Talarico appears to be a well spoken brilliant young man, who is not afraid to call out corruption. His religion is an interesting aspect to him, that I hope doesnt get in the way of good governance. I agree he's a breath of fresh air, and a strong contrast to the right wing evangelicals that consume a lot of the oxygen in the US and Canada.
Thank you Jen, these are almost exactly my thoughts on Talarico. His Christianity is key to his electability given his John Stuart Mill liberal views. He is articulate and tolerant and perceptive and seems to have a North Star of integrity and respect for the separation of church and state.
Jen, nice job with this piece. But to my way of thinking, it's far too myopic. Regardless who wins this race, the deep-rooted problems in both parties need to be addressed. Problem is the public don't understand what's happening because they're not informed, and in many cases misinformed. The MSM no longer have independent investigative journalists, and most lean too far left - they're now fully partisan and Democrat attack dogs. Many news readers and writers, are outright chronic liars, although I am seeing recent signs of hope (WaPo is struggling to improve, CBS with Bari Weiss is improving, CNN is improving but has a long way to go, but MSNOW and others are still a waste of space.) The federal judiciary have been on a mission to shut down every action the president attempts, knowing fully well they're well out of their lane. House Representatives and Senators on both sides, past & present, have been dirty for decades, hiding many examples of corruption and resistance and every attempt to weed it out (e.g. investing in stocks with insider information).
Democrats have lost their way. Open borders, crime, fentanyl, trans insanity, USAID money used to covertly push leftist ideology around the world, DEI racist attacks against caucasians and Christians, corruption of the education system, parents charged by FBI for trying to protect their kids, Biden's White House hijacking Twitter and sending the DOJ & FBI to Trump's home, Harris whining against free speech and her idiotic singing about a yellow bus. Neither party has a functioning moral compass. Liars all of them. And why does no one recap Obama's history? He was certainly not the saviour most people believe, and some of us recognize that the decline of the west, started when he entered the presidency. And what the hell happened to the Democrats, with the unbelievable story of Joe Biden, who was possibly the stupidest, most corrupt and obnoxious president in US history? And what idiot decided that Kamala was a better choice? In my view both Obama and Biden should be imprisoned for their lies and attacks on Trump, and on America. And why do the Democrats have a full clown-car of representatives in the House, and the Senate? And what about Somalis and theft of taxpayer money in Minnesota and other states? Who dumped that ~80k pile of migrants into the country? Which other states does this problem exist in? The list is endless if one digs deep enough...
If the Democrats elected Jesus Christ himself, he would be silenced by his own party. The party as it is right now, is extremely dangerous, and in my view, unfit for office.
President Trump is an imperfect human, but recognized many problems nobody else has noticed, and has been fearless in his pursuit of undoing some of the damage done by both parties over many decades. If he hadn't come along for his 2 terms, the US would be closer to Marxist-Socialist regime, and the world would be lost to China.
If your purpose in writing these articles is to inform and enlighten your readers in order to help them develop an informed world-view, please consider the following...
Would you be willing to try a higher-level overview of both parties, including their key players and history in office over the past 20 years? There are scandals and clusterf**ks galore. And many were only exposed recently. Neither the Democrats nor Republicans are free of incompetence or corruption.
Please take my comments in the positive manner I intend.
Judging by the the amount of sentences, you dedicated to writing about the failures of the Democrats and then summing up Trump with 'imperfect'... It seems to me, whether you realize it or not, your words end up being partisan cheerleading. So so 2016! Jen isn't trying to solve all of America's woes, she's just pointing out that electing Talarico probably a small step in the right direction.
100 upvotes for this comment. Very accurate. A lot of it pertains to Canada. And what idiots decided that Justin Trudeau, Mark Carney were the better choice ??? Both were inserted into their start place in the politics by backroom cabals, not by voters. Voters were deceived and bamboozled.
Trump is 'imperfect', but oh those darn Democrats are the root of all the USA's failings? How can you possibly think that way? Of course all parties and politicians come up short, and are 'imperfect'. Trump is on a completely different level of incompetence, corruption, evil, criminality, cover up, likely pedophilia. If you want to pretend its all balanced and both sides feel free, but dont call out Jen or anyone else from that evil MSMedia who identifies the depravity that is Trump and the current republican party.
