By Ernest Francis

Radio host and author Ben Shapiro spoke (with great speed) at the Heritage Foundation
on December 17, with the title of his address being that of his new book, Lions and Scavengers.
His address at Heritage focused on an extensive criticism of Tucker Carlson and why he can have
no place in the conservative movement. Shapiro’s address at Heritage on this topic was
significant after Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage, was attacked for defending Carlson
following criticism of Carlson for having Hitler apologist Nick Fuentes on his show.
Shapiro’s new book divides actors in today’s politics into two classes: Lions and
Scavengers.

As described by Shapiro, Lions are those who believe that the world is a Godgoverned place with an order to it. If you follow the rules, you will do well. If you don’t, you
will do worse. That world is worth preserving and defending, and individuals have a duty to do
so. When Lions see problems in the world, they think about solutions. Scavengers, in contrast,
emphasize total destruction.

The universe according to them is chaotic and ruled by conspiracies
on high. The only way to overcome those conspiracies is to burn everything down. The current
configuration of Scavengers is a collection of odd bed fellows – such as Hamas and LGBTQ
proponents – united by the desire to “tear it down.”

The interaction between Lions and Scavengers, as described in the book, begins with the
Scavengers lurking in the shadows. At some point, Lions begin to move slowly, their limbs
weary, breath labored, and vulnerable to attack. At this point the Lions are too tired to fight, too
divided to unite, and too old to roar. The Scavengers then attack, and kill off the Lions, one by
one. And soon the Scavengers have mastered the world.
The Lions are the true conservatives in today’s politics. Scavengers, of course, include
those on the political Left.

But Shapiro’s remarks at Heritage addressed the threat to the
conservative movement from self-described conservatives even as they advocate what is well
outside the bounds of conservatism. Just as a nation needs borders, the conservative movement
needs ideological boundaries; otherwise it is committing suicide. The well-recognized basic
tenets of conservatism, as outlined in the Heritage mission statement, include: free enterprise;
limited government; individual freedom; traditional American values; and a strong national
defense.

Shapiro’s remarks cataloged the many ways in which Tucker Carlson’s positions are
outside what constitutes authentic conservatism.
Shapiro noted that Carlson has praised left wing figures such as AOC, Elizabeth Warren,
and Zohran Mamdani, as he “echoes Marxist thinkers” in saying that “the free market is
inherently dehumanizing.” Shapiro observed that Carlson has said that “the greatest threat to
your ability to live your life as you choose comes not from the government but from the private
sector.”

For Carlson, “the goal of the economy is to serve the people” – exactly the type of
thinking that “leads to collectivism.” He has called for “banning self-driving trucks, high credit
card interest rates, and mergers that would result in layoffs.” He has “described venture
capitalists as vulture capitalists” and advocated “making illegal the purchase of a failing firm if
that would result in selling the assets of the firm.”

Carlson’s thoughts in regard to individual rights and limited government are also contrary
to conservative values. His position, as restated by Shapiro, is that “people have totally lost
control of their lives.” Carlson believes that “foreign powers have hijacked the government, and
an elite now has control of the government so that democracy in America is now “fake.”

In light
of the loss of control, Carlson now argues that feudalism is better than our current system
because a feudal leader has incentive to care for the people since they support him. Carlson has
adopted this stance despite the clear rejection of feudalism by America’s founding fathers.
A strong national defense with peace through strength is essential.

When America is not
strong, it is less prosperous, safe, and free. Moreover, the United States has made historic
contributions to global peace and prosperity.
Tucker Carlson has recognized none of the contributions of America to the world.
Shapiro describes him as having “little but scorn for American foreign policy.”

Carlson is no
friend of American allies, while he displays an affinity for those whose relationship with the
United States is problematic or who are even enemies The guests on Carlson’s show have
included Darryl Cooper, a Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier. Cooper’s position is that the
U.S. and Britain won a “pyrrhic victory” in World War II and that Churchill was a failed leader
and the chief villain of World War II.

Instead of condemning Cooper’s views, Carlson has called
him “America’s best and most honest popular historian”.
Another ally condemned by Carlson is Israel, which Carlson says has a nefarious
influence on the American government. He argues that the U.S. receives “nothing” of strategic
value from its relationship with Israel, which he described as a “completely insignificant country”
with “no resources.” He claims without any evidence that any American military operations
against Venezuela are directed by Israel.

He has said Christian Zionists engage “heresy” and
have a “brain virus” – even though he read the Bible cover to cover for the first time in 2023.
In contrast to Carlson’s hostility to American allies, America’s adveraries or those with
whom it has an uncertain relationship find a friend in Carlson. Russia is, for Shapiro, clearly “a
major geopolitical enemy of the United States”, and regimes that are contrary to American
interests across the globe have received the support of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who has
also “infiltrated Latin America.” Putin has also begun the bloodiest conflict in Europe since
World War II.

Yet for Carlson Russian aggression is “no threat to America”, and indeed the
United States should ally with Russia. When asked about Putin’s history of slaying opponents,
Carlson said “leadership requires killing people” and equated Putin’s wrongdoing with that of
American leaders. In response to the absence of democracy or the rule of law in Russia, Carlson
said that people “do not care about abstractions as much as the concrete reality of their lives.”
Carlson has also befriended other countries or actors notwithstanding their questionable
or hostile relationship with America.

