Todd's Take
There's a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Texas who wants it both ways on capitalism.
His name is James Talarico. According to Kalshi, the prediction market, his race against Ken Paxton is close enough right now to call a coin flip.
Yesterday, Talarico's campaign told Fox News he's "a proud capitalist." Six years ago, on a Zoom call with the lunatics at the Austin Sierra Club, he said something very different.
He called capitalism an "oppressive system." He said it needs to be "dismantled" — right alongside white supremacy and climate change, like the three are somehow mysteriously tied together.
What is it about capitalism — free people trading freely, keeping what they create and build — that makes it oppressive?
Free market capitalism means the private sector controls what gets produced. Not the government. What you make is yours to keep, minus your legitimate share of taxes for the government we've consented to.
Capitalism is a voluntary transaction between people. How on earth is that oppression?
I know real oppression when I see it, and so do you. If you've read the book of Exodus, which my family has been working through together lately, you have an example of what real oppression looks like.
Pharaoh looked at the Israelites — a growing group of people not his own — and got nervous about how powerful they were becoming. So he decided to enslave them.
That's oppression. A government putting a heavy hand on people and taking their freedom by force.
Capitalism doesn't do that. Socialism does. Every dollar a government takes from one person in order to hand it to another is labor stolen from the first person by force, regardless of what you want to call it.
The House just passed a resolution condemning socialism outright. That should be a no-brainer for anyone who loves free markets and the great American experiment. But Democratic leadership instructed members to vote against it and pressured them not to break ranks.
In 2026, condemning socialism is a very controversial position inside the Democrat party. That's a far cry from John F. Kennedy's Democrat party of the 1960s.
Talarico also sees an unbreakable bond between capitalism, white supremacy, and climate change. On that same Zoom call, he said the three were tied together, and that he wants to systematically dismantle all three.
There are real white supremacists in the world, but they're a fringe, ugly, tiny group. Treating them like some looming political force is a boogeyman built for an election narrative.
His assertion that climate change is inextricably linked to capitalism is just as wild. In his mind, driving an SUV or eating a hamburger — both brought to you by capitalists — is somehow destroying the planet.
Climate means something. There are defined climate zones — arid, tropical, temperate — and they haven't moved. At most, they’re “changing” at the edges. But nobody's desert has turned into a rainforest.
Temperatures go up and down. The weather changes every day. That's happened throughout history, and it doesn't mean you're wrecking the planet because of what you drive or what you eat for dinner.
My friends, these leftists hate progress when it's made by free markets, because they can't control it and they can't take credit for it. They're constantly looking for things they can bring under the control and influence of government.
The problem is, that's a major no-no when you understand human nature and the history of big government. It leads to tyranny and oppression — always.
God made us in His image to be builders. In fact, the first thing God tells us about Himself is that He is a Creator. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God created." And since we're made in His image, we have a creative nature, too.
Creating, building, growing — that's not a flaw in human nature. It's one of the things we were created to do in partnership with God.
Capitalism is just people using their freedom to pursue that mission of building and growth.
James Talarico wants to dismantle that. But now that the midterm election is just two months away, he suddenly wants to call himself a proud capitalist.
He can't have it both ways, my friends. Either capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other idea in human history, or it's oppressive. But it isn’t both.
I know which one is true, and I suspect you do as well.
Conservative, not bitter.
Todd
Quote of the Day
The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.
Stack of Stuff
Lone Star Liberty PAC (X) — The video. Talarico on that 2020 Zoom call with the Austin Sierra Club, in his own words, calling capitalism one of three "oppressive systems" he wants to dismantle.
Kalshi — The prediction market has this Texas Senate race close enough to call a coin flip, which tells you how much is riding on it.
CNN — The full write-up on that call, including the part the clip leaves out: Talarico comparing Texas leading in oil and gas to "being the leader in cassette tapes in the 1980s."
Fox News — Talarico's campaign calling him a "proud capitalist," days after that video resurfaced.
CBS News — The House resolution condemning socialism, and which Democrats broke from their own leadership to support it.
Fox News — Talarico's own words calling atheists more "Christlike" than some of his Christian colleagues, and the "nonbinary" God comment that started it.
James Talarico (X) — His own 2022 line about Mary's "consent" being required for Jesus's birth, in his words.
PBS NewsHour — Where the Lindsay Clancy jury stands after a fifth day of deadlocked deliberations.
UPI — The woman now charged with intimidating that jury after filming them outside the courthouse.
Poll of the Day
Talarico called capitalism an "oppressive system" but now says he's a proud capitalist. What do you think? One tap, and you'll see the results the moment you vote.
Is capitalism an "oppressive system"?
James Talarico Says God Is "Non-Binary," and That Mary Had to "Consent" to Being Jesus's Mother
James Talarico isn't just running on bad economics. He's also a self-described progressive Christian, and much of what he's said about the Bible doesn't square with what the Bible actually says.
In 2021, while opposing a bill on girls' sports in the Texas legislature, then-state Representative James Talarico said: "God is nonbinary." He's since doubled down, calling God "beyond gender."
Scripture doesn't leave much room for that reading. God revealed Himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, and all through Scripture He is called Father — by Moses, by Isaiah, and by Jesus Himself when He taught us how to pray.
And when Jesus came to earth, He came as a man — not confused, not gender fluid, but as a man, on purpose.
God is spirit, so He isn't physically male. But how He's chosen to reveal Himself isn't up for a Senate candidate to redefine.
Talarico has also said he's met atheists and people of other faiths who are more "Christlike" than some Christians he serves alongside in the Texas legislature.
But being Christlike isn't something any of us can manufacture on our own through good behavior.
Scripture teaches we're made more like Christ through the Holy Spirit working in us, not through our own efforts.
Then there's this one. In a 2022 sermon, later posted to his own account, Talarico said: "We only have Jesus because a woman consented to creating him. The story of Jesus begins with a single, simple, extraordinary act of feminism."
To be candid, I didn't like even writing those words above. But it is what he said.
God doesn't ask our permission to accomplish His will. And, candidly, He does not need us. But when He chooses to work through us, He has the foreknowledge to know who will cooperate with Him, and that's not the same thing as needing our consent.
The Bible says He is the potter and we are the clay. That relationship doesn't run through a consent form, no matter how badly the progressives and self-seeking people of today want it to.
A Senate candidate is entitled to his own politics. He's not entitled to remake the God of the Bible into whatever shape makes his politics more appealing to today's culture.
People like James Talarico shouldn't be within a metaphorical mile of filling a pulpit or a serving in a legislative body. I hope Texas makes the right choice in November and rejects this clown and his crazy ideas.
From Today's Show
A Radical Leftist has a 50% chance of winning a U.S. Senate seat in Texas. Not according to me — according to the people putting real money on it at Kalshi.
This is the clip where I walk through what the oddsmakers are actually saying about Talarico and Paxton, and why nobody in Texas should be treating this race as a sure thing. If you know somebody in Texas, send them this one.
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