After reading you for months and seeing for the first time your residency/status, I finally know where your viewpoints and beliefs in how things ought to be come from. Definitely not from your current adopted one! As a dual national I can certainly appreciate your writings a lot better now. Thanks for all the great insights and hopefully many more to come.
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offence, shock the world far more than they are doing now."
But “six genders” is too far away from reality for someone whose role would include enacting or upholding sex-based protection for women when it comes to prisons and sports, among other things.
So your response to this article talking hopefully about a rare-these-days exception to extremism and purity tests is to … say that this guy fails a purity test
There are people born with various gradations of both male and female genitals. Some of them are fertile, and are tremendous human beings. We should not be rigid about only two biological genders.
True enough. My main point is that it is not helpful to make the lives of these people needlessly miserable; I will add that the looney gender-war fanaticism of the wokey "progressivists" is destructive an all manner of ways.
"What I find fascinating is that while Talarico derives his own views from actual scripture and serious theological study — and my own beliefs are mostly just a pastiche cobbled together from drug experimentation and intensive meditation retreats — I don’t see much daylight between his faith and my own."
I couldn't love you more than I do at this moment.
"This is the rot of the American political system and, no, it’s not just limited to the Republican Party. Though one side sure as hell is certainly putting on a much bigger, uglier and more dangerous show than the other, these are the types of candidates that get elected because they hijack the most broken and extreme elements of the polity for their own personal advancement. They are the embodiment of a mentality that will elect anything, no matter how morally degraded, as long as it’s willing to hit the other side harder."
Not so fast. How did we get from "A" to "B"? Had Americans elected the most qualified candidate in 2012, Donald Trump would still be a gameshow host selling steak knives on late-night TV.
The principled right tried it your way, Jen, and your way doesn't work. The Republican Party changed when the rules of the game changed.
A very good article, I agree with the content and see no point in me looking for a fault.
This sentence is worth highlighting for domestics political purposes: "I think what we’re seeing in America — and in other countries like CANADA, WE'RE NOT SO INNOCENT — is the long-term consequence of undermining moral language and norms under the fear that these structures were inherently judgmental and oppressive."
How do you live with someone when the foundations of their worldview differ drastically from your own, leading to differences between what you each consider to be right vs. wrong.
I admire your hope. Wish I had your guarded optimism.
I've seen little evidence that the Democratic Party has learned much, if anything, from getting their asses handed to them by MAGA and Trump in Nov 2024, except to double down on the BS that led to the loss, and to strive to become more like MAGA and Trump in their approach (that is, respectability and candor be damned) save outliers like Talarico in Texas.
Exhibit A is the way Mr. Photogenic Politician (AKA Democrat Ken Doll, AKA Gavin Newsom) has changed his approach since Trump was elected. Tough Guy Ken Doll. I assume he will be the presumptive presidential nominee for the Dems in 2027.
I hope your more rosy forecast (though you do have guarded provisos throughout your piece) is the correct view, and that the USA can return to sanity. I really hope so.
This article: one more step on the way to Jen Gerson becoming Paul Kingsnorth
(In seriousness: I think it’s becoming accepted wisdom on all but the extreme Social Justice Left that liberalism has the seeds of its own demise in it, because it’s been obvious that the end state of mindless consumption, AI slop, porn, gambling, unbridled capitalism … what Kingsnorth calls “The Machine” leaves a void in people that is causing the current widespread anguish in society. But what do you replace it with? Christianity? Why that religion and not others? If The Line is going to go in this direction it’s a crowded field of great writers already, although Jen G I think is a great enough writer to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.)
A scenario where Talarico defeats Paxton and delivers a Texas Senate seat to the Democrats might, just might finally break through the right wing information bubble and wake people up to the disaster of hyperpartisan fixation. Texas politics has been thoroughly dominated by the Republican Party for decades, and no Democrat has been elected to a statewide office since 1994. That's led to all the dysfunctions and corruption of a 1-party state that should be all too familiar to Albertans who've lived with the PCs and UCP for decades. Losing a Texas Senate seat would have a shock like the NDP's 2015 victory in Alberta, but there'd be no easy excuse about splitting the vote between 2 right wing parties.
