Stop Being More Craven Than Ted Cruz

The right is split on whether to end the 1st amendment. Take advantage of that!

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This week Donald Trump’s FCC chair toady bullied Disney into suspending Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. The pretext was that Kimmel made innocuous remarks about how the right was using the death of Charlie Kirk to silence people (ahem). Some on the right (including Trump himself) were joyous. But a good number of people on the right were a lot less enthusiastic than you’d expect about Trump’s campaign of intimidation and free speech squelching.

Former Fox News host and gutter fascist Tucker Carlson attacked the Trump administration, telling his listeners, “If they can tell you what to say, and they’re telling you what to think, there is nothing they can’t do to you.”

Conservative hack Bari Weiss also paused in her incessant hippie-punching to furrow her brow and acknowledge that federal censorship of innocuous comedians is maybe bad. “The suspension of his late-night show isn’t a great loss to culture or comedy. But the FCC’s coercion undermines our most fundamental values,” she posted.

Christian nationalist leaders like Family Research Council president Tony Perkins have also been skeptical: “Unless they’re advocating for violence, they have a right to be stupid,” he said. Texas Senator (and fash podcaster) Ted Cruz echoed those sentiment; “It might feel good right now to threaten Jimmy Kimmel. But when it is used to silence every conservative in America, we will regret it.”

Trump has very rarely received this kind of pushback from right-wing opinion leaders, and especially not when he’s going after the right’s enemies. Why on earth are Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz defending Jimmy Kimmel?

Fear of Democrats—But Maybe Even More Fear of Trump

The answer in part seems to be that Carlson and Cruz are defending Jimmy Kimmel because they worry that they might be in his shoes at some point. Cruz and Perkins’ panelists both intimate that Democrats, once in power, could use the FCC and threats of interfering in mergers to silence right voices—to shut down Fox, for example, or to shut down Tony Perkins’ show. Trump may imagine that he’ll be in power forever, but not everyone on the right is so certain, and destroying free speech protections could have some downsides under a vengeful Democratic president.

Of course, the right’s paranoid delusions about rabid Democratic revenge is almost entirely projection. Biden didn’t even hold Trump accountable for an insurrection. Democrats in general can barely bring themselves to criticize Fox News much less take it off the air.

There is someone who might use the power of the presidency to silence right wing dissent, though. That person’s name is Donald J. Trump.

Cruz and Perkins and so forth don’t say this outright, since criticizing Trump directly is mostly verboten on the right. But it’s not difficult to think of scenarios where Trump might decide to go after right wing media outlets. He’s currently in a bitter feud with elements of the right about releasing the Epstein files. And what if the right wing Congress decides to send him an extreme anti-abortion bill, of the kind that Trump has been vocal about not wanting to sign? If a Fox talking head criticized him for that, would he force Fox to fire that person?

Trump has for the most part worked with the Christian right.They’ve supported him and given him adulation and votes and he’s attacked LGBT people and abortion rights, and they’ve both been happy about it. The relationship between them has been based on mutual benefit.

But if Trump truly imposes the kind of fascist tyranny he seems intent on imposing, the balance of power, and the calculation of benefits, might shift radically. If, for example, Trump were to seize personal control of the right’s communication outlets, would he need people like Tucker Carlson and Tony Perkins and Bari Weiss any more? It seems to have at least occurred to Carlson and Perkins and Weiss that the answer might be, “no.”

So what?

Of course, mild pushback from Bari Weiss is not exactly going to deter Trump from doing whatever he wants—and Trump cares a lot more about silencing late-night criticism of him than he does about (for example) restricting abortion rights or even than backing Israel’s genocide. Cruz is willing to say, “Hey this is bad, stop that.” But would he actually vote to impeach FCC commissioner Brendan Carr? The future is always in motion, but I wouldn’t bet anything of value on it.

On the other festering tentacle, though, the right-wing pushback does have some potentially meaningful implications.

Trump’s attack on the Constitution has been so successful thus far because the Christofascist Supreme Court is willing, and eager, to back him when he commits crimes or when he disenfranchises Black voters or when he sends his fascist gestapo to kidnap people based on the color of their skin. Crime, kidnapping, and disenfranchisement are all things that Christofascists support.

But Tony Perkins and Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson are letting the public, and the Supreme Court, know that Christofascists are not so sure they support torching the first amendment. Cruz and Perkins are a lot more in tune with Amy Coney Barrett, John Roberts, and Neil Gorsuch than Trump is. It’s still possible that Trump would win a lawsuit if Kimmel or Disney or somebody sues in a first amendment case. But given what the right is saying, and the concerns they’re expressing, I think Trump would have a tough go of it.

Along those lines, if even Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson and Bari Weiss are pushing back, and if it’s at least reasonably likely that the Supreme Court would not support this kind of bullshit, that should give Trump’s targets some room to maneuver. If you’re Disney, you can point to Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson and say, “Look, even the right thinks this is bullshit; we’re going to put Kimmel back on the air in order to fight for free speech like Bari Weiss says we should.” If you’re the Democratic Party, you can say, “Charlie Kirk is being used to enforce an anti free speech pogrom, and we think that needs to stop, so we’re not going to cosign this bullshit resolution giving him a day of remembrance.”

Of course, in typical spineless fashion, Democrats have so far not taken advantage of the rift on the right, and have instead disgraced themselves. The bulk of the House caucus (with 58 exceptions) voted to honor Kirk. So did every single Democratic Senator.

Similarly, Disney and ABC have not put Kimmel back on the air. Nor has the Washington Post reversed their despicable decision to fire Karen Attiah for her honest discussion of Kirk’s legacy and of violence on the right. Colleges and schools and businesses continue to fire people for not lauding Kirk or for quoting his own words.

Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson and Bari Weiss are not the resistance; they all are horrible people who for the most part are thrilled at the rise of fascism in the US. In this one case, however, they are speaking up in a way that could be useful, if Democrats, media companies, and other institutions were willing to take advantage of the cracks forming on the right. It’s difficult, though, to capitalize on your enemy’s divisions when you’re hiding under the bed. Motherfucking Ted Cruz is giving you a stick to beat Trump with, you quisling motherfuckers. Pull your skin back over your skeletal structure, get up on your hind legs, and use it.