Republicans go all in on toxic masculinity in Texas
It's a clarifying moment for Democrats.
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Last week, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and xenophobic racist Stephen Miller attacked Democratic Texas US Senate candidate James Talarico with the level of class and dignity typical of MAGA.
Responding to a boilerplate Talarico campaign announcement posted by the Democrats’ account on X, Miller responded, “The Democrats made history in Texas by nominating their first transgender senate candidate.” Miller later doubled down on Fox News, claiming that Talarico was “transitioning into a female.”
Miller is lying; Talarico is cis, not trans. It’s also grotesquely bigoted; Miller is attempting to smear Talarico by suggesting that being trans should be disqualifying from participating in public life.
But this ugly attack is very much in line with the GOP strategy in Texas which has centered obsessively, and repulsively, on attempting to feminize and misgender Talarico. Rather than talk about issues, records, or even personalities, Republicans have simply started bellowing “WE ARE MEN! THEY NOT MEN! MEN GOOD! NOT MEN BAD!” over and over again in a toxic masculine fugue of bile and sweat.
It’s a repulsive spectacle. But it’s also a clarifying one. Republicans could not make it much clearer that their party is entirely given over to bigotry, rage, and bullying. There are no issues to compromise on, no middle ground to occupy. The only question is whether women, queer people, non-white people, and indeed Democrats as a whole are human beings with a stake in democracy, or if non-Republicans are all simply vermin to be subjugated.
Faced with that stark choice, the Talarico campaign, and Democrats in general, have responded by standing firm rather than folding. That’s a welcome change from early in Trump’s term — and it’s also a hopeful sign that Democrats are starting belatedly to realize that the only way forward is fighting back.
Everything is gender
Last week, Republicans held their run-off primary election. Incumbent John Cornyn lost; the GOP’s candidate is instead the disgustingly corrupt state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is so obviously unfit his own party tried to impeach him.
Talarico, a member of the Texas House, is, by contrast, a talented communicator who has made his progressive Christian faith a center of his campaign.
Texas is very red; Democrats have not won a statewide office there since 1994, more than 30 years ago. But Paxton is a weak candidate in a building blue wave year, and Talarico hasn’t trailed Paxton in a poll since March. A poll conducted after Paxton clinched the primary found Talarico up by three points. Analyst G. Elliott Morris has made an extensive case that the election at this point is a toss-up — emphasizing, in particular, that Trump’s approval is a brutal -20 in the state.
Paxton and the entire GOP have responded to this tough electoral situation by turning hard right and spiraling into semi-incomprehensible smears and conspiracy theories centered on the fantasy that Talarico is not a man or is doing manhood wrong.
The big Republicans scandal moment of the campaign so far came a couple weeks ago when Talarico ordered a potato, egg, and cheese taco.
An innocuous moment, you say? Well, yes. But every Republican with access to a keyboard rushed over to X to declaim that ordering an egg taco meant that Talarico was a vegetarian (he is not) and/or a vegan (vegans don’t eat eggs!).
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that Talarico “was not beating the vegetarian allegations” (why are they allegations?!). Donald Trump said, “You can’t get elected as a vegan in Texas.” Ken Paxton called his opponent “Tofu Talerico.” And on and on.
Other similar nonsense followed. Dan Weldon, a Florida congressional candidate, popped up to say that Talarico didn’t look like he could name “a single obscure wide receiver from the early 2000s.” And in his first general election add, Paxton claimed that Talarico was “low-T.” This is a common insult on the manosphere right, where testosterone is conflated with strength, resolve, and virtue.
Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein makes a convincing case that for too much of the Texas electorate, attacking someone for being vegan is “very possibly incomprehensible” and a “waste of campaign resources.” Still, for those who have been paying attention to the right, the dogwhistles aren’t that hard to parse. Vegan/low-t/not a football fan/trans attacks are all explicitly misogynist, homophobic, and transphobic. They are an attempt to delegitimize Talarico by claiming he isn’t sufficiently masculine or male.
Not coincidentally, Democratic representatives, and Democratic voters, are often not straight men. LGBT voters and women both disproportionately support Democrats, which of course is the party that broadly supports abortion rights and LGBT rights. In contrast, Republicans are viciously opposed to both — and are even flirting with the idea of trying to disenfranchise women altogether.
