Discussion on the strategic pivot of the Democratic Party (Part 4)

I love that. I think it's really beautiful. Something was happening in the texture of the campaign in Texas, not only there. I mean, I think you see, without Hamilton in Kansas, who we'll talk about, you see it somewhat with EL Sayed. There's like this rise of a religious left, a more moralistic left. John Ossoff talking in the language of values. But I think Talarico in particular exemplified this. Can you step into the Trump era? Can you win over Trump voters not by mirroring Trump, but by acting as this. Well, he's the anti Trump. He's the anti Trump. Tell me a little bit about this side of it, this kind of. Yeah, so at the time that I first met Tall Rico, there was still this idea in the Democratic Party that, like, they needed their own Trump. That was, I think, around the time that Gavin Newsom was, like, selling knee pads and Tall Rico. I mean, you know, his faith is real. He was a seminarian. He still eventually hopes to be a pastor when he's done with politics. He's not a Christian nationalist by any stretch of the imagination, and in fact, developed his politics, like, very much in opposition to Christian nationalism. Believes it's kind of sinful. And, you know, he's in a state where it's so preeminent. But he does believe that Democrats lost something as they became more secular and kind of lost a language to talk about values and conviction and the things that make life meaningful. And people slipped into kind of atomization and despair. And at least for him, you know, kind of faith is what sustains him. And I think he thinks that, you know, other people, he would never try to push his faith on other people, but he does think people need something transcendent. Well, the. The other thing, though, that I thought was very effective in what he did. Telerique is a progressive candidate. I mean, he had his points where he moderated on oil and G, on certain trans issues, on immigration and sort of like pushing himself forward on border enforcement. But I think people just think too much about politics as a single dimension of, like, where do you stand on Medicare for all? People's impression of what a Democrat or Republican is, is also, do they have faith? Oh, for sure. Is also, where do they live? Is also, how do they talk and how do they dress. And one thing Talarico seemed to me to be doing throughout the campaign quite effectively, and many of the candidates did it in different ways, was sort of saying, I'm not like those other Democrats. First of all, I don't hate you. I mean, there's been a clip going around of him on a podcast.