With Argentina on what appears to be a resolute path towards rejecting socialism, Tucker Carlson went to Buenos Aires to see for himself what was going on, and to interview its presidential frontrunner, Javier Milei. A couple days ago, he began with a curtain-opener video about what life is like in Argentina with 165% inflation, the product of decades of government overspending, and since then has came out with his promised exclusive with Milei, which was quite an eye opener. Here it is:
 

Ep. 24 Argentina’s next president could be Javier Milei. Who is he? We traveled to Buenos Aires to speak with him and find out. pic.twitter.com/4WwTZYoWHs

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 14, 2023

Most of us have seen various clips on Twitter and YouTube showing just how fiery and committed to destroying socialism Milei is. He's out to end government money-printing, special interest carveouts that make a mockery of rule of law and government bureaucrat-hiring. He's an open admirer of President Trump, and unabashedly U.S.-friendly. He's unafraid to criticize the Argentine pope. He revels in the beauty and advancement of capitalism and abhors the poverty and misery that come of socialism every time it's tried. He's unabashedly pro-life. He's pure fire against the biased press and he draws gargantuan crowds to his rallies. His views are largely libertarian (the word they use is "Liberal" with a capital 'L' but it's the same thing) and very pro-free market. He vows to cut government down to size. And to kill inflation dead in Argentina, which is the number one issue there, he vows to replace the Argentine peso with the U.S. dollar, which already is the country's unofficial currency.

Of course the press and establishment hate him.

But Tucker decided to sit down with him and find out what he's really about and the result was kind of unexpected.

Turns out Milei is a very thoughtful man, almost a philosopher king of sorts. He's introspective, he thinks things through. He's able to hold an intense conversation about ideas and why some ideas work and don't work. He started slowly, when asked by Tucker about why he was so popular, giving his background in various fields of entertainment, but eventually coming around to the fact that it was his ideas that were resonating with the public.

He was asked about his criticism of Pope Francis, which has led to a few fiery exchanges with the pontiff, and gave a pretty good response, there, too. He ripped into the phony notion of "social justice." He brought up something Tucker seemed unaware of, that the pope had coddled a lot of Latin socialist dictators at a time when he should have been condemning them. In Latin America, that sticks in a lot of people's craws, the sorry fact that this pope will always side with the state at critical times, no matter how failed and nasty those states are and no matter how many lies they tell about being for the people, instead of the people he himself claims to champion who are persecuted mercilessly. Yes, that's a big deal.

Asked why he opposes abortion, Milei gave an excellent libertarian answer which not all avowed libertarians here even understand (although the good ones, such as Ron Paul and Rand Paul, certainly do) -- that a woman has a right to her own body and a baby has a right to his or hers, too, which is an inherent and non-negotiable right to life. That response rocked.

Asked about socialism, Milei gave his most thoughtful answer of all, describing not just the "bloodstained" history of socialism but the roots behind its will to power -- that socialists see themselves as omniscent and omnipotent which eventually adds up to being a replacement for God. He emphasized that socialism was essentially thievery which not only robs the working men of the fruits of thier just labors, but also creates two-tier justice. The thievery emphasis was a useful one for understanding why socialism fails, and why he stands so committed against it.

He also emphasized the libertarian emphasis on pacificism. which was very attractive. No neocon wars for him.

Asked about global warming, he viewed it as an extension of socialism as well as a fraud.

Asked about China and he gave a surprising answer -- that Argentina wasn't going to do any deals with China on moral grounds because it was a socialist communist regime and therefore all about thievery. People could trade with China if they wanted, but no state deals on the grounds that he sought to make Argentina a moral leader. I doubt anyone had that on his bingo card ... Wow.

He was asked to give advice to President Trump, and accepted the challenge humbly, not wanting to be seen ordering Trump around, tiptoeing around in the framing of it, but urging President Trump to keep doing what he is doing and never back down an inch. That was a thoughtful and masterly response.

One area where Milei did seem to answer oddly was when Tucker asked him if he got down on his knees to pray to God, which was a total Baba Wawa softball question in the states. Milei seemed taken aback and didn't quite answer that directly. He emphasized that he truly appreciated that others were praying for him, particularly at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem (he has reportedly been very attracted to Orthodox Judaism and its emphasis on just laws but remains a Catholic). However, Milei never answered the question directly himself. I am thinking there may have been a cultural issue here, or perhaps a deep felt belief that one doesn't go advertising that he's a praying person just because it might offend God as self-aggrandisement. In any case, Tucker let that answer stand as it was, it might have been too personal a question. It would be weird indeed if Milei didn't pray given his beliefs and his appreciation for others praying for him.

Tucker was a bit light on inflation questions, which perhaps he felt he covered in his earlier segment but it would have been nice to hear more about that from Milei who would have been eloquent. Tucker also asked nothing about dollarization, which is Milei's signature issue and certainly his most radical proposal, the one that is getting him votes, which was a frustraqting omission but I am guessing it's because Tucker knows that most of his American audience doesn't understand dollarization and figure that if Argentines use our money, they will ruin it, which is nonsense. Actually, in the era of de-dollarization in other parts of the world even in basic trade transactions, it's a prestige-builder for the U.S. and increases its clout. It's also a money-maker for the U.S. through a concept known as 'seigniorage' which now that the Fed is losing money, would be a welcome bailout for the states. But that's complicated stuff that may not have been cover-able in a twitter segment.

It was deep enough a dive as it was, and listening to this 32-minute segment was something that will be keeping Americans thinking about for weeks. It's an amazing segment, well beyond the bounds of typical sound-bite journalism seen elsewhere. Tucker has a helpful index of where to see particular segments in the 32-minute video here. Be sure to hear it all.

Image: Twitter screen shot