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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson, Caring Daddy

Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson, Caring Daddy

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Young Buckley’s official photo is more perfect than you could possibly imagine:

… whatever it is that will allow you to make a real contribution, is *difficult*. It takes hours & hours of thankless & often frustrating work. Failure is a real possibility.

But for kids like Buckley, there’s another route available. Any time he wants …

… he can just start saying the nastiest, meanest, most snide & condescending & contemptuous things that he can think of … and voila! Overnight he could be a celebrity on the right. He’d get attention, flattery, meetings with important people, etc. And it’s so *easy*.

You don’t have to work or study or know anything to become another talking head on the right. There’s no grinding, no frustration, no failure, no years of apprenticeship to slog through. It’s just sitting there, yours for the taking, whenever you want it.

If you’re a kid like Buckley, which way do you go, nose to the grindstone, or hop on the wingnut welfare gravy train? It would take enormous self-possession & character to choose the former, & these kids are raised in a bubble of privilege that does not encourage those qualities.

This is the life of the GOP “boss’s kid”: everything around you is designed to make you a shallow, useless person who measures your self-worth by the amount of attention you get. Don Jr., Eric, Meghan, Sarah, Buckley … they never really had a chance.

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  2. 2.

    El Cruzado

    I remember once talking with a girl who had been working at a summer camp for the kids of the very, very rich and famous, and how she pitied them because they had grown up such that they didn’t even know how to want things, let alone enjoy them.

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    Buckley Carlson sounds like the name of a fictional character, maybe a rich boy out of some obscure F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. And come to think of it, that’s what Buckley Carlson himself looks like too.

  10. 10.

    tokyokie

    Don’t any of these rich, conservative spawn snots have even the barest modicum of self-reliance to resent even a little being named after a right-wing hack? (I’m looking at you, too, Sen. Paul.) Had my parents stuck me with a moniker like, say, “McCarthy,” I would have resented it, my parents, and every value associated with the name. But hey, why rock the boat when not doing so allows you to enjoy the benefits of being a C-list political celebrity and never working a day in your life. Never a mensch, always a Backpfeifengesicht.

  11. 11.

    lgerard

    I think young Buckley was named after his uncle.

    I also think it is a bit unfair to be unloading on the guy just because his father is a hypocritical fascist pig.

    It is possible that the young man took advantage of his opportunity, worked hard, and is modestly successful at his job.  He may view having Tucker as a father is as much a curse as a blessing.

  14. 14.

    MikefromArlington

    Speaking of nepotism….

    kinda wish Biden would play on the senile characature Fox has created for him and call on Douchey for a question every now and then to get the Fox crews panties in a knot.

  15. 15.

    tokyokie

    @lgerard: It would be a bit unfair to unload on Little Lord Buckley if he had shown the slightest interest in achieving something on his own rather than taking a 6-figure salary as a right-wing political hack who appears to be wholly unqualified for the position and incapable of competently executing his assigned duties. I’m an old fart who spent most of his working life on newspaper copy desks, and in my best years, barely made half of what Little Lord Buckley is pulling down. When the newspaper industry went kaput, I went back to school, and although it has been a struggle, it appears as though next spring I’ll earn my BSN, and I’ll be able to work my ass off at a hospital, taking care of sick people and helping to clean up their blood, poop, and vomit, and were I to work one extra shift a week, my annual pay would almost approach what his eminence Little Lord Buckley pulls down to do his job poorly. If I do my job poorly, the patient dies. If Little Lord Buckley does his job poorly, his fascist-loving cockwaddle daddy uses his position as a highly paid right-wing hatemonger to berate those who fail to understand just how important he and his progeny are.

    So no, I don’t think I’m being at all unfair.

  16. 16.

    opiejeanne

    Buckley is 25. And his daddy calls his boss and threatens him for someone on his staff not treating the “kid” with the respect Tucker expects?

    I wonder if Buckley was embarrassed, shamed, by his dad’s tantrum

  17. 17.