A Democratic win is still a pretty big stretch, though. Texas is still a center-right state, even though its population has been tilting increasingly towards the urban populations more friendly to Democrats. Democrats have sabotaged themselves before in Texas by trying to campaign on a national platform that's far too left wing to be palatable to Texas's political centrists. Talarico is also a more progressive candidate than his opponent Jasmine Crockett, at least in terms of policy positions on things like gun rights. Crockett was far more partisan, though, and that left voters with the impression that *she* was more progressive because she gave a full-throated voice to Democratic positions in contrast to Talarico's quieter "kumbaya" Presbyterian schtick.
Still, a midterm election favoring Democrats, combined with a Democratic candidate who's not offensively in your face about progressive positions, plus an utterly loathsome Trump-identified creature like Ken Paxton as an opponent... Could be interesting, or yet another case of the Democrats' Charlie Brown taking another run at Lucy holding the football.
I think that Talarico will be a breath of fresh air, hopefully he will not turn out to be an empty suit. HOwever, he is a politician and as we all know, they are not known for being completely honest.
But I have to comment about your claim that the FCC engaged in censorship because of Trump.
It has been covered elsewhere that it was not an FCC decision that led to the show not being broadcast, but one taken by CBS, specifically the Late Night team. Blame Bari Weiss for attempting to re-introduce journalistic standards that are visibly lacking these days.
An AI search (with light editing) provided the following information:
"Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 315) governs the "equal opportunities" (commonly called the "equal time") rule for political candidates on broadcast stations. The provision requires that if a broadcaster permits a legally qualified candidate for public office to use its facilities, it must afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for the same office. Broadcasters have no power of censorship over the material, but they are not obligated to allow any candidate use in the first place.
The section includes longstanding exemptions (added by Congress in 1959) for appearances on:
Bona fide newscasts,
Bona fide news interviews,
Bona fide news documentaries (if the candidate's appearance is incidental),
On-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events.
These exemptions prevent routine news coverage from triggering equal-time obligations.
The recent FCC guidance from Chairman Brendan Carr (issued in January 2026), which narrowed exemptions for talk shows (late-night and daytime programs) by questioning whether they qualify as "bona fide news" and signaling stricter enforcement."
I personally think the FCC is correct and do not think talk shows, or many podcasts, qualify as "bona fide news" sources. They often come across as hyper partisan snake pits, where the interviewers are hard-core left (mainly broadcast TV) or right with no middle ground.
This was the information CBS' legal team provided to the Late Night team, which then decided to stream it on You Tube to do an end run around the FCC rules, leading Colbert to falsely claim FCC censorship.
Just imagine a media landscape where political candidates, especially those engaged in election campaigning, are given equal airtime to express themselves, without biased interviewers attempting to catch them in "A-ha" moments. Perhaps if the FCC had been enforcing the existing rules all these years (and maybe if our CRTC had similar rules in place), we would have a media that people trusted.
Well said Jen!
Talarico appears to be a well spoken brilliant young man, who is not afraid to call out corruption. His religion is an interesting aspect to him, that I hope doesnt get in the way of good governance. I agree he's a breath of fresh air, and a strong contrast to the right wing evangelicals that consume a lot of the oxygen in the US and Canada.
Here's hoping then, that " left wing evangelicals" are not as ideological as " right wing evangelicals ". The whole " wing" thing makes me crazy...
Thank you Jen, these are almost exactly my thoughts on Talarico. His Christianity is key to his electability given his John Stuart Mill liberal views. He is articulate and tolerant and perceptive and seems to have a North Star of integrity and respect for the separation of church and state.
Fingers crossed.
