Commenter Thread

Comments on Talarico by Tony P.

Thank you nous. The NYT "transcript" is a totally unformatted wall of text. You have to figure out from context who is speaking any given sentence.

I've been aware of both Talarico and Crockett for a while now. I like them both, and one reason I'm glad I don't live in Texas is that I don't have to chose between them in the primary.

Talarico's Christian schtick (not disparaging it; just can't think of a better word) may be exactly what's needed to win a general election in Texas -- or just what's needed to raise false hopes again. I repeat what I've often said before: I'm done chasing "electability", and anyway Texas Dems ought to be better judges of it than I am in this case.

I have a couple of reservations about explicit appeals to Christianity as a political strategy. First, it reinforces the lamentably wide-spread view that Christians have some sort of monopoly on decency. Second, I worry that Christ-like impulses like "judge not", and "turn the other cheek", and forgiveness of sins, may be impediments to the deMAGAfication the US sorely needs. But I absolutely accept that a Christian like Talarico is better able to weaken the support that Old Testament Christians have garnered from voters who think of themselves as devotees of Jesus.

--TP