Weekly Roundup: Patriarchal Nationalism is a Helluva Drug
Brad and Dan discuss Tucker Carlson's trip to Hungary and interview with Orban as part of a decades-long pattern of White nationalists and White Christian nationalists looking to autocratic strongmen as the models of the ideal society. They trace Carlson's visit to Hungary to Rod Dreher and other White Christians who see Orban and his ilk as the prototypical Christian patriarchal leaders.
They then discuss the rise of Latino Evangelicals and how their resonances with White Evangelicals. Again, the themes of family, patriarchy, and authority come into play.
They finish with a look at the ideas of freedom and liberty at play in Ron DeSantis' opposition to masks and the rhetoric against mandating vaccines. Dan explains how Uncle Ron's discourse links up with political theory from the past and ultimately advances a misguided understanding of liberty.
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Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi, our show's host in a partnership with the Kapp Center, and I'm here today with my co-host.
I'm Dan Miller, Associate Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College, and as always, Brad, it's good to join you in our Weekly Roundup.
Good to see you, Dan.
You know, I was thinking about it.
Last summer, we did a lot of storytelling, and we haven't done much of that this summer, and I was wondering if we should bring that back or not.
Of course we should.
Why don't you tell us a story?
Yeah, I have some in mind and I'm gonna wait and if people, you know, people can reach out and if they want stories, hit me up in the Discord or email and say, hey, we need a couple stories before the summer's over.
If not, that's fine.
Because here's the thing, Dan, has you ever turned on a podcast where the first 12 minutes are the hosts?
Just cutting it up about like what their dog did that day and what they had for lunch.
And you're kind of like, Hey, can you just get to the thing?
Cause I came here for the thing, not to know about like your dog and what you ate for lunch.
So that's why I'm reticent with the stories, but it did occur to me that last, last, you know, summer, we did a lot of storytelling about fish and youth groups and, uh, French philosophers eating marshmallows, things like that.
So anyway.
All right, I'll just say for myself, and I'm sure I don't speak for just me, I'll never get tired of sitting at the feet of Brad Onishi and hearing stories about, you know, youth groups and fish and things like that.
So yeah, but we can turn to other things because as it turns out, who knew, right?
Like the world kept turning and like people in America kept doing crappy things and things like that.
So I guess we'll talk about that instead of cool stories instead.
All right, three things for today, three major stories.
We're going to talk about Tucker Carlson and Hungary and what that means.
We're going to talk about the rise of Latino evangelicals and their growing, not only demographic, but their move rightward on the political spectrum.
And then finish with talking about Uncle Ron and broader issues, Uncle Ron DeSantis, that is, and broader issues related to COVID and vaccines and masks and schooling and policies and Biden and all that.
So that's where we're going today.
Dan, this week, Tucker Carlson is in Hungary.
And he is interviewing and appearing with Viktor Orban, the leader of Hungary.
And there's been some kind of surprise from folks about Tucker Carlson making this move.
But if you paid attention to our show, if you listen to the Orange Wave, if you listen to my interviews with Sarah Posner or Anne Nelson or Catherine Stewart, this should not surprise anybody.
I will be very honest, this did not surprise me at all.
This is a very natural move for Tucker.
Given where he's gone over the last couple years and his white nationalism and just out-and-out racism and conspiracy propagation.
So here's what Greg Sargent says at WAPO.
The first segment of Tucker Carlson's long-anticipated Fox News interview with Viktor Orban has now aired and it did not disappoint.
It provides a deeply unsettling glimpse into the true nature of the authoritarian nationalist future that Carlson and his fellow travelers envision for our country.
An ugly tension sits at the core of Carlson's conversation with the Hungarian leader.
Carlson fawns over the quote free nature of Hungarian society, contrasting it favorably with the supposed repression of widespread anti-liberal yearnings in American society, while saying little to nothing about the autocratic nature of Orbanism.
One of the themes that's going to be prevalent today, Dan, is freedom.
What does it mean to be free?
And as Sargent references here, Carlson has this idea that there's perhaps the idea that Hungary and Hungarian society is more, quote, free than the United States.
In the interview, Carlson and Orban talk about things like anti-immigration policies, they talk about family, they talk about rewarding people for having children, they talk about defending the land, defending tradition, defending God and God's people in terms of Christianity.
Orban, as Sargent writes, castigates liberal internationalist Western leaders for wanting to intermingle Muslim and Christian communities.
So he basically polemicizes against religious pluralism.
He does not want Muslim people to be anywhere in the kind of hierarchy of Hungarian society.
Carlson in the interview suggests that, as I just said, people are freer in the United States because in America you might be, quote, silenced by Silicon Valley or you might lose your job if you criticize the orthodoxy of liberal internationalism and things like this.
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