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.
As a Texan, I’ll believe it when I see it. We have a “puppies for everyone vs diarrhea forever” situation going and it’s a fucking TOSSUP!
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.
The GOP needs to have lasting damage done to it and democrats need to get their shit together.
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.
As someone who, unfortunately, needs to interact with a lot of American “Christians”, it cannot be understated how little of Christ’s own words are spoken in most Protestant churches.
Years of going to church with my wife’s family and I’ve heard Romans or Timothy 2 dozens of times but I can’t remember the last time I heard anything from the gospels that were actually Jesus’ words vice an apostle.
Sunday school is worse. Kids learn Old testament -> brief synopsis of Jesus, mostly John (should be obvious by now why) -> and then wrote memorize Paul.
Christians in America generally avoid Christ as much as possible.
I remember Robert Anton Wilson, who grew up Catholic, musing about how they should probably be called Paulians. Man, did that hit home with my experience.
I grew up xtian (from a liberal tradition of xtianity) and when I started hearing how other kids that were also xtian talking about certain issues, as early as maybe third or fourth grade I started to understand that there are vastly different interpretations of what that means.
I read the NT at a rather early age, slogged through the OT later, 2x for both of them (although I admit to skimming Numbers) and that did a lot to generally give me a great distance from all of it.
When hard core wingers talk about “the bible”, I often get the sense they have never read anything but hand-selected passages spoon-fed to them. It is especially wild to notice that when I talk about “red letter xtians” around them they often get a look of confusion. Before the term was concocted, though, even as an adolescent, when I’d ask people if what they were espousing was something that was written in red, they’d be confused. Which is strange, since quite a few bibles I’ve seen have Jesus’ words in red…
When this same batch of illiterates advocate for “teaching the bible”, part of me wants to say - yes, let’s do that, but read the entire thing and have class discussions after each assigned reading.
No special guidance, though, from certain beliefs. No apologetics applied to “explain” all the contradictions with logic, math, science and ethics. Start to finish, baby, even if it takes a few years to do it.
See how long that lasts, LOL.
But the headline of an episode of evangelical podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey’s show was perhaps the most inflammatory: “James Talarico is More Demonic Than You Think.” Stuckey, who has attacked empathy as “toxic,” warned viewers and listeners that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Satan looks good. He sounds good.” Talarico, she said, is “evil disguised as goodness.”
Or, your mythical satan might use a cunt named Allie Beth as a mouthpiece.
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.
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.
As long as there are humans there will be the equivalent of the GOP. There are always backwards, selfish, hateful people.
This is wishful thinking. Evangelicals have been aware of liberal Christian churches forever, and they hate them more than anything.
Evangelicals aren’t a large enough fraction, they’re just loud
Loud and highly motivated to vote
Those absurd attempts to suppress Talarico’s interview with Jimmy Kimmel tell a different story. It shows they are scared of him. Even if they didn’t need to be scared of him, showing that you’re scared isn’t a good look.
I don’t mean that Talarico can’t win. He’s a slight favorite, according to the polls. Republicans are scared of him, as they should be. They’re worried that most independents in Texas, even conservative leaning ones, will go for Talarico over the odious Paxton this year.
That’s different than saying Talarico has the potential to permanently pull Evangelicals over to Democrats in meaningful numbers. Those are Trump’s base. They’ve long been aware that it is possible to be a Christian and a decent person at the same time, and have roundly rejected the notion.
The “christian right” is a broad category going far beyond Evangelicals, and I don’t think anyone’s addressed their hypocrisy in such an appealing and convincing way before. Many will dig their heels in and stick to the tribal identity, but their claims of being real Christians are going to sound more hollow to a lot of people.
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.
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?
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.
There’s no such thing as a right wing Christian so there’s only hypocrites, bigots, and liars to try to appeal to but otherwise, sure, that’s the rhetorical line he needs to draw to get those hypocritical votes.
There’s no such thing as a right wing Christian
No such thing as a true Scotsman
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.
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.
…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.
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.
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.
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)
One might note that he says all that business and then violates a bunch of the laws.
Can anyone really know one way or another? Isn’t much of the bible fanfic written by dozens or people over hundreds of years? Like, one of the most widely known Jesus stories, about letting the person who is without sin cast the first stone, is from what I understand widely acknowledged by experts to have been grafted on to the bible hundreds of years later.
They are big fans of Old Testament God who was a giant asshole.
Here’s the thing about The Bible: it says all kinds of shit. Much of it contradictory. And so you’ll find that the parts of The Bible people subscribe to are always the parts that reinforce their existing ideology, because it can then be weaponized as a sort of justification of their views. So, those people are just giant assholes using “the word of God” as justification to continue being assholes.
…which is why I call it basically a Rorschach blot in literary form - whatever ethics you wish to seek in there, you can find. I would think that most people come to this stuff via their own moral and ethical system and cherry pick the parts that fit that bias and make it fit.
All my life, I’ve run into the kind of religious zealots that would insist that “you cannot have ethics without [their] god and [their] religion” - and I’ve always found this so absurdly and painfully naive. You can tell these sort have had next to no introduction to anything philosophical, except as through an explicit filter provided by their equally zealous parents or pastor or whatever.
Robert Anton Wilson would often say something like “What the Thinker Thinks, The Prover Proves” and when it comes to varying sects of xtianity and where they lie on the ideological and moral spectrum, you can see this in action.
The “red letter xtians” or people like Thomas Jefferson can read most of what Jesus says and find their value system there. The assholes that believe in Supply Side Jesus and/or a “muscular xtianity” can ignore most of what Jesus actually says in the NT and prefer most of Paul and the uglier things in the OT for their system of belief.
Which is probably why official churches were very important in early Christianity. You can’t let the masses interpret it themselves.
Which also explains why there were a lot of prohibitions on translations into local languages.
It also explains why you had an explosion of various sects ever since the printing press. These days there are ~45,000 denominations of xtianity.
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.
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.
(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.
GOP is doing lasting damage to the GOP
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.
