Dennis Prager on Tucker Carlson and Morality First | Dennis Prager's Latest Thoughts | PragerU

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So, Dennis, I don't know if you had a chance to watch Tucker Carlson just recently started posting on X. He posted a few pictures of himself with Marjorie Taylor Greene, with Thomas Massey, and a bunch of people who are very, very critical of President Trump. It seemed to have alluded to this idea that maybe he's creating a third party or some new political movement. He made a few announcements on X about that, and then eventually he had a podcast, over an hour podcast, where I believe he tried to outline the ideas behind this party that he believes America needs. It's a 10-point outline of the major issues. And if you had a chance to watch the entire thing, I would love to get some comments from you on what do you think Tucker is doing here, and what do you think the impact of Tucker's messaging is? So the problem with that, I have big problems with Tucker on moral issues that I've discussed in the past. But the problem with this is not that everything he said is wrong. A lot of what he said is accurate. We should make things, we have substituted ugly buildings for beautiful buildings. That's accurate. But it's one thing to list complaints, it's quite another to solve them. And the first one is scary, fairness. America was not set up to be fair. That's what he said. America was set up to be fair. But I never saw that word in the vocabulary of the founding fathers, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And we are all the beneficiaries of inalienable rights because our creator gave us our rights. That has nothing to do with fairness. When you want to legislate fairness, you get an authoritarian government. I mean, you can't legislate fairness. There's built in unfairness in life. Tall people have a much better chance of entering the NBA than average-sized people. All right, it's just the way it works. Having said that, I have to be intellectually honest. He spoke about having the same rules for everybody. Everyone is equal before the law. That, of course, all of us agree with. That's the point, though, that when I was listening, I thought, anybody listening to this, if a Martian came down and listened to it, they would think America is a cesspool, that America is an awful country. And, you know, I've been to 130 countries. I've been to every country in Europe except North Macedonia, which I believe is a country. And, you know, he spoke about graffiti. I hate graffiti, but every country in Europe that I've been to, which is every country, all I saw was graffiti. And it's a Western problem. There's no question about it. I just want to repeat, the country is a lot better than what he depicted. You know, it's interesting, as I read through the 10 points, words like fair, sovereign, productive, beautiful, healthy, honest, optimistic, wise, decent, united, I mean, these all sound like words that any of us would like, we would all relate to. But it reminds me a little bit of those days where I was in class teaching ethnic studies or, you know, Marxist ideas, where you would say these words that young people would totally relate to, but they were not pragmatic and they didn't factor in human nature and what actually could happen. They were not actual solutions. They were mostly either complaints or words that would resonate. It does remind me a little bit of the DSA platform. And I would add, Dennis, you know, I think that there is a lot of fair criticism against conservatives and Republicans that don't know how to speak to young people. We don't know how to make sure that young people identify with conservative ideas. The left has been very good with getting young people to identify with them. You see this now even with the DSA. And one of the things that young people really identify with is hardship, right? They identify with how hard it is to make ends meet, to deal with an economy that is, frankly, scary and really challenging. They can't save. Many of them feel very insecure about the future, especially because of AI. Many young people are worried that they're not going to have jobs. So there is a reason for young people to be very scared and feel very insecure. The DSA, the socialists, they know how to take that insecurity, the fear, the anger, the despair, and turn that into a political movement by putting words in front of them that they can relate to. And I think Tucker is doing something very similar. He's bringing words to young people that they can really relate to. He understands their anger. He understands their frustration. In fact, he builds off their anger and frustration and says, I am actually listening to you. I am here for you. I'm going to show up for you. I'm going to be an alternative to what the conservatives and the Republicans have not been able to do for you. And that, to me, is part of what he is doing here. When we watch what Tucker is talking about, he's not talking to the conservatives who have lived through something, but he is talking to that young American who is feeling incredibly insecure and wants to have something that they can actually believe in again. But can you believe in this outline? Is this 10-point program even pragmatic? Or is it just like the DSA, a bunch of words that sound really good but ultimately could lead to really dangerous things? Every movement that has done good has great words and has done bad has great words. I specialize in the Soviet Union, learned Russian. The