Jen, nice job with this piece. But to my way of thinking, it's far too myopic. Regardless who wins this race, the deep-rooted problems in both parties need to be addressed. Problem is the public don't understand what's happening because they're not informed, and in many cases misinformed. The MSM no longer have independent investigative journalists, and most lean too far left - they're now fully partisan and Democrat attack dogs. Many news readers and writers, are outright chronic liars, although I am seeing recent signs of hope (WaPo is struggling to improve, CBS with Bari Weiss is improving, CNN is improving but has a long way to go, but MSNOW and others are still a waste of space.) The federal judiciary have been on a mission to shut down every action the president attempts, knowing fully well they're well out of their lane. House Representatives and Senators on both sides, past & present, have been dirty for decades, hiding many examples of corruption and resistance and every attempt to weed it out (e.g. investing in stocks with insider information).
Democrats have lost their way. Open borders, crime, fentanyl, trans insanity, USAID money used to covertly push leftist ideology around the world, DEI racist attacks against caucasians and Christians, corruption of the education system, parents charged by FBI for trying to protect their kids, Biden's White House hijacking Twitter and sending the DOJ & FBI to Trump's home, Harris whining against free speech and her idiotic singing about a yellow bus. Neither party has a functioning moral compass. Liars all of them. And why does no one recap Obama's history? He was certainly not the saviour most people believe, and some of us recognize that the decline of the west, started when he entered the presidency. And what the hell happened to the Democrats, with the unbelievable story of Joe Biden, who was possibly the stupidest, most corrupt and obnoxious president in US history? And what idiot decided that Kamala was a better choice? In my view both Obama and Biden should be imprisoned for their lies and attacks on Trump, and on America. And why do the Democrats have a full clown-car of representatives in the House, and the Senate? And what about Somalis and theft of taxpayer money in Minnesota and other states? Who dumped that ~80k pile of migrants into the country? Which other states does this problem exist in? The list is endless if one digs deep enough...
If the Democrats elected Jesus Christ himself, he would be silenced by his own party. The party as it is right now, is extremely dangerous, and in my view, unfit for office.
President Trump is an imperfect human, but recognized many problems nobody else has noticed, and has been fearless in his pursuit of undoing some of the damage done by both parties over many decades. If he hadn't come along for his 2 terms, the US would be closer to Marxist-Socialist regime, and the world would be lost to China.
If your purpose in writing these articles is to inform and enlighten your readers in order to help them develop an informed world-view, please consider the following...
Would you be willing to try a higher-level overview of both parties, including their key players and history in office over the past 20 years? There are scandals and clusterf**ks galore. And many were only exposed recently. Neither the Democrats nor Republicans are free of incompetence or corruption.
Please take my comments in the positive manner I intend.
Judging by the the amount of sentences, you dedicated to writing about the failures of the Democrats and then summing up Trump with 'imperfect'... It seems to me, whether you realize it or not, your words end up being partisan cheerleading. So so 2016! Jen isn't trying to solve all of America's woes, she's just pointing out that electing Talarico probably a small step in the right direction.
💯
100 upvotes for this comment. Very accurate. A lot of it pertains to Canada. And what idiots decided that Justin Trudeau, Mark Carney were the better choice ??? Both were inserted into their start place in the politics by backroom cabals, not by voters. Voters were deceived and bamboozled.
The only moral thing voters could really do in the US, given what the two main parties have descended to, is to spoil their ballot.
Trump is 'imperfect', but oh those darn Democrats are the root of all the USA's failings? How can you possibly think that way? Of course all parties and politicians come up short, and are 'imperfect'. Trump is on a completely different level of incompetence, corruption, evil, criminality, cover up, likely pedophilia. If you want to pretend its all balanced and both sides feel free, but dont call out Jen or anyone else from that evil MSMedia who identifies the depravity that is Trump and the current republican party.
After reading you for months and seeing for the first time your residency/status, I finally know where your viewpoints and beliefs in how things ought to be come from. Definitely not from your current adopted one! As a dual national I can certainly appreciate your writings a lot better now. Thanks for all the great insights and hopefully many more to come.
I'm a Canadian citizen who has been living in Alberta for 16 years. JG
bang on! Yes, we get the politicians we deserve. I fervently hope we deserve better. Canada is not exempt. Just delayed
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offence, shock the world far more than they are doing now."