The attacks on Talarico are not, then, simply attacks on one politician. They are an attack on the Democratic coalition, and on the idea that women, queer people, or anyone who supports women and queer people should have any role in government or public life. Paxton’s campaign is saying that Democrats are illegitimate because they are not manly men, and that women and LGBT people are illegitimate because they are Democrats. Only manly Republican bullies are fit to rule.
The Democratic response has been effective
Democrats in the Trump era have sometimes struggled to figure out how to respond to open bullying and bigotry.
During the 2024 campaign, VP candidate Tim Walz made Republicans squirm by calling them “weird.” But Kamala Harris’s advisors shut down that attack line, probably because they worried it would alienate centrist voters or would make Democrats look mean or unprofessional. That probably didn’t win or lose the election. Still, pulling punches in that way can dishearten allies, who want to see their representatives fight back rather than roll over when they’re attacked.
Things have changed since 2024, though. In the current electoral environment, and after a year and a half of Trump’s horrific second presidency, Democrats seem more willing to throw some punches.
When a CBS interviewer asked Talarico how he would respond to Ken Paxton calling him “Tala-freako,” he answered, “if Ken Paxton is worried about freaks he should stop giving Epstein-style sweetheart deals to pedophiles.” That’s a reference to the case against Texas lawyer Adam Hoffman, who was indicted on felony sex abuse charges but only served 30 days in jail after a hung jury led Paxton to negotiate a plea deal.
In a similar vein, when Miller claimed Talarico was trans on X, the Democrats’ twitter account responded, “Shut up you ugly fuck.” Katie Miller, Stephen’s wife, lashed out on behalf of her hateful spouse, outing the poster behind the account — Democratic content creator Paulina Mangubat. Katie posted a picture of Mangubat, claiming, “This is what a sad, unhappy, female Liberal looks like.”
Boosted into the spotlight, Mangubat posted to her own account that she was not unhappy and that she was in fact preparing for her upcoming wedding. She also used the heightened visibility to display a cake referring to Miller as “Temu Hitler” and called him “ugly, evil, cruel, and bald.”
In an interview with Greg Sargent of The New Republic, Mangubat added, “What [Miller’s] doing is ugly — siccing federal agents on civilians, applauding when families are separated. It is ugly behavior.” Thanks to all the publicity, the tweet calling Miller ugly now has more than 40 million views — which means a lot of people tuned into the political message that Miller is a gross weird transphobic bully who lies about Democrats like Talarico.
Go further
Democrats have belatedly but thankfully concluded that the way to deal with bullies is to hit back harder. They’ve decided that the way to deal with vaunting toxic masculinity is to point out that it is ridiculous and repulsive, and to connect it to abuse and corruption.
This is all to the good. In addition, though, Democrats could take the Talarico campaign as a moment to recognize that there’s little point in trying to meet Republicans halfway, either on policy or on candidate selection.
Democrats like California Gov. Gavin Newsom have tried to find common ground with far-right bigots like Charlie Kirk on discriminating against trans athletes. Many in the party have also expressed worries about nominating a woman for president again, after losses by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and by Kamala Harris in 2024. When Jasmine Crockett ran against Talarico in the Texas Democratic primary, some argued she couldn’t win statewide as a Black woman.
Marginalized people and woman, the argument goes, are less popular and are not seen as leaders. The Democratic Party, some believe, needs to distance itself from its core demographics if it is going to win. That is part of the logic behind elevating white male straight Christian candidates like Talarico.
Talarico is in fact an attractive candidate in many respects, irrespective of his identity. But the Paxton campaign is already making clear that his whiteness and maleness and straightness will not stop the GOP from talking about him as if he were a woman. The GOP is all in on misogyny, and any candidate, or political party, that supports women to any extent at all will be targeted with misogyny. It is all in on hating trans people, and anyone who does not embrace othering trans people wholeheartedly will be targeted for transphobia.
Rather than cowering and apologizing in the face of these attacks, Democrats should be proud of their diverse coalition, and of the fact that the misogynist bullies hate them. Talarico can win, not despite being in coalition with women and trans people and non-white people, but precisely because multi-racial democracy is stronger than fascism. After all, Ken Paxton and Stephen Miller are ugly fucks, and they are going to lose.
That’s it for today
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I have thought this for years about my party, the Democrats. Fight back for the things we believe in. Put economic inequality and the climate on center stage. Focus on the shrinking middle class.Those are winning messages. Do it with righteous anger and not pull punches anymore. Now is our moment to begin a new progressive era. Do it Dems!
It almost seems like the Texas Rs are saying he can’t be a man because he’s religious. Irony