biggest saying in Russia in the Soviet Union was, mir, mir, miru, peace to the world. Who doesn't agree with that? So the Soviets would invade Czechoslovakia, would invade Hungary, would invade Afghanistan, kill a million Afghans, and their motto was, mir, miru, peace to the world. The people he's aligned with, I don't care for. The anti-Trump Republicans, the isolationists, if he's a bit, you see, there are two big problems here. Number one, if you call yourself a Christian, and I'm a big fan of America's Christians, as they well know, if you call yourself a Christian, isn't there a moral obligation, if you're the strongest country in the world, to have a role in the world? The idea that he has gone from America first to America only, that is not a moral ideal. That is not the American ideal. The other thing is he said, the greatest threats in human history are nuclear war, are today nuclear war and AI. Everybody fears nuclear war. That's why we haven't had one. That's why we don't want Iran to have one. Iran would not be governed by mad, mutual, assured destruction. Even the Soviet Union was governed by that. That's why we never had a nuclear war with them. But the Iranian regime doesn't care how many tens of millions of Iranians would die, as long as they could destroy Israel and the West. That's what they care about. As for AI, what is the solution to the dangers of AI? Let China develop AI? That was absurd. AI can be dangerous, there's no question about it, but it can also, it might solve cancer. Every blessing comes with curses. It's hard to know what he's expecting America to do vis-a-vis AI, because the entire world is now using AI. And so what is the idea that we put our walls up and not engage in the AI race? And then what? Be set behind? Well, that's what I said. If we don't develop AI, China will. It's like we have all these laws, all these rules for a green America, right? But China doesn't. China's building coal plants constantly. We live in a false world, and so does Tucker Carlson. You know, Dennis, it's hard to understand where Tucker is coming from. What is actually happening in his mind is the idea that he wants to create a new party, is the idea that he wants to take over the Republican Party. I'm not sure he identifies with anything that the Republican Party really identifies with anymore. He seems to argue that. But from a political perspective, and what is hopefully somewhat of a pragmatic note that we can get from you, is it possible that he's trying to create a third party? And if so, what does that look like for America, a third party? All right. Well, let me tell you something. The most successful third party was the Bull Moose Party by Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt took enough votes from the Republican candidate, William Taft, to elect Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson was the first left-wing president because he had been president of Princeton. He was an academic. Teddy Roosevelt gave the election to the first woke, if you will, Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. That's exactly what a third party of Tucker Carlson would do. It would give the election to a quasi-communist like AOC or a real one like a member of the DSA. It's a very dangerous prospect. That's the danger, the horrible danger of a third party. Yeah. I've been thinking so much about the word morality recently because people throw it around to the point that they've actually cheapened the term. What is moral and what is ethical? It has been used in such nefarious ways, in such wrong ways, and it's such an important word. The idea of morality, which is something you've dedicated your entire life to teaching us about, seems to have been removed from America's culture and America's education system. I can tell you that for sure in the education system, in the culture, it is almost barely mentioned whatsoever. You hear fairness, you hear equity, you don't hear morality. You hear justice. You maybe hear social justice, but you don't hear morality. And the reason I've been so preoccupied with this recently was because a friend of mine actually got into a fender bender a few weeks ago here in Los Angeles, and nothing happened to either parties. Nobody was injured. There was barely any damage. And a few weeks later, my friend gets basically a letter that she owes whoever it is that was in this fender bender a whole bunch of money, even though they walked away totally fine from the entire thing. And I can give you another example. I have multiple friends who are managers, directors, small business owners who are constantly being sued by attorneys who are hovering over, looking for ways to sue a business. I'm starting to call it the shakedown. It's the business shakedown. You identify a business that has money, and you find somebody who may have worked there or maybe a current employee, and you use them to make all kinds of bogus legal claims. And you shake them down, knowing that if you go to mediation, you can get a whole bunch of money. I can give you so many examples from Los Angeles, California, but I'm sure that our listeners can identify with this all over the country. It is not morality first. It's, well, if I can get away with it in the court of law, then I'm going to do it. If the justice system allows for it, then morality doesn't even matter. And I don't think that my argument is something that is unique to Los Angeles, California. I think this is becoming a bigger problem in America, where morality is not a factor. People