Introduction to the Republican Civil War
Within the first few minutes of Ben Shapiro’s Nov. 3 Daily Wire show, he drew a line in the sand that then rippled across his network of supporters in the world of online conservatism. He claimed that the Republican Party was “being eaten by its radicals.” Shapiro was responding in no uncertain terms to Tucker Carlson’s recent decision to invite white nationalist Nick Fuentes onto his talk show for a softball interview. As Shapiro pointed out, the exchange between Carlson and Fuentes was so gentle, so comradely, that it might lead a viewer to believe Fuentes simply held an edgier position on relatively common Republican opinions of the day.
The problem is, that might be true. Fuentes has recently made the rounds on right-wing media, including on the Red Scare podcast and the popular YouTube show of Candace Owens, with whom he mostly agrees. Fuentes shares some of the race and IQ ideas expressed on Red Scare, and Owens may even outpace him in her beliefs about Jewish cabals. Carlson, with mock credulity, simply could not believe so many had tried to “cancel” Fuentes since his views on immigration and demographics were so reasonable, his reach so broad.
Shapiro was not the first to react with horror, though he may have been the loudest.