    Tony Jay

    @lgerard:

    I also think it is a bit unfair to be unloading on the guy just because his father is a hypocritical fascist pig.

    This is true. In conception all creatures are neither fair nor foul, through their own labours alone do they choose to walk in light or else squirm in shadow’s pit.

    Safe to say, though, that young Buckers has made his choice. He has the air of someone who’d upskirt a nun and expect to get away with it, because all women are sluts and Daddy plays golf with the Cardinal.

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    For some reason I think we’ve had this post or one like it about little Buckley.

    This story looks very, very familiar.

    So either I’m having deja view or I’m going insane.

    It’s a toss up so not my call…..

  19. 19.

    lgerard

    @tokyokie:

    Yes you are.

    He started at the bottom at a salary of 40k, and has earned several promotions and raises over the course of 3 years.

    There is no evidence that he is incompetent and no suggestion that he is incapable.  It is quite possible that he earned those promotions due to his own industry and dedication.  Congress is filled with staffers in their twenties, many of whom are highly intelligent and hard working.

    I just don’t think the sins of the father should be visited on the son, at least not without some justification.

  22. 22.

    Chetan Murthy

    @lgerard: Heh, he’s the most superlatively  effective staffer in Congressional history then: his salary has skyrocketed.  It’s rare AF for somebody to get that kind of pay as a staffer 3yr in, from what I’ve read.

    But hey, maybe he’s the second coming.

  25. 25.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Gop in Disarray

    ps that inbred kid sure looks manly. nothing says rugged individualism like nepotism and hiding behind daddy’s bowtie.

  26. 26.

    p.a.

    Pierce is right abt GOP prion disease; what kind of idjit looks at these “pencil-necked geeks” (h/t Classy Freddy Blassie) yammering abt masculinity and bootstrap individualism without doing spit takes?

  30. 30.

    Shalimar

    @tokyokie: Little Lord Buckley is comms guy for a congresscritter in a safe Republican seat, so Buck’s job in the current environment is to be a professional troll and provocateur.  I would say being raised by Tucker gives him excellent insight and practice at doing that job with outstanding aplomb.  It takes advantage of what most likely are his only skills.

  31. 31.

    lowtechcyclist

    What was the original ‘swipe’ that someone took at young Buckley that started this sequence?

  32. 32.

    Betty

    @lgerard: Based on whay I have read, he has not been an effective Director of Communications except for getting his boss five appearances on Tucker’s show. Perhaps that makes him worth the salary

  33. 33.

    Shalimar

    I’m guessing Emmer wishes he was the ass-kisser who had hired Carlson’s son rather than the idiot pretending Republicans don’t believe in nepotism.

  34. 34.

    Shalimar

    @lowtechcyclist: Anonymous GOP source referring to Jim Banks, “Deep down, he dies to be liked by the Establishment. He hires Tucker Carlson’s son, a 24-year-old kid, to be his communications director.”

    That was it.  That was all it took to cause all this bullshit.

  35. 35.

    lowtechcyclist

    @tokyokie:

    It would be a bit unfair to unload on Little Lord Buckley if he had shown the slightest interest in achieving something on his own rather than taking a 6-figure salary as a right-wing political hack who appears to be wholly unqualified for the position and incapable of competently executing his assigned duties.

    This.  I remember being 24 and trying to figure out what to do with my life.  It wasn’t easy, but with a good bit of trial and error, eventually I found a career I was ready to stick with for the long run.

    This kid got a job and then a considerable promotion almost entirely because his daddy is a big shot.  And on top of that, apparently neither he nor his daddy wants anyone to say anything mean to or about him.  Well, fuck that shit. If you take a political job, you don’t get a ‘safe space.’

  36. 36.

    AnonPhenom

    @lgerard:

     

     

    There is no evidence that he is incompetent

    So?
    Haberman is a competent nepotism hire also, (just not in accordance with the actual job description of *reporter*.)
    Not sure being a competent hack is an admirable trait in and of itself.

