In recent interviews, Tucker Carlson has echoed the sentiments of a growing number of conservatives who, deterred by the conscripted nature of socialism and suspicious of the excesses of capitalism, are taking an honest look at Republicanism’s banner of puritanical capitalism for capitalism’s sake. Speaking with the Atlantic’s Elaina Plott last month, Carlson relayed his philosophical journey and how, as time has gone on, he finds himself more attracted to policies such as those of Elizabeth Warren, who he says reflects “economic patriotism.” This interview comes after an impassioned monologue on his show recently where he chastised private equity shops and our market climate as “vulture capitalism.”

His skepticism of the marketplace to fairly advocate for the “working man” and his own well-documented past of insistence on culture and the importance of collective identity may have led him to accidentally and inadvertently land upon distributism as his current working philosophy of the economy. Though, as his interview with indicates, he may only have this mindset temporarily as he finds himself constantly evolving in his thinking — it’s worth noting that Carlson presently echoes what has been rumbling on the outskirts of mainstream conservative thought since the 2008 financial crisis: Capitalism’s excessive nature has a tendency to be exploitive, underserving, and lacks the ability to account for traditional tenets of national or communal identity.