This is just another flavor of that lazy "both parties are the same" nonsense. We are in the midst of a Trump-driven party realignment, and that means both parties are moving in different directions on different issues, and there are debates within both parties about where to go.

A generation ago, it was an active debate about whether sex acts between two people of the same sex should be a crime punishable by prison. We pushed real reforms through, from decriminalization to allowing them to hold security clearances and serve in the military, legalizing same sex marriage and recognizing their parenthood of children. We made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status. In all this time, these positions on LGBT rights shifted from far left fringes to internal divisions within the Democratic Party to mainstream views within the Democratic Party to influencing divisions in the Republican party. And although I'm disappointed in many Democrats not doing more to defend against active hostility towards transgender people, their positions aren't actually less transgender friendly than the norm even 10 years ago (much less 25).

On abortion, we've moved the party towards pro-choice, even as we've lost ground on the battlegrounds in the courts and in state legislatures. It used to be a fairly normal view to be a pro-life Democrat. Not necessarily the party majority, but there were enough elected Democrats who would vote against abortion rights, and compromises with them led to at least federal funding restrictions of abortions. At this point, pretty much any elected Democrat will not only fight for abortion rights, but are ready to bring the fight on putting government resources behind abortion access.

The active debate right now, within the Democratic Party, about Israel and Palestine, is so much further pro-Palestine than would be recognizable 20 years ago. For the first time, we have elected officials who are publicly against military aid for Israel, and in favor of prosecuting war crimes against senior Israeli government officials.

It's not every issue like this, though. Union membership is no longer a reliable indicator of Democratic Party support, and labor rights are a bit more muddled within the party. Lots of economic issues have gone from being partisan coded to mixed coalitions (tariffs and trade, environmental and energy policy, financial markets and banking regulation, health policy). And Democrats have backslid on immigration/border issues, much to my disappointment.

But most of it is just that Democrats have lost on policy issues over the last 10 years, and so the debate between Democrats on lots of these issues feel only theoretical rather than practical. Are there Democrats fighting for reducing carbon emissions, shoring up social security and the safety net, raising taxes, replenishing the middle class? Yes, sure, but they don't have the opportunity to actual discuss the details because they're mostly an opposition minority party fighting to stop the bleeding on destructive Republican policies going the other way.

Let's win some fucking elections so that we can actually have the debate. I'd love to see Democrats control a trifecta so that the coalition can churn out something like what Pelosi/Reid/Obama accomplished between 2009-2011 and listen to the left complain that the sausage making was too corporate/neolib/etc. That's the debate I'd like to have, from the position of having actually won back power.

It's obviously an improvement and very important strategic win but let's keep in mind:

• Paxton was a terrible candidate. Republicans didn't think they have to seriously fight and selected the worst possible candidates in many places
• Trump absolutely fucked Republicans over. He did everything he could to lose those elections
• Even for a "good" Republican candidate it would be incredibly difficult to someone distance himself from Trump and not lose MAGA votes
• The terrible economy pushed all the other issues to the back. This elections were over inflation and corruption, not LGBT or abortion.

In this context Talarico's win is not that shocking. He simply perfectly positioned himself as the most palatable Democrat. He still focused on religion in a way that gives any European voter the creeps (same playbook as Adam Hamilton, who until 2020 was a registered Republican). For me all this means that Republicans will not have to work very hard to turn Texas red again. Just find a candidate that's not comically corrupt.

Then again, as long as MAGA is the main movement inside the party it may be harder than it seems. So maybe Republicans will be forced to go back to the usual levels of corruptions from the era before Trump... If this is the begging of the end of MAGA it's great news but I think we have to see what will happen during the primaries to see where all this is going.