adminThe fight on the right over who gets to set the tone for conservatism blew up this week after Tucker Carlson gave Nick Fuentes a long interview, and Republican leaders rushed to perform moral triage on live television. Senators and prominent conservatives publicly tore into Carlson for platforming a figure who has trafficked in vile rhetoric, arguing the party must draw a line — a scene that looked more like a press conference than a policy debate.
Nobody sensible is asking conservatives to endorse antisemitism or hate, and it’s a fact that Nick Fuentes has a documented record of extremist commentary and Holocaust-adjacent provocations that mainstream conservatives long avoided. That history is why many in the GOP reacted with alarm when Fuentes was amplified on a major show; ignoring that reality isn’t brave, it’s irresponsible.
But there’s also a genuine, principled argument on the other side about free speech and about the right refusing to be policed into obedience by cable-hour orthodoxy and donor-class posturing. Brett Cooper stepped into that fraught terrain this week, calling out Ted Cruz and mocking Rep. Randy Fine — even quipping that Fine should “move to Israel” if he cared so much about the issue — a stunt that exposed how performative some of the outrage has become.
If conservatives are honest, we must admit Officer Tatum’s show also underscored why Cruz and others felt compelled to speak up: clips of Fuentes’ past remarks, played back in full context, are ugly and unmistakable. Republican unity cannot rest on pretending those clips don’t exist, and defenders of free expression should denounce antisemitism plainly while resisting the temptation to throw every dissident out of the coalition.
This debate isn’t just about personalities — it’s about who wins the argument for the country’s future. The base is fed up with elites who lecture about purity while doing nothing to stop open-borders, runaway spending, and the cultural collapse that actually costs voters every paycheck; yet the movement also loses when it tolerates obvious hate under the guise of “debate.” Conservatives who care about winning must have both backbone and discernment.
Hardworking Americans deserve a Republican Party that defends free speech and fights for their prosperity without becoming a safe harbor for vile ideologies. If that means calling out mainstreamers who grandstand for attention and also holding fringe figures accountable, so be it — but don’t let the panic merchants on either side blow up the coalition over cable-TV theater. The right can be big, principled, and ruthless about protecting the country we love; that should be our standard, not viral outrage.
