All politics are identity politics. Republicans have long mocked this notion, treating the very concept of “identity politics” as a left-wing fixation. In reality, the GOP’s success is entirely due to the cheapest form of identity politics: For decades, but especially now, they have worked to distract voters from the party’s ruinous policies with appeals to their identity as white, provincial and, most importantly, Christian. This campaign has been enormously successful. White evangelicals have been the backbone of the GOP for decades not because they love tax cuts for the rich and environmental degradation, but because they have been told, repeatedly, that Democrats are demonic and there is no such thing as a liberal Christian.
This is why there’s a growing panic in the Republican ranks over the campaign of James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, and it’s not just fear that he could beat Ken Paxton, the state’s Republican attorney general. Win or lose, Talarico — a seminary student-turned-politician — embodies an existential threat to the right’s long-standing myth that to be Christian must necessarily mean voting Republican.
He is very Christian and perfect for Texas. Talarico being interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel that wasn’t aired on tv because of the FCC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDE9LrGpNk
(Currently at 12 million views)
Very Christian, but he is what I would expect from Christians.
I wonder if he is doing so well because he’s actually popular, or because Republicans have picked the worst candidate imaginable.
yeah, it’s hilarious how much they contrast - paxton, whose entire career has been grift and crime, vs. a guy who looks like he just left teaching bible school.
I think that’s why he’s the perfect weapon. You can’t look at that guy and say he isn’t sincere or knowledgeable in his religious beliefs, and he draws a straight line from that to his political position. His sincerity must come over as something exceptional if you’re used to listening to GOP politicians. It’s not going to win over every voter but I think it will cause a few to really question themselves.
I felt much the same way. Like, when he dropped this - that God loves transgender and queer children, and that they, too, are made in his image. - dude yes, this is the way.
so when he tossed trans kids under the bus I was pretty fucking bummed out.
I’m not in texas, still will tell fam there to vote for him, but fucks sake human rights are human rights and if you’ve already staked that out, you’re doing right. to backpedal now is just… fucking fuck.
This is a really tricky issue for him, not saying he handled it the right way. Voting the right way in the Texas House but seemingly walking it back in a Fox interview isn’t great, but I don’t know how to handle it better. Trans kids in sport is the wedge issue of the moment and if he takes a confrontational hard line about that on Fox news it would instantly alienate him from the audience he is trying to reach. I don’t think you can realistically be the guy who appeals to right wing christians and the guy who consistently champions trans rights. Getting people to break out of identity politics isn’t easy and wedge issues exist to drive people back into their tribal mindset. Not a battle you can win.
That’s why I’m saying he’s the perfect weapon, not the perfect politician. Honestly the whole clean cut white christian thing gives me the creeps and I wouldn’t leave him alone with my kids on that basis alone. But I do think he’s the right guy in the right place at the right time.
It doesn’t help that the Trans community is taking such a hard stance on this issue. You’re either 100% on their side, or you’re a bigot. It’s playing right into the hands of the Republicans.
My trans son doesn’t think sports are a big deal - doping is already disallowed so he couldn’t compete on either the boys or girls teams in soccer at high school, wanted to play but it’s not anything he thought a big issue - more like if he wanted to play that bad, would have waited to do T and “tomboy” his way onto the girls team, and did end up having to wait until 18 anyway, the laws changed.
And almost no people are good enough at sports to be pro. And not a large proportion of the population is trans, the intersection of those two has to be vanishingly small.
Is it legal for a very short athletic woman to have her kids with a short athletic guy to advantage them in gymnastics? Is it legal for me to have my kids with a very tall athletic guy because it will advantage them in volleyball? There is just SO much intra-sex variation I don’t understand why it matters but mostly just wanted to say the actual trans people I personally know don’t give a fuck about being able to be on a gendered sports team.
