Tucker: "I love Washington. My wife and all four of my children were born in Northwest."

Translation: "I love the one part of Washington that's lily white and upper middle class. And I sure hope it stays that way."

Pet peeve alert: Don't capitalize "id." It's not an abbreviation of "identification," it's its own word.

One could say the same thing about Alaska voters. Just sayin'.

Carlson's patent racism speaks for itself.

Adam, I think you meant:

Maybe we should just have a cloistered elite group that chooses our leaders for us;

Maybe you're just being sly, but you certainly went out of your way to ignore the screaming racist subtext.

The reason that conservatives lie with such abandon in policy debates is becasue at heart they simply do not believe the democratic system is valid, and so there is nothing wrong with poluting the system with lies.

I've had some Twiscussions with conservatives recently and their hatred of democracy was palpable. The notion of the majority voting to tax themselves in order to provide healthcare for all Americans, for example, sends them into paroxysms of fury, especially when I point out that a core conerstone of Obama's platform that won the Presidency for him in November was health care reform. "Nobody has the right to force me to pay taxes to pay for someone else's healthcare!" Uhm, dude. It's called DEMOCRACY. And yes, in a democracy, the majority can quite legitimately vote to tax themselves (and the minority) to provide services that the private market can't/won't/is failing to provide. But they hate, hate, hate it, and will tell you so if you ask them.

Well, all the best parts of American governance are the ones that start out "Congress shall make no law..." which is a profoundly undemocratic sentiment. So it's hard for me to automatically bash someone for saying that democracy is not their first priority. For me, liberty is the first priority, and whatever republican institutions we need to create to preserve it are OK by me - democracy is good because it serves liberty better than any other system we've seen so far, but as soon as it stops doing that, I stop valuing it.

jaroi for the win.

We already have an elite group that picks our leaders, the Democratic and Republican parties.

The fact that Tucker Carlson appears on the TV means we're not ready for corporate-owned media.

They're social Darwinists. Otherwise they don't believe in evolution.

One could say the same thing about Alaska voters. Just sayin'.

I was thinking one could say the same thing about America circa 2004.

What ever his failings, and they are legion, Barry was chosen by the people as their mayor. They may have screwed up, but it's been my experience that people prefer screwing up to being screwed over.

The weirdest transformation of political terminology hasn't been what happened to the word 'liberal' since John Stuart Mill -- it's what happened to the word 'republican'.

A royalist party in a parliament has no real interest in increasing its share of votes in that body, never mind cooperating with the small-r republican parties in governing. Their purpose for being is to shut it down, or at least neuter it, so that there can be a restoration of the monarchy

The GOP's present position is analogous to the royalists and Bonapartists in the French assemblies of the 19th century.

They have no interest in the smooth functioning -- any functioning -- of a body whose legitimacy they fundamentally do not accept. They only want a rapid transition back to a monarchy.

Glad the racial subtext was as glaring and offensive to others as it was to me... in that context, saying that a group of people are not capable of governing themselves takes on an even creepier colonialist overtone.

The city's not ready for democracy, much less statehood.

LOL!

In a way, it's a fair point. But the same point can be made about the teeming masses of blithering idiots who voted for G. W. Bush.

Caro wrote, ...saying that a group of people are not capable of governing themselves takes on an even creepier colonialist overtone.

But it's a fun principle...let's apply it to the non-Hispanic white vote in 2008, and ask what fraction of them voted for McCain.

Well of course they hate democracy - they lost.

"I love the one part of Washington that's lily white and upper middle class. And I sure hope it stays that way."

How intolerable! The whole city should be one giant Anacostia...right, Peter?

Some comments for Tucker Carlson on why DC residents might support Marion Barry for mayor.

Firstly, Northwest has 200,000 people and you nore' say your neighborhood more closely for fear that is perhaps real. Outsiders in Northwest are afraid of the crime rate in ways that vote radical policing.

And second, Washington is not a Capuchin. Washington is more of a Papal State governed by the hyck atheist. Who believes religion is nobody's business. And who believes black America belongs in the boardroom or in the provision of services and that America is essentially a corporate enterprise.

ya know, those coloreds aren't very smart

Maybe they were born in NW, but their schooling was provided by elite St Stephens over in Alexandria

The anti-democratic sentiment is common on the right. At its best I think of Bryan Caplan's "Myth of the Rational Voter." Voters make bad decisions, the same people as consumers make good decisions. It's kind of an interesting theory, regardless of its validity. That's the better side of this school of thought. The uglier side is represented by people like Peter Thiel and apparently Tucker Carlson.