What are Republicans going to do with their right-wing conspiratorial theorists who threaten to swallow up many young voters, especially young men (Gen Z), who, according to Fraternity Forward Coalition, rate their mental health as just fair, poor, or very poor? Nearly half have two or fewer friends, and 11 per cent have no friends at all. In lieu of, many of these young men are seeking relationships with shallow digital interactions. This emerging problem has created a vacuum that Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and Candace Owens have attempted to address. These three figures have large followings on social media, host podcasts, and hold significant influence among many young Republican men. Suppose the GOP does not begin to develop an answer to this triumvirate, more will arise. In that case, the problem will grow, and the party could become the home for racists, antisemites, and hyper conspiratorialists, if it hasn’t already laid out the welcome mat. These populist frauds must be confronted, and the only person who can stand up to them resides at the White House.
Carlson has become increasingly conspiracy-oriented over time, and his interviews are often fringe, strange, and infuriating. He has gone from interviewing revisionist historians who think America may have partnered with the wrong nations and leaders in World War II to actively turning the Jews into the villains when, less than a century ago, Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich tried to exterminate them. As Phil Klein of National Review pointed out in the Nov. 14 edition of The Editors, Carlson could be excused for becoming cynical growing up in the Washington, D.C. world with its corruption, self-aggrandizement, and entitlement. He may have found the Iraq War too much to accept, and COVID could have stretched his skepticism to new levels. But the recent interview with Nick Fuentes revealed his separation from conservatism. He used to spend time covering small towns where factory jobs were lost, people were out of work, and bad trade deals, immigration or even opioids had appeared. These concerns aligned with a populist conservatism that appealed to a working-class crowd, who believed Republicans could speak for the factory worker or union stiff. Carlson has changed, however.
Now, as Klein says, “He’s doing long documentaries on pushing 9/11 conspiracies. He’s attacking Bonhoeffer (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church and was part of a plot to kill Hitler in 1943), pushing the idea that maybe we were on the wrong side in World War II. He’s defending Maduro (the leader of Venezuela). He’s defending Boko Haram (responsible for killing thousands of Christians in Nigeria) and attacking Ted Cruz for caring about the plight of Christians being persecuted. He’s defending (Zohran) Mamdani. He’s attacking Mike Huckabee (Ambassador to Israel) as one of the worst, the people he dislikes the most.” Trying to make sense of the direction Carlson has gone leaves many traditional Republicans uncomfortable about the elements gaining traction inside the party. But Carlson represents only one branch.
How about Candace Owens? Her track record of public ruminations includes calling the moon landing fake, the Boston Tea Party a fraud, the American Revolution a Freemason plot, and she never fails to suggest that the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron, was born male. Since Charlie Kirk’s murder, she has said that Turning Point USA (TPUSA) followers are implicated in the Estates, suggesting that Kirk’s murder may have been an inside job about money. She has also implied that Kirk was on the cusp of joining in league with many of Carlson’s anti-Israeli ideas when he was murdered, casting shadows again on a Jewish conspiracy.
Christine Rosen reported in 2024 about Owens in the American Enterprise Institute for Commentary magazine (The Hateful Candace Owens). “What is sinister is Owens’s ‘just asking questions’ approach as a means of encouraging anti-Semitism, a posture she’s doubled down on since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7(2023). She has emerged as a loud and ill-informed critic of the State of Israel, one whose views would be far more at home on the progressive left than among most Republicans and conservatives, who support Israel.”
On X, Owens wrote of Israel, “No government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever. There is no justification for a genocide.” She also called the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem a “ghetto” and remarked, “If you think it’s antisemitism to notice that innocent Christians were killed in an IDF bombing, then you need to log off.” Exactly why these Trump-supporting voices inside the Republican Party think this kind of dog-whistling about the Jews passes muster should concern a party that had made strong inroads among many Jewish voters and whose leader holds a popularity rating in Israel that he could only dream of having in America.
Fuentes should scare Republicans the most. His brand of masculinity appeals because so much of elite society has turned against traditional manhood. Fuentes dares to stand against this feminization of men, but while we do need to think about the problem of boys being abandoned in our school system, turning them into thugs, racists, or white nationalists does not seem to be the answer, nor of much help to the future of the Republican Party. Fuentes, born in 1998, should not be mistaken for a successor to the Charlie Kirk mantle. Whatever the media has said about Kirk, and much of it was hateful left-wing nonsense, Fuentes deserves strong criticism for his efforts to reinstate some type of White Christian renewal. He couches his antisemitism, race baiting, and prejudices in a call for a return to Christianity, traditional practices, and nationalist ideas. If the enemy of the good is evil cloaked in virtue, Fuentes and his movement define that danger. Restoring the family, love of nation, and a sensible immigration policy possesses merit. The effort to do so, targeting Jews, excluding minority groups already in America, or other religions, threatens the freedoms of everyone under the Constitution.
U.S. President Donald Trump hopes to leave the Republican Party with a legacy of having appealed to people of colour, a foreign policy recognizing Israel as a key player in the Middle East and helping to reinstate the family as the predominant factor in American life. To secure this renaissance for the next generation of Republicans, he will have to fight within his party to deny the impostors the victory. The soul of Vice President J.D. Vance weighs in the balance. If Trump fails, his rise to political power and influence would have been ethereal and vain.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
