The Financial Times has reported that Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, which is the most influential conservative think-tank in the United States, is facing an internal revolt after defending Fox News host Tucker Carlson's decision to interview Holocaust denier and prominent misogynist Nick Fuentes. That act of indulgence towards outright neo-Nazism has exposed deep cracks in the American right, and that matters.
First, it matters because of who is involved. The Heritage Foundation is not some fringe group. Since the Reagan era, it has provided the ideological architecture for American neoliberalism, promoting low taxes, small government, privatisation, and deregulation, all of them dressed up as freedom. It was also the creator of Project 2025, the openly authoritarian blueprint for a second Trump presidency.
Second, it matters that this crisis sits within Trump's orbit. Fuentes dined with Trump in 2022, while Carlson has long been one of his most important media allies. Roberts's refusal to condemn Carlson outright shows how far the conservative movement has travelled from the old right of principle to a new right of power that will excuse almost anything in the pursuit of dominance.
Third, this was always where neoliberalism was heading. When you build a political creed around self-interest, deregulation and the idea that markets should replace morality, the eventual collapse of moral boundaries is not an accident but a logical outcome. The neoliberal right first stripped ethics out of economics, and now it is stripping them out of politics too.
What we are witnessing at Heritage is not a one-off scandal but the implosion of a movement that has lost the ability to distinguish between liberty and license, or between conservatism and fascism.
Roberts has offered an at best half-hearted apology to staff at the Heritage Foundation for his actions, but it is clear that the damage is done, including them. The façade of discipline that once hid the contradictions within the right - between libertarians and authoritarians, and between oligarchs and populists - is falling apart. Associates and funders are already fleeing from the Heritage Foundation. Its embrace of deep misogyny and anti-Semitic neo-Nazism is the rock on which it is foundering, and which will break it, but with that, the whole far-right will fall apart.
And this matters here in the UK. The British right, located in Tuforn Street, London SW1, imported neoliberalism from the US wholesale: the think tanks, the slogans, and even the contempt for government. Now it is likely that it, and its spawn, Reform UK, will import the same collapse from the USA.
As the moral vacuum of hate at the core of neoliberalism is exposed, it is clear that it does not offer renewal, but rot. Heritage's embrace of extremism is the logical endpoint of an ideology that worships power and wealth while claiming to defend freedom. It will tear the right apart. The only question is whether democracy can survive the wreckage it leaves behind.
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Some thoughts……………..
Here we have a movement that accuses the state of many crimes – interference, incompetence, unfreedom, authoritarianism, genocide, self-interest, lack of accountability.
To be replaced by individuals practicing interference, incompetence, unfreedom, authoritarianism, genocide, self-interest, lack of accountability.
Funded at the discretion of private wealth.
So much for choice eh?
Why would the collapse of right wing extremism democracy? Surely the Tufton St &c is one of the main perpetrators of anti-democracy?
Thank you, Richard.
Let’s not forget that the Heritage Foundation hosted Lammy and Kinnock in NYC and DC in the run up to the 2024 election. The proxy for, amongst others, the Koch family helped draft Obamacare, a copy of Romneycare and adapted from the big Pharma dominated Swiss model, and is influential in Starmer’s regime, especially with Streeting.
Richard and readers may be surprised to read that I often watch the Carlson shows, including the Fuentes one. It’s useful to know why America First, increasingly why America Only, arose and, until the emergence of Mamdani, the Democrats had no reply. I recommend.
The break up of that coalition over Israel and its manifestations is interesting to observe. The Democrats have yet to react similarly.
“As the moral vacuum of hate at the core of neoliberalism is exposed, it is clear that it does not offer renewal, but rot.”
Here’s the American philosopher Michael Sandel’s argument why we’ve reached such a state. He diagnoses it as a “Tyranny of Merit” falsity:-
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/06/michael-sandel-the-populist-backlash-has-been-a-revolt-against-the-tyranny-of-merit
The holocaust denial/minimisation line from the likes of Fuentes could be cover for something that is more interesting: the question: why is the USA supporting Israel to the extent that it does. Chomsky claimed that US arms shipments to Israel provide work for US arms companies (who thus were the main pro-Israel lobbyists). However, this begs the question: who actually pays for the weapons & I’d suggest that it is the USA. Thus, whilst holocaust denial/minimisation provides good headlines, there is other interesting currents. C. Kirk who was recently murdered, followed a similar line to Fuentes in terms of “why is the USA funding Israel”. If I was Israel, I’d start to get very worried, because if the US right whinge decides Israel is not longer worth supporting, why would the democrats decide it was?
Thank you and well said, Mike.
I wasn’t planning to watch the Fuentes interview, but having heard it slated by the usual suspects, I thought that I should watch.
Readers should do so, too. Plus the ones with Greek Orthodox nun Agapia Stephanopoulos, sister of former Clinton adviser and ABC presenter George, Marjorie Taylor Green, Jeffrey Sachs and retired colonel Douglas MacGregor.
Credit to Carlson for featuring such a diverse range of views, especially the nun’s.
A few months ago, as the the coalition began to split, over Israel, Lindsey Graham warned about the loss of support on the right and evangelicals. There’s talk of America Only candidates to primary the Israel Firsters.
Just noticed that “BBC director general Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness resign over Trump documentary edit”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd9kqz1yyxkt
Mildly absurdly
Thank you.
She no tears for the Tory pair. Please celebrate instead.
I will spare Richard the libel risks by not disclosing how venal they are. They just messed with the wrong person.