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1943
Okay, but Talarico also believes there are “six biological genders”
https://x.com/swipewright/status/2029242317228708298?s=46&t=TBXlgl_QJ_Vrfjh87G7CYw
I don't require someone to believe all the same things I do to be considered good.
I understand and agree with you, to a point.
But “six genders” is too far away from reality for someone whose role would include enacting or upholding sex-based protection for women when it comes to prisons and sports, among other things.
So your response to this article talking hopefully about a rare-these-days exception to extremism and purity tests is to … say that this guy fails a purity test
I get the emotional charge of this issue; still, we don't have the luxury of making the perfect the enemy of the best we've got right now.
Also, 6 genders us not a position supported by the bible. Which is the text, like it or not.
There are people born with various gradations of both male and female genitals. Some of them are fertile, and are tremendous human beings. We should not be rigid about only two biological genders.
The fact there are exceptions to the rule doesn't change the fact that these are outliers and/or genetic anomalies and not by definition, the norm.
True enough. My main point is that it is not helpful to make the lives of these people needlessly miserable; I will add that the looney gender-war fanaticism of the wokey "progressivists" is destructive an all manner of ways.
"What I find fascinating is that while Talarico derives his own views from actual scripture and serious theological study — and my own beliefs are mostly just a pastiche cobbled together from drug experimentation and intensive meditation retreats — I don’t see much daylight between his faith and my own."
I couldn't love you more than I do at this moment.
"This is the rot of the American political system and, no, it’s not just limited to the Republican Party. Though one side sure as hell is certainly putting on a much bigger, uglier and more dangerous show than the other, these are the types of candidates that get elected because they hijack the most broken and extreme elements of the polity for their own personal advancement. They are the embodiment of a mentality that will elect anything, no matter how morally degraded, as long as it’s willing to hit the other side harder."
Not so fast. How did we get from "A" to "B"? Had Americans elected the most qualified candidate in 2012, Donald Trump would still be a gameshow host selling steak knives on late-night TV.
The principled right tried it your way, Jen, and your way doesn't work. The Republican Party changed when the rules of the game changed.
So, play by the rules of some game to gain power/wealth etc. instead of the rules of life you know to be true?
How do you think that works out for the people who try it? What about entire societies?
What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose himself?
A very good article, I agree with the content and see no point in me looking for a fault.
This sentence is worth highlighting for domestics political purposes: "I think what we’re seeing in America — and in other countries like CANADA, WE'RE NOT SO INNOCENT — is the long-term consequence of undermining moral language and norms under the fear that these structures were inherently judgmental and oppressive."
That sentence stood out for me too.
How do you live with someone when the foundations of their worldview differ drastically from your own, leading to differences between what you each consider to be right vs. wrong.
I admire your hope. Wish I had your guarded optimism.
I've seen little evidence that the Democratic Party has learned much, if anything, from getting their asses handed to them by MAGA and Trump in Nov 2024, except to double down on the BS that led to the loss, and to strive to become more like MAGA and Trump in their approach (that is, respectability and candor be damned) save outliers like Talarico in Texas.
Exhibit A is the way Mr. Photogenic Politician (AKA Democrat Ken Doll, AKA Gavin Newsom) has changed his approach since Trump was elected. Tough Guy Ken Doll. I assume he will be the presumptive presidential nominee for the Dems in 2027.
I hope your more rosy forecast (though you do have guarded provisos throughout your piece) is the correct view, and that the USA can return to sanity. I really hope so.
"The body politic, anesthetized by wealth, submits to surgeons who will say the Hippocratic Oath, but not mean it."
Man this sounds like AI.
It isn't. AI bores me.
AI pisses me off. Plagarism.
Which LLM are you using?...because it sounded brilliant to me.