are becoming more and more selfish, and they are doing things because they know they can get away with it legally. But should they get away with it morally? Obviously, they shouldn't. But we don't have any sort of immune system now in our society that pushes against these immoral behaviors. This republic was made for a religious and moral people, otherwise it will fail. Who said that? John Adams? One of the founders, I believe, was John Adams. And that's exactly what has happened, where, I'll give you another example. After the Northridge earthquake in the 90s, the number of people who filed insurance claims for repairs they needed in their house before the earthquake, but claimed it was done by the earthquake, was incredibly high. I don't know what's happened, but it is, no, I do know what's happened. I'm not sure I know why it's happened, but there is a breakdown of morality. That's morality. To file a claim for damage that you had before, to sue people, an offender-bender, it happened to my wife. People just think, they don't think they're wrong. The amount of cheating in high schools and colleges is at record levels by every study that I've seen. But nobody likes to talk about that because the government can't solve that. And because it points the finger at people, not at the government. So we're in trouble. I mean, you mentioned the government. I mean, there are so many issues that we deal with today that have nothing to do with the government. Now, of course, we're frustrated with what we saw in Minnesota with the fraud, and we're frustrated with the fraud that we're seeing here in California. But the same people, Dennis, who are complaining about the Minnesota fraud, are they actually asking themselves before they engage in legal issues that are frivolous lawsuits or that are immoral claims against their neighbor or a fellow driver? Are they asking themselves, well, have I actually done the moral thing? How many people out there are listening to us and they know people within their friend circle or people who built an entire livelihood on taking advantage of a legal system, knowing that they're maybe choosing to do what is legal, but certainly not what is moral? So many people have built livelihoods on taking advantage of others. That's why we tell lawyer jokes. So guy goes into a bar and he sees a guy at the bar who says, he's just blurting out, all lawyers are a-holes, all lawyers are a-holes. Guy goes over to him and says, I'm offended. And the guy goes, why, are you a lawyer? No, I'm an a-hole. And obviously there are a lot of wonderful lawyers out there who are listening to this. And I know they can totally relate. And so I did want to bring this up because, as you always say, the government is not going to solve our problems. And so many of the problems that bring us frustration and tear down our society are actually problems that we need to solve ourselves. We have to first look inward and say to ourselves, OK, am I that moral human being who is taking a stand so that when my children watch me, I'm doing the right thing? So when I'm building an environment around me, I'm building an environment that is moral. And maybe many people will say, well, but my neighbor is not moral. So why should I be? Well, you're right. I've talked about this all of my life. I have asked parents to ask their children. If their child is 5 or 50, doesn't matter. What do you think I most want or wanted you to be? I your mother or I your father. Give them four choices, happy, successful, smart, good. Most children will not say good. And the parents are often shocked. But they don't raise their kids to believe that being a good person is more important than anything else. That's how you have to raise children. Your character matters more to me than whether or not you make the honor, honored role at school. It matters more to me than what college you get into. How many parents have said that to their children? It is more important to me what type of character you have than what college you get into. Yeah, that's exactly exactly right. I'm sure that many, many parents can relate to this. They go out to dinners and they talk about where is their kid going to go to school? And many of these colleges are actually playing Russian roulette with their children's minds, as you oftentimes said. But, you know, we do need to bring morality back into into our culture and into our education system. And it's really going to start with the power of the individual, the parent, the viewer, the neighbor, the uncle, the grandpa. We got to bring this back. We want to save our country. It's not through a 10 point system that Tucker Carlson brings to us. It's it's not through the government. It's really through us. Right. You want to fix you want to fix the world around you. Start by taking that first moral stand. The other thing, Dennis, that you've talked about for as long as I've known you is the importance of having meaning in one's life. I think that as we're seeing more and more young people voting for either the DSA platform or associating with the disaffected right and whatever that means, I think ultimately it means that young people don't have meaning and they're looking for something to belong to, to solve to solve their dilemmas, to solve their problems, to solve this God sized hole in their heart. The past generations, including the greatest generation, as they call it, they believe they got meaning from God slash religion and country. They believed in America. They believed in liberty. They