Carlson attributes American actions against Venezuela to
“globohomo” – a reference to homosexuals – because Venezuela is socially conservative. He
ignores Venezuelan support for shipping drugs into America as well as Venezuelan leader
Maduro’s creation of conditions forcing millions of Venezuelans fleeing their country for
America. Despite the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization, Carlson has also said that he is uncertain whether Hamas “is actually a radical jihadi organization” and that it “seems more
like a political organization”. Carlson has also described Qatar as the foremost American ally in
the Middle East – “infinitely more important” than Israel according to him – notwithstanding what
Shapiro described as “its support for terrorism, its ties with Iran, and the promotion of antiAmerican propaganda through Al-Jazeera”, which it owns and funds. Carlson has (Shapiro
noted) bought a house there despite the Qatari “refusal to allow displays of Christianity and the
fact that many foreign workers (who are Christian) are held in virtual slavery there.”

Finally,
professor Jeffrey Sachs, “a frequent guest” on Carlson’s program, has been critical of US policy
toward China because America should treat China as an ally rather than an enemy.
Shapiro identified truth as one of the most critical of American traditional values – but not
for Tucker Carlson. Shapiro identified a number of ways in which Carlson “traffics in every
conspiracy theory under the sun.” These include suggesting that Jeffrey Epstein was an asset for
American or Israeli intelligence agencies and that they have tried to cover up Epstein’s sex
trafficking activities. While previously dismissing claims that the government was involved in
9/11, he now embraces them. He has “called Alex Jones a prophet” even though Jones “has said
that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged and 9/11 was a government initiated operation.”
Guests on Carlson’s show have included Fuentes as well as “pornographer and accused rapist
and human trafficker” Andrew Tate, who promotes his misogynistic views about women.

What Tucker Carlson’s departure from traditional American values represents, according
to Shapiro, is a type of “conspiracism” – the belief that “all of our systems have failed us because
nefarious forces (largely unidentified) beyond our control have twisted our institutions and ideals
into something perverse.” Free markets are a ruse. Equal rights before the law is a sham. The
systems embedded in the Constitution “frustrate human purpose”, and limited government and
the ideals of the Declaration of Independence are “a chimera.” Shapiro referred to this
constellation of positions as the “big lie.”

Those who follow Carlson and believe this, in
Shaprios’s words, “are being led down a primrose path to frustration, demoralization, and
enervation.”
Conspiricism lends itself to what Shapiro described as the “politics of grievance.” The
central idea of grievance politics is that forces we can’t fight control what happens to us. This
means that you “do not have responsibility for your own life.” A belief with some currency
today is that because of lack of “affordability” – said to be a key issue in the current election cycle

– young adults can never afford to own a home, get married, or have offspring.

Another belief –
statistically untrue – is that people who are successful inherited wealth. The implication of
grievance politics is that only the government can remedy what is wrong.
One of the main problems with conspiricism is lack of specificity as to the problems that
need to be solved (if indeed they can be solved). Exactly how is affordability measured?

Several
years ago, a common allegation was that of systemic racism being a problem for the minority
community. This accusation failed to identify what specific policies were racist. Another
contention is that the “system is rigged by globalists.” Again this does not explain exactly how the  system is rigged.

If the political Right in America accepts the premise that government is the only solution
to a problem, then it will always be “outbid” by the political Left according to Shapiro. In other
words, the Left will always offer a more generous solution to the problem than what the Right is
prepared to accept. This is true today with Obamacare, for which the Left wants to make ever
greater expenditures instead of other solutions that would solve the problems with Obamacare..

To avoid becoming ensnared in the politics of grievance, conservatives need to avoid
accepting how the Left frames society’s condition. The first step is to ask whether a societal
problem exists at all. With respect to the assertion of unaffordability, for example, unless one is
wealthy, most people have typically felt that life is unaffordable. Those buying a starter home
have always struggled to do so.

For Shapiro, the proposition that those living in contemporary American are the victims
of what others do to them is a myth. According to him, those living in present day America
“have the greatest opportunity humans were ever given” to succeed. Instead of blaming others,
“follow the advice of Jordan Peterson – get up and make your bed.” In Shapiro’s words, “you can
make something of yourself; your choices define your world.”

A societal problem that does exist may not have an immediate easy solution. Complaints
about affordability often refer to the price inflation that occurred during the Biden presidency due
to massive government deficits. What people want is prices back to pre-Biden levels. Inflation,
however, is an ever present fact of life. Inflation has a normal annual rate of about two per cent.
The current “prices are the new normal” and will not go back to pre-Biden levels absent
deflation, which typically occurs with a recession.

To the extent that a problem may have solutions, Shapiro noted, the best approach is to
acknowledge the pain others are feeling and to provide specific solutions to problems such as ,
high prices. Inflation has slowed in the first year of the second Trump administration. The
problem of prices can partially be solved through wage increases, which have come during this
past year. And finally, government impediments to economic improvement can be eliminated.
The government can reduce regulations and by doing so make starting a business easier, and it
can make the operation of a business more lucrative by lowering tax rates.

Shapiro also remarked that the public need to be “better consumers of information”,
especially in the age of frequently inaccurate artificial intelligence. He indicated some ways to
determine who is telling the truth. First, do they have “evidence for what they say?” From
“where do they get their information?” Second, does what they predict actually occur, as judged
“by a consistent track record.” Third, do they “admit mistakes, correct mistakes, and explain
why they made mistakes?” And do they display “ideological consistency?”

Whether Tucker Carlson’s articulated positions find root among conservatives remains to
be seen. But if what he says is treated as passing for conservatism, then conservatism becomes
meaningless and ceases to be an effective force in politics. Accordingly, for Shapiro, Carlson
cannot and must not be treated as a legitimate spokesperson for the conservative movement if it is to survive.