This article: one more step on the way to Jen Gerson becoming Paul Kingsnorth
(In seriousness: I think it’s becoming accepted wisdom on all but the extreme Social Justice Left that liberalism has the seeds of its own demise in it, because it’s been obvious that the end state of mindless consumption, AI slop, porn, gambling, unbridled capitalism … what Kingsnorth calls “The Machine” leaves a void in people that is causing the current widespread anguish in society. But what do you replace it with? Christianity? Why that religion and not others? If The Line is going to go in this direction it’s a crowded field of great writers already, although Jen G I think is a great enough writer to stand shoulder to shoulder with them.)
A scenario where Talarico defeats Paxton and delivers a Texas Senate seat to the Democrats might, just might finally break through the right wing information bubble and wake people up to the disaster of hyperpartisan fixation. Texas politics has been thoroughly dominated by the Republican Party for decades, and no Democrat has been elected to a statewide office since 1994. That's led to all the dysfunctions and corruption of a 1-party state that should be all too familiar to Albertans who've lived with the PCs and UCP for decades. Losing a Texas Senate seat would have a shock like the NDP's 2015 victory in Alberta, but there'd be no easy excuse about splitting the vote between 2 right wing parties.
A Democratic win is still a pretty big stretch, though. Texas is still a center-right state, even though its population has been tilting increasingly towards the urban populations more friendly to Democrats. Democrats have sabotaged themselves before in Texas by trying to campaign on a national platform that's far too left wing to be palatable to Texas's political centrists. Talarico is also a more progressive candidate than his opponent Jasmine Crockett, at least in terms of policy positions on things like gun rights. Crockett was far more partisan, though, and that left voters with the impression that *she* was more progressive because she gave a full-throated voice to Democratic positions in contrast to Talarico's quieter "kumbaya" Presbyterian schtick.
Still, a midterm election favoring Democrats, combined with a Democratic candidate who's not offensively in your face about progressive positions, plus an utterly loathsome Trump-identified creature like Ken Paxton as an opponent... Could be interesting, or yet another case of the Democrats' Charlie Brown taking another run at Lucy holding the football.
I think that Talarico will be a breath of fresh air, hopefully he will not turn out to be an empty suit. HOwever, he is a politician and as we all know, they are not known for being completely honest.
But I have to comment about your claim that the FCC engaged in censorship because of Trump.
It has been covered elsewhere that it was not an FCC decision that led to the show not being broadcast, but one taken by CBS, specifically the Late Night team. Blame Bari Weiss for attempting to re-introduce journalistic standards that are visibly lacking these days.
An AI search (with light editing) provided the following information:
"Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (codified at 47 U.S.C. § 315) governs the "equal opportunities" (commonly called the "equal time") rule for political candidates on broadcast stations. The provision requires that if a broadcaster permits a legally qualified candidate for public office to use its facilities, it must afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for the same office. Broadcasters have no power of censorship over the material, but they are not obligated to allow any candidate use in the first place.
The section includes longstanding exemptions (added by Congress in 1959) for appearances on:
Bona fide newscasts,
Bona fide news interviews,
Bona fide news documentaries (if the candidate's appearance is incidental),
On-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events.
These exemptions prevent routine news coverage from triggering equal-time obligations.
The recent FCC guidance from Chairman Brendan Carr (issued in January 2026), which narrowed exemptions for talk shows (late-night and daytime programs) by questioning whether they qualify as "bona fide news" and signaling stricter enforcement."
I personally think the FCC is correct and do not think talk shows, or many podcasts, qualify as "bona fide news" sources. They often come across as hyper partisan snake pits, where the interviewers are hard-core left (mainly broadcast TV) or right with no middle ground.
This was the information CBS' legal team provided to the Late Night team, which then decided to stream it on You Tube to do an end run around the FCC rules, leading Colbert to falsely claim FCC censorship.
Just imagine a media landscape where political candidates, especially those engaged in election campaigning, are given equal airtime to express themselves, without biased interviewers attempting to catch them in "A-ha" moments. Perhaps if the FCC had been enforcing the existing rules all these years (and maybe if our CRTC had similar rules in place), we would have a media that people trusted.
Thanks for this analysis of the race for United States Senator from Texas.
I look forward to reading analysis of the race for the leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, the third most popular party in the country.
Literally working on a piece. JG