believed in the freedom that America stood for. They they they would, if necessary, die on behalf of their faith and and their and their country, if it called on them. Our parents, my parents. So for these kids, their grandparents or great grandparents, they had meaning. They were a happier generation than this generation, and they had much less. But they had the scenic one on the without which nothing of happiness, two things, gratitude and meaning. These are the younger generation today because of the left, the left has deep ingratitude. The left is composed of ingrates and ingrates do a lot of damage on the personal level and on the macro level. So what does leftism do? It fills the vacuum, the meaning vacuum. And that's what we now see. And that's why they they vote for for basically communists. They give them meaning. Speaking of votes, I'm sure you've paid attention to what's been happening in Michigan, where you have a radical Islamist socialist becoming now the Democratic nominee. Any thoughts on the recent elections in Michigan? Well, it's very important to remember that he won. I think he won by one percentage point. So it's at least that's that's the last result that I had seen. It wasn't exactly a landslide. But it's a tragedy that that he won. If he wins the Senate race against Mike Rogers, that that would be a calamity. This guy is is is one who campaigned with Hassan Piker, a guy who said America deserve 9-11, who believes in abolishing the police, abolishing the Senate. All it is is abolish, abolish, abolish, abolish, basically abolish America. But he speaks really well. And that's that reminds me of Lenin. Lenin mesmerized people with his speeches. Abdullah Saeed definitely presents very well. He's very good looking. He's young. He's charismatic. He's a really good speaker. I don't know if you watch his acceptance speech, but it sounded incredibly inspiring. Now he's going to run against a Republican who, you know, if I'm honest, he looks like a Republican and an older man. He certainly doesn't look as charismatic or as relatable to young people. Do you think people in Michigan are going to wake up and recognize that need to need to actually pay attention to one's ideas? Or are people superficial enough to just say, hey, you know, that person looks better or sounds better, and therefore I'm going to vote for them? It really depends on the message. If the Republicans can say the truth, this guy speaks well, but he's incredibly dangerous. And here's why I think I think the Republican will win. That's what they have to do without lying, without overstating, but telling the truth, showing him with Hassan Piker and how even he when asked, would you abolish the would you defund the police? He gave a long winded answer where the answer should be one word. No, without police, you have rape and murder and thieves and burglaries and so on. I mean, it's not to mention, you know, the obvious arena where he hates. He hates Israel. He gives a speech and he goes, I love Jews and I love Judaism, but I, but I hate Israel and Israel is Zionism. They're not part of Judaism. Well, I've written quite a number of books on Judaism. You know, often Zion is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The Jewish trinity is God, Torah, Israel, God, Torah and Israel. So it's for him to get up and define Judaism. That's what we call chutzpah. Yeah. Well, I think Abdul El-Sayed loves his brother Jews, just like folks in the Middle East, Islamists in the Middle East, love their women oppressed and under control. And that's what I think one can chalk it up to. The real question also in Michigan and in these other races across the country, do people despise Republicans or have Trump derangement syndrome that is so bad that they actually would vote for an Islamist over a Republican, over somebody who is liked by President Trump? What do they hate more? Do they hate President Trump more? Do they hate the Republicans more? Or do they actually hate the idea of Islamism and this red-green alliance making it here to America? Well, you know the answer to that question. A lot of people hate Trump more than they even hate communism. I know of one young person who actually is a religious Jew. And she voted for Mamdani because he had energy. She found that very appealing. And the only thing I could say is she went to an Ivy League college. And that's where you learn that sort of stuff. You get really, really distorted moral views. Well, the interesting thing is it could actually lead to a Republican victory in Michigan because maybe some people would prefer a Republican who is pro-Trump over somebody who is associated with the red-green alliance who is pretty much an Islamist. That would be a flipped seat. Yeah. Well, Dennis, I'm going to end with good news because we have to remain positive. And there's so much to be positive about. We still live in the greatest country on God's green Earth. PragerU is doing well. Prager United is back. Our little podcast here is sponsored by the Prager United members who make this possible. And they can send in questions for you so that you can respond to them. And of course, Teddy is here. And so lots of good things to still be just so grateful for. And we're so blessed. And we're just thrilled that we can have you chat with us every single week. I love it. And you're right. And the joy that PragerU brings to me is immeasurable. Well, thank you. God bless you, Dennis. God bless all of you who are listening. And you can all say bye to Teddy. See you all next time.