Carlson was certainly the right person to revive the Father Coughlin/Henry Ford Jew Hate of the 30s but I think it was rolled out too quickly and carelessly. It's easy to imagine all kinds of transitional steps that would have made it easier to dismiss those getting alarmed.
@var_angian So, the right pace but the wrong guy? Maybe we don’t disagree that much. It’s still a question of how obviously you’re pushing the envelope; and, in a sense, Carlson turned out to be the wrong guy but only he had the right “credentials.”
@var_angian Still, if he had spent time laying the groundwork with more respected anti-Israel lobby critics it might have worked better
@var_angian Instead he ends up with the Young Turks (and one Armenian). But I don't know why you think smart conservatives would have moved into an essentially leftist frame. In the end, you'd have to argue either for another set of alliances, or just full-on isolationism--in either case you
@var_angian pay a significant price. It's hard to get past the scandal-mongering.
@var_angian Right--either way it was going to require some skilled maneuvering and in the end he didn't have the composure or "agility" to do it.
@var_angian I see. But, at some point, the question would have to arise, at least for the smarter ones: ok, then what? New alliances? No alliances? The frame starts to break up once these questions are tackled.
@var_angian Not our entire alliance system but Israel is pretty central to the Middle East one. Your question seems one mostly for Israelis, but the alternatives to allying with Israel for the US have mostly been Iran--which Obama tried and couldn't make work. Mediating it through Qatar
@var_angian is an attempt to make it work, but with mixed results, I expect. But, yes, I agree with you about the "ultimate point."