liberal outrage bait from Republican candidates. Instead, Carlson interrogates the supposed “elite” status of America’s ruling class, pointing out the hypocrisies therein. He remarked that “their wealth doesn’t give them social mobility, it hinders it. They aren’t living the American dream, they’re "loaded up with benzos and SSRIs and addled by porn." The insight provided stark contrast from the other speakers, illustrating the passing of America’s aesthetic beauty and vigor, both present in the modern state of her architecture and ruling class.Carlson’s foray into aesthetics represents a break from the typical partisan discourse that has come to dominate American politics. Under this definition, it’s not a partisan indictment of liberalism and conservatism. In a way, it’s fitting for a Hunter S. Thompson fan with pop culture takes who found his way into Washington. His speech in a room full of college-age adults sounded more like Roger Scruton than Rush Limbaugh. Since the 2015 election, Carlson has set the tone with his hit TV show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and allowed the American right to find a new symbol for the changing tide of the Republican Party. If the show is anything to go off of, critics could chalk it up to the latest rebrand of the party to accommodate the presidential nominee. However, the pivot away from politics, present in his speeches, makes for a more interesting deconstruction of his worldview. Rather than sticking to the spectrum and finding the pundit closest to adopting the party line, critics and fans would be closer to understanding Carlson’s statements from within the entertainment industry.What many forget is that Carlson was a California veteran. The West Coast, loathed by conservatives, was his stomping ground and potentially the origin of his populist arc toward Fox News. According to The Press Democrat, the state may have been the reason he developed “a negative opinion of hippies, artists and their political allies, lefties.” This is a funny statement considering his open support for California’s bygone middle class, 70s-era social capital, and The Grateful Dead.If conservatives concede California as the home for illegal immigrants and tech oligarchs, where could Carlson’s romantic nostalgia stem from? His father, being a San Francisco journalist, provided the ultimate gateway to the hippie subculture usually written off by the right. Much of the ugliness of the modern era started with the hippie era's drug abuse and sloth, but alongside it came the beauty and creativity of Jimi Hendrix and other creatives that came out of the era. Hendrix’s 1969 rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock might not be your cup of tea, but the way it exhibits creativity and chaotic beauty is completely lacking today. It’s the “political agnosticism” that draws people like Carlson away from his former Fox colleagues. Instead, the political gotchas were replaced with Roger Scruton’s latter career towards aesthetics, a pivot that could have plenty of potential targets who are interested in the decline of art to dating discourse that keeps becoming a staple at these conventions. Next time conservatives assume that the aesthetic route is monopolized by their ideological enemies, they should consider how the loudest and most stylish voices in the room became so popular.Aaron Cummings is an American cultural commentator. He has written for IM_1776 and The Mises Institute.