Robbie George is a conservative Princeton University professor and speaks and writes widely on the value of civic discourse.
Most importantly for this purpose, he has been a Trustee of the Heritage Foundation since 2019.
You may have heard Heritage is in the news because its president Kevin Roberts released a video swearing allegiance to Tucker Carlson after Tucker’s slobbering interview with neo-Nazi and Groyper leader Nick Fuentes. I covered the absolutely furious reaction (including from me) in Heritage Foundation Soils Itself, Embraces Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes.
What was most infuriating about the video was how insulting he was to critics of Tucker. As I said in my prior post:
What a disgraceful statement. Tucker is allowed to spew his crap, and we are allowed to criticize him for it.We are not a “venomous coalition … sowing division,” we’re responding to two years of non-stop demonization by Tucker. No Kevin, we are not “bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda,” we are Americans who believe that the Jew hatred and venom normalized by Tucker both is abhorrent in its own right and also is anti-American and anti-MAGA.
The reaction has escalated, if anything. Internal Heritage staffers have been “subtweeting” about the Roberts video:
Roberts released a written follow up affirming Heritage’s opposition to anti-Semitism – but it only fed the fire because it said nothing about Tucker. The focus on Fuentes is a distraction.
It’s Tucker’s normalization of anti-Jewish ideologies that is the problem. That’s what Rod Dreher focused on in an excellent Substack post, Nick + Tucker: A Two-Man Unite The Right Rally (emphasis added):
Jews are afraid. They have been completely blindsided by the swift rise of anti-Semitism on both the Left and the Right. As you regular readers know, I’ve known about this, and deplored it, but it’s something else when you talk to actual American Jews, even those who live in one of the best places for Jews in the United States (which, aside from Israel, is probably the best country in the world for Jews), and hear them talk about their fears.One man told me that he now hears all the time people in his community talking about emigrating to Israel. He said, “I think for most of us, it’s just a matter of time.”An Evangelical listening in on the conversation said that his wife has been shocked by how many normies in her local mom’s Facebook group share clips from Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes — truly crazy stuff. Said this flustered man, “These are suburban conservative moms who repost videos with Fuentes ranting about AIPAC, and they have no idea what AIPAC is.” They’re just going with the flow. They trust Fuentes and Owens, so whatever those two say, they accept.Every one of the right-wing Jews to whom I spoke last night believe that Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous man in America to Jews, because in their view, he’s the most important mainstreamer of anti-Semitism on the Right. This was painful for me to hear, because I consider Tucker a friend, and though I have been disturbed by the anti-Jewish turn his rhetoric has taken, I had not been aware of how extensive his anti-Jewish commentary had been (I don’t regularly listen to his podcast), nor the effect his rhetoric has had on the outlook of American Jews.
But throughout it all, Prof. George has conveyed a sense of reasonableness. This was his first reaction:
He followed up today with a tweet that is one of the best statements I’ve seen. He doesn’t mention Tucker or Fuentes by name, but it’s clear it is the Tucker/Fuentes movement he’s talking about, and as a Heritage Trustee, it’s an insight into what may be going on at the organization behind the scenes (emphasis added):
A few days ago, I posted a brief statement of what I, as a conservative, seek to conserve. The first item on the list was what I regard as the foundational principle of all sound morality: the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of each and every member of the human family. Everything else I believe about ethics and politics in one way or another stands upon or presupposes that principle. Any form of “conservatism” (or “liberalism”) that denies it in principle or transgresses it in practice is alien to me.That is why I believe that the conservative movement, though it can and should be a broad tent, simply cannot include or accommodate white supremacists or racists of any type, antisemites, eugenicists, or others whose ideologies are incompatible with belief in the inherent and equal dignity of all. As a conservative, I say that there is no place for such people in our movement.So, while I understand and appreciate that politics is about “adding and multiplying, not subtracting and dividing,” and though I welcome conservatives representing a range of viewpoints on a wide swath of issues, I will not—I cannot—accept the idea that we have “no enemies to the right.” The white supremacists, the antisemites, the eugenicists, the bigots, must not be welcomed into our movement or treated as normal or acceptable.Is this a call for “cancelation”? No. It’s a reminder that we conservatives stand for something—or should stand for something. We have core principles that are not negotiable.I am—notoriously, for some of my fellow conservatives—committed to the principle of free speech for everybody, including people with whom I profoundly disagree even on the most important issues, indeed, including racists and other bigots. But defending their rights does not mean allying with them, welcoming them into our movement, or treating them as representing legitimate forms of conservatism.I am also—again, notoriously, for some of my fellow conservatives—willing to engage people with whom I deeply disagree, so long as they are honest and are willing to do business in the proper currency of intellectual discourse, a currency consisting of reasons, evidence, and arguments. (It is pointless to engage bad faith actors, charlatans, and con men.) But, again, engaging and forcefully arguing against people who deny the inherent and equal dignity of all is one thing, welcoming them into the movement or treating their ideas and ideologies as representing legitimate forms of conservatism is something entirely different.Let me be plain. American conservatism today faces a challenge. That challenge comes from those who reject our commitment to inherent and equal human dignity. They are seeking acceptance in the conservative movement and its institutions, and they do so with the ultimate objective of transforming them by undermining that commitment. They openly preach white supremacy and the hatred of Jews, among other noxious ideas. They no longer feel the need even to try to hide their bigotry.It is incumbent upon those of us who maintain the “ancient faith” (to borrow a phrase from Lincoln) to make clear to friend and foe alike that we will not permit the integrity of our movement and its institutions to be compromised. We will not treat its foundational principle of inherent and equal human dignity as optional. On the contrary, we will insist on it, defending and advancing it with renewed dedication.
My less articulate take on that point:
Hey @Heritage @KevinRobertsTX here’s your next keynote speaker. Under your standards, if you don’t platform and promote him, it’s cancel culture.
I’d be surprised if Heritage keeps Roberts given the damage he has done to the institution.
While many Republican politicians have spoken out against Fuentes, Ted Cruz was one of the only with the guts to take on Tucker:
There’s only one person who can put an end to the Tucker/Groyper hijacking of and attempt to destroy the MAGA movement, and he hasn’t said anything.
Yet.
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