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James Talarico’s campaign could do lasting damage to the GOP (www.salon.com)

submitted 1 month ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/politics@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] goldenquetzal@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

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.

this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026

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