I hate to say I agree with you on this. And I really hate to say it because I also agree with the trans community in principle. But it’s a really small issue compared to a lot of the other evils in this world, and it’s being used to perpetuate those other evils.
yeah, it’s not like a human rights issue where a tiny sliver of people are being denied human rights by bigots for no scientific reason whatsover.
oh wait shit that’s exactly what it is.
yeah he’s still better than paxton, but that’s a damned sad thing to boast
one day they’ll talk about this and you’ll all deny you excluded people from participating in society. tricky issue of human rights, oof
also, ffs, have a spine: don’t give into wedge issues, especially when they come from fox news who will never support human rights.
have a spine: don’t give into wedge issues
And that, folks, is how we made idiocracy happen
I felt much the same way. Like, when he dropped this - that God loves transgender and queer children, and that they, too, are made in his image. - dude yes, this is the way.
None of that has changed. He just feels different about a couple issues.
“feels different”? When talking about real actual day-to-day life, he talks about trans people like they’re second class citizens.
Does he? You got examples of this?
one day they’ll talk about this and you’ll all deny excluding the other.
Ohh, I saw some of that. The religion part got a little ooky.
I’ll preface this by saying I’m not religious at all. I think the fake Christianity running rampant in today’s world is the cause of so much strife. I’m also not a resident of Texas.
Talarico talks like someone that I think a Christian should sound like. It doesn’t sound like he’s trying to justify his bad actions by saying “God told me to.” He genuinely feels like a nice person who happens to be religious, instead of someone who thinks they’re nice BECAUSE they’re religious.
Yeah but is that 12 million Texans the ones who must vote for him? Doubt it even close to anybody who needed to hear his message heard it.
…there is no such thing as a liberal Christian.
American Christians are a weird bunch. They are big fans of Old Testament God who was a giant asshole. He was a basically a bronze age war God that demanded absolute submission and kept killing people for sometimes bizzare reasons (like he killed a bunch of kids for laughing at a bald dude).
Big J came around and said: hey all that Old Testament shit sucks. Don’t chop your kids dick’s off and kill people that aren’t like you. Just chill and love each other, that’s the way to go. It’s why most Christians around the world don’t circumcise for example, because Jesus fulfilled the law and abolished it.
I’m an atheist honestly and don’t care what people believe or don’t believe in as long as they just mind their own business. Also don’t be a hypocrite and follow the god damn rules Jesus set for you if you’re gonna call yourself a Christian.
He was a basically a bronze age war God
I have long said that people are ridiculous for thinking that bronze age philosophy is applicable for daily life. Also, evidence is that Yaweh was a Sumerian Earth god that was picked up by the Hebrews during their nomadic times.
Yeah. There was a lot of syncretism back then, everyone kept copying the homework from each other. Slap a new name or just modify the one they had a little bit and bam its our God now.
It’s why most Christians around the world don’t circumcise for example, because Jesus fulfilled the law and abolished it.
The reason why most christians don’t follow jewish law is that Paul wasn’t fond of it. His interpretation won against other branches (including that of John, Jesus literal brother), hence the laws were abandoned for gentiles.
Nobodsy knows what the fuck Jesus might have actualy taught, but the author of Matthew is quite clear about it:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17-19)
Because Jesus fulfilled the law and abolished it.
Key thing to note, Jesus did not abolish the old law. He fulfilled it by being the final sacrifice for sin. He’s specifically quoted as saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” He’s mainly talking about the 10 commandments, not the law of Leviticus that was only for the Israelites.
I’m not religious anymore, but it’s a key distinction.
he killed a bunch of kids for laughing at a bald dude)
This is my favorite bible story. God sends bears from the woods to do it. The Bible is fucking bananas sometimes.
Eh, Jesus is better than the old testament God, but even he still does some pretty shitty stuff in the new testament. That’s the thing about Christianity (and most organized religions) though, it doesn’t have to make sense or be consistent or even moral or ethical. It’s propaganda, a tool for controlling the masses, not actual philosophical doctrine.
(like he killed a bunch of kids for laughing at a bald dude).
He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!”
And no, I won’t apologize for referencing A Christmas Inheritance by the Apocalypse Players.
This is exactly what I’ve been saying since Talarico came on the scene. The voters are there if he can pierce the bubble and reach them, but that’s the hardest part. That’s exactly why his interview with Kimmel is on YouTube instead of regular cable.
