So....yeah, apparently there's A LOT of bad blood between some Talerico and Crockett supporters, and it baffles me. I mean, to me, they come off as two flavors of the same politician. One is white, male and christian, the other is black and female, but outside of "identity" based issues, I just don't see a huge difference. I struggle to name a policy difference between them that's significant in nature. I mean, there isnt anything that's ground breaking at least by my standards.
But sometimes that's enough. And while I'm reporting this second hand, there seems to be a rise of the whole "you see you white progressive, you don't understand the black vote!" thing again. And ugh...really? Are we really doing this? But yeah, apparently there's debate about whether James Talerico can turn out the black vote down in texas because they dislike white progressives and don't trust them, and uh....statistically, to my knowledge, Talerico had better numbers than Crockett. I mean, it wasnt a huge difference, but it was like...a point or two. So I ain't concerned about that.
But...sore losers be sore losers, and apparently there's a lot of weird race baiting going on from the Crockett faction. I havent experienced it myself in this race, but having dealt with these guys in other races, I'm honestly not surprised. The whole "ERHAMGERD THE BLACK VOTE" crowd has always been annoying and offputting, and I COULD see that card being used.
Like here's how I see it as a white guy. These guys dont understand the white vote. While black identity politics might go over with black voters, it is completely and utterly alienating with everyone else. You're not special, stop trying to make the world revolve around you, and act like some special needs group who needs super special accommodations to get you voting. Even worse, a lot of the special treatment these guys often want alienates white voters massively. There's a reason whites tend to vote overwhelmingly republican, and I think it's because there is a perception of wanting special treatment at times. Keep in mind the questions from the pew quiz. Questions of DEI, affirmative action, the legacy of slavery and jim crow, normies dont wanna hear it. Ya know? A lot of us want one set of rules that applies to everyone. These guys want special treatment to make up for past historical wrongdoings. Im not gonna say i dont understand their point, i do, but again, the world doesnt revolve around them, and trying to push that stuff just invokes resentment politics from LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE. It might play well in a democratic primary, but it doesnt in the general. And now apparently the die hard crockett fan base is trying to say black voters wont turn out for james talerico because they dont trust him. Well...tough. He's the nominee. he's functionally no different from crockett in practice. Just vote for him, FFS.
Really, I dislike identitarianism and the desire for special treatment based on race, gender, sexuality, etc. Those groups of voters are part of the coalition, and sure, there are issues that should be addressed, but they're kind of the side show, not the main event. You cant make that crap all about you and expect normies to care. Politics are coalitional, and you gotta make all parts of the coalition happy to some degree. I aint saying we shouldnt make black voters happy, but we shouldnt do it in a way that alienates literally everyone else, and throwing one's weight around like this just ends up alienating everyone else. Because these priorities dont vibes with anyone else in the party.
Either way, did I mention crockett and talerico arent any different ideologically and have minimal policy differences? Really, they're not any different, and their policies are functionally the same. Youre not gonna go wrong with either of these guys. So why the fricking argument? Really, i dont understand why this is so contentious. And if anything, the fact that this is coming up at all just annoys me. And you know what? I think it reflects very badly on crockett and her supporters that they're acting like this. This is, quite literally, one of the most important elections in our lives, and i dont mean that in the way most do where every election is the most important, I mean, we got a fascist in the white house, we gotta take back power from this guy and his party, this is a crucial race, and we're playing these stupid games? Grow the fudge up and get over yourselves.
Like, this is so petty it's making the people who are complaining about platner and el sayed look like they have a point. At least with them there ARE real ideological differences. Here, it's just window dressing. This is a literal nothing burger, wtf is wrong with these guys? Honestly, it kinda makes the dems look like a joke.
Either way if you live in texas, vote for james talerico. And while I know that he aint everyone's cup of tea, well, it's texas. Gotta do what you gotta do. I'm not big on the jesus stuff either but hey, if thats whats required to win in texas, that's what is required. And if I can endorse him given MY ideological worldview, then you can vote for him.