  37. 37.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Shalimar: Wow. So Buckley wasn’t even the target of that swipe, but just the hint that he might not have gotten his job due to his stellar qualifications was enough to get Daddy throwing a shit-fit.

    The kid has the most vacuous expression in that photo, as if there aren’t two brain cells to rub together behind that bland facade.

  38. 38.

    J R in WV

    Poor Buckley,  doomed to go through life with that name and that face. I feel so bad for the guy…

    Nah, I’m pulling the other one! The  guy looks like the  most intolerable Little Lord Fontelroy, self satisfied, overwhelmed little twit to ever walk the face of the world!

  39. 39.

    lowtechcyclist

    @AnonPhenom:  And there’s also a crowd of people in the news business saying we shouldn’t pick on Haberman either.

    Fuck all these characters who insist that privilege must be respected.

  40. 40.

    Soprano2

    This reminds me of a guy I worked with a long time ago. He whined about how everyone thought his daddy got him his job, because daddy was a higher-up in public works. My comment was that if it really bothered him he could always go work somewhere else, where no one cared about who his daddy was. Now he’s a chief inspector with the city, so I guess he got over it. *rolleyes

  43. 43.

    Soprano2

    @J R in WV: He’s probably been told his whole life that he’s part of the superior class, and is deserving of everything he’s been given. It’s so funny considering the things that come out of conservatives’ mouths about people who aren’t in their “class”.

  46. 46.

    Kay

    I watched about half of the Lincoln Project documentary- I don’t know if I’ll watch more, it’s tedious- and honestly they’re all pretty whiny and pampered on the Right. It isn’t just the far Right.

    Even the apostates in the GOP are very unhappy people. Nothing turned out like they thought it would in the GOP, “but Democrats are bad tooooo!”- on and on like that.

    They’re working from this gorgeous (and luxe) location, they have money to burn on the campaign, and there’s not a bit of joy or pleasure in the work among them.

  48. 48.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @lgerard:

    I think young Buckley was named after his uncle.I also think it is a bit unfair to be unloading on the guy just because his father is a hypocritical fascist pig.

    Seconded. I completely agree, and I think piling on the kid (or young man if you prefer) as a proxy for his father is a little misdirected.

    It is possible that the young man took advantage of his opportunity, worked hard, and is modestly successful at his job.  He may view having Tucker as a father is as much a curse as a blessing.

    There we might disagree. I guess it’s possible, but I think if young Buckley wanted to get away from his father’s reputation and influence, he probably wouldn’t have gone into the field of Republican communications.

    The only reasons for him to select that particular career are because he wants to be just like his dad, or because he wants to take advantage of his father’s influence and connections. Maybe both.

    I suppose one could argue that B.C. chose that field because his upbringing made him familiar with it, and with the players involved, but I fail to see how that’s meaningfully different from arguing that he chose it because his father’s influence and connections made it an easy choice.​​​​

  51. 51.

    Paul in KY

    @lowtechcyclist: When I was 24, I was running a Comm Center. Well…actually my sergeant was running it. I was the guy for when they needed to do a LOR on someone.  But I was there!

  54. 54.

    Zelma

    Buckley must be pretty popular with other Congressional staffers.  Not.  $130,000 is just about the top of the salary scale for staffers,  My kid has been at it for 15 years and is LD for a Senator and he makes about that salary.

  55. 55.

    andy

    Nepo-baby gonna baby talk. It’s demeaning enough to kiss the boss’s ass- but the boss’s son? These conservative loyalty oaths are pretty rugged!

  56. 56.

    tokyokie

    My evaluation of  precious Little Lord Buckley’s job performance is based entirely on the premise that if a politician’s coms director is drawing more media attention than the politician, then the coms director is really fucking up.

  58. 58.

    Paul Begala's Pink Tie

    Heavy “Cameron from Dead Poets Society” vibes. Some DC sex worker out there is getting paid.

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