Many of the kinds of people he’s appealing to don’t follow politics at all. They vote R because they perceive the people around them to be doing it too. He doesn’t need to convince all Christians in Texas to vote for him. He just needs to get some of them having the conversation. That is enough to shake things up in this election.
If he manages to make his case in a compelling enough way to reach voters in other states then the GOP is absolutely fucked. Low information Christian voters are the foundation of the party. There aren’t enough Nazis in America to replace them if the GOP loses a double digit percentage of them.
You can’t follow teachings of Jesus and be a Republican.
Christ said to pay your taxes, that hoarding wealth is a sin, and he flipped shit (and tables) over the commercialization of faith in the temple.
He threatens Hell one time (Matthew 25), and it’s for the mistreatment of the poor, hungry, sick, imprisoned, and foreigners.
My parents are very strong, theologically conservative Christians and vote Republican. I say “vote Republican” because they’re not invested in the machinery and drama around Republican politics. They don’t attend conventions or rallys. They don’t watch Fox new or follow the 24 hour news cycle. They’re not at all wealthy but are comfortable (through frugal living) and they take advantage of public programs. They are essentially single-issue voters - abortion. I’m 95% sure that if the parties magically switched positions and Democrats were pro-life and Republican pro-choice, my parents would start voting Democrat.
The Republicans’ entire existence is due to 2 single-issue voting groups. Pro-Life and Pro-gun.
It definitely more abt keeping antiquated rules and racist traditions. Pro-“Life” is only for the control over women’s bodies in that they have to keep viable (and unviable) pregnancies to term, after that the women and children can go fuck themselves. I would say my parents biggest voting issue is the culture war thats claimed their three children. Im gay and my sisters are queer and progressive. My dad has hundreds if not thousands of Facebook posts complaining that his children are no contact with him. Pro-“gun” means they want more school children to die while they are in class studying how to survive drag queen attacks at libraries.
Southpark, Simpsons, or the Onion really can’t make this shit up it sounds so crazy. George Orwell knew
Don’t threaten me with a good time. If he can win those idiots over, I could see him becoming president at some point, which would be great if he is dismantling the toxic Christian nationalism that has plagued the USA forever.
Just look at how the older cons go on about Jimmy Carter for your answer.
Jimmy Carter wore his xtianity on his sleeve, and as far as walking the walk he was probably the closest thing as far as Presidents go and yet…all the evangelicals could not flee fast enough to the Republicans later on. And it was mostly about white flight xtian schools.
I hope I’m wrong when it comes to how it might play out for Talarico. But an early warning might be how these right-wing freaks are butthurt and very keen on insisting that their god must have a penis.
https://www.salon.com/2025/01/09/how-jimmy-carters-so-called-betrayal-of-evangelicals-led-to-maga/
Hard as it may be to believe, Carter won the majority of evangelical voters in 1976. Being a white evangelical Christian from the South, he read to many as one of theirs. Things shifted in 1978, however, over an issue that seems obscure now, but was a big deal to white evangelicals at the time: school desegregation.
The thing is, if Hell exists, it will be filled to the brim with Evangelical “Christians”. It’s like their pastors never told them that asking for forgiveness doesn’t matter if you continue the behavior.
GOP is doing lasting damage to the GOP
The Regressives (aka the Pedo Party) need to go away. They are holding back humanity.
If Talarico doesn’t win due to the scum-sucking pieces of shit cheating, at least he can do some damage.
Rapeublicans
Lasting damage is what we want. Too bad this is just another opinion piece and not news. Kinda like polls telling you what you want to hear until they’ve been proven false. Ignore the bullshit on both sides and vote like you’ve never voted before.
Vote early from October 19th to October 30th. If you live in one of these counties, you can vote at any polling station in the county you are registered.
The GOP needs to have lasting damage done to it and democrats need to get their shit together.
I’d love to see lasting damage done to conservatives and their party - damage that lasts for generations.
Prior to the Great Depression three Republicans repeatedly cut taxes for the wealthy, reduced government regulation, and made corporations a driving force in the government. (Sound familiar?) When the Depression hit it took 20 years for another Republican to be elected and almost 50 years if you exclude Eisenhower.
IMO Trump is going to cause another depression and for many Americans that depression has already begun. Maybe people will remember this, but who am I kidding?
I’m Gen X, and I remember hearing older generations from the working class - and the very poor part of it, no less - bitching about FDR, comparing him to a dictator, saying he was a Communist, etc…and these motherfuckers almost surely had their lives improved by FDR.
My parents were boomers and would overhear this kind of thing (usually with lots of colorful language not really meant for kids) and when I was asking what they were talking about, they would just shake their heads and I could tell they were quite pissed about all of the stupidity they had to wade through daily. We lived in the rust belt and in a very red area.
And that’s all pre-hate radio, pre-Faux News. And wayyyyy before shit platforms like Xitter and Facebook and Nextdoor…somehow, I doubt these types will learn much of anything.
Nextdoor drives me nuts. I see people posting ChatGPT-generated menu poster things with not-food images in them and some folks just slurping it up despite things like when there’s 5 sides listed, and because 2 of them are potato it ends up scrambling them into one gross object (raw/boiled fry-shaped potato sprinkled with paprika, mashing up ‘potato salad’ and ‘french fries’).
Or ‘chicken’ that is Ribbed For Your Pleasure, or chicken where every hair pore is toasted so that it looks simultaneously burnt and raw.
I guess I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing that.
When I bother to look into Nextdoor - it seems my feed is filled with Karens upset about kids and their e-bikes, lots of reactionary bullshit that seems to revolve around water restrictions - “why can’t I have a lush green yard full of a non-native grass when they are building apartment high-rises in Denver?! That’s obviously where all the water is going!”
Lots of people that refuse to accept the idea that what they assumed is some kind of eternal “way of life” is itself something that was socially engineered - everything from lush green grass of a species that is non-native to the high desert, to eating loads of meat for three meals a day, as well as unwalkable neighborhoods miles and miles from a city center with no viable public transit…I think because Nextdoor is kind of rooted in the idea of the physical space people occupy that’s why this seems to come to the fore.
The very idea of imagining changes for the better seems to be antithetical; it’s more about preserving all the systems that are currently in place, as if they have been in place for centuries instead of decades, no matter how stupid and myopic they are.
I guess I haven’t seen the AI slop. So far, it’s all human-generated.
I doubt it but I hope so. And I think it’s also crucial that these Christians don’t push the party to embrace forcing everyone to follow their rules.
I wish it plays out like this. I really do.
But the cynic in me says that the two biggest reports I’ve seen on Talarico’s lead were both from Kalshi and Polymarket. A couple of people stand to grow very rich(er) if the odds are in blue’s favor but red manages to win… Which is why I both doubt the blue numbers from these sources and believe they would take… shall we say, further action in order to help their odds if it turned out to be necessary.
Paxton is for sure taking the win, it’s already decided.
A bit of cynicism and skepticism is healthy, but you don’t have to do the GOP’s job and manifest the outcome for them. I.e. do more to get out the vote for Talarico, and pre-emptively block or actively counter the methods used to help Paxton’s odds. Cook Political Report puts Texas as a Toss Up, so neither Paxton nor Talarico’s win is likely or assured.
If a county reduces voting locations in bluer districts, offer more services to transport voters to the polls in those areas. If there’s attempt at interference, put that to the courts. In fact draft up a suit that prohibits federal agents of any kind from “monitoring” poll locations, in case Trump decides to fart some kind of threat out in the next couple months.
I hate that we treat sports betting as the equivalent of a poll, but it tracks with how politics is sports for people who think they’re too smart for sports.
I don’t follow how you got to that last sentence. You’ve seen 2 questionable polls, so that’s absolute proof Paxton’s already won?
Here’s some hope: (This data is from 2024, so with the current political climate, it is probably even better for the Ds)
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/will-texas-ever-turn-blue-heres-what
As long as there are humans there will be the equivalent of the GOP. There are always backwards, selfish, hateful people.
