Senate Democrat nominee James Talarico appears ready to bring a touch of Trotsky to Texas. In a video from a climate forum, Talarico is shown declaring capitalism an “oppressive system” linked with white supremacy and that it must be “dismantled” to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Leon Trotsky, who denounced the “fundamental evil of the capitalist system” and called on citizens to free themselves from its oppression. The Democratic Socialists of America and radical sites have long called “to dismantle the capitalist state.”
As a state representative, Talarico addressed the 2020 climate conference by the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club with other Texas House candidates. However, it was Talarico that roused the crowd with an attack on capitalism:
“I’m so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country … And I think only ending the ways that all three of those oppressive systems work together are we gonna be able to begin the process of dismantling them.”
Talarico added criticism of Texas’s oil and gas industry, which he mocked as a dying industry “like being the leader in cassette tapes in the 1980s.” He predicted with obvious satisfaction, “That industry is not gonna last.”
Ironically, given his earlier promise of running a meatless, Vegan campaign, opposing both beef and energy markets in Texas could well achieve the dismantling of the economy by default in Texas.
Talarico’s views closely parallel socialist and communist talking points online. Democratic Socialists of America has challenged people to “Imagine the end of capitalism.” Those words in the Democratic Socialists of America manifesto offer Americans a world without landlords, debt, mandatory work hours, and “food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation… are common goods and utilities.”
The DSA is premised on the same stated objective of Talarico, declaring that there has to be “a revolutionary transformation to replace the capitalist social order based on exploitation and oppression.”
Other candidates have sought to pander to this radical mob. Recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom thrilled the mob by declaring that “nostalgia is not working,” adding that “capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either.”
In “Rage and the Republic,” I discuss the rise of socialism and the coalition of politicians, pundits, and professors in attacking capitalism as well as core institutions such as the Supreme Court. It is a crisis of faith on the 250th anniversary of the oldest and most successful republic in history.
It is the 250th anniversary not only of the Declaration of Independence but of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Smith’s free market theories were immediately embraced by the founders as the perfect economic theory to match their political theory. They had declared the first Enlightenment Revolution based on a belief in natural rights that came from God, not governments.
However, those rights mean little without economic freedom. Capitalism offered citizens the ability to transcend class and social barriers, to advance as far as their skills and labor would take them.
Together, those political and economic theories created the most prosperous and stable democratic system in the world. That system is now under attack on both sides. Radicals are calling for the trashing of the U.S. Constitution and the discarding of our core constitutional values.
Even establishment figures from former Vice President Kamala Harris to California Governor Gavin Newsom now dismiss faith in core institutions as mere “nostalgia.” Those of us who support the Madisonian democracy are derisively called “institutionalists” and constitutional “cultists.”
The New York Times ran a column, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” by Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale, calling upon citizens to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”
As these attacks on our constitutional system mount, a similar attack on capitalism is unfolding. In New York, Zohran Mamdani promised to show citizens the “warmth of collectivism” from free child care to free buses to state-run grocery stores. Across the country, Mamdani allies are joining him in calling for the de-commodification of private property and the seizing of the means of production.
Polls show that these candidates are being propelled not by the working class, but by young, college-educated voters fresh out of the ideological echo chamber of higher education. They are armchair revolutionaries like Talarico, repeating socialist slogans with the same robotic rote delivery of a Young Pioneer camp.
As these videos surface, radical candidates from Abdul El-Sayed to Talarico brush off their earlier comments as media allies attack any reporting on prior statements. Socialist Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is considering a run for president, recently referred to her own extremist statements as “Woke 1.”
The transparent insincerity does not matter to their base. These figures have already shown their bona fides with extremist statements in the past. Talarico’s desire to dismantle capitalism was not some slip of the tongue but a planned speech to fellow activists. To pivot now is considered to be mere packaging for uneducated and malleable dupes.
Indeed, the Talarico campaign responded by simply declaring that Talarico is a “proud Capitalist,” though one staffer admitted that the comments were a bit “cringey.” Being a “proud capitalist” who wants to “dismantle” capitalism is a bit like being an avid meat-eater who denounces meat consumption as killing the world and banning meat from his campaign.
Accordingly, when asked about past radical positions, these figures immediately deny or dismiss them. If you want to dismantle the constitutional or economic systems of the United States, a few white lies hardly seem of much consequence. After all, as Trotsky explained, “The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.” For these radicals, there is no greater justification than their own election.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
This column also ran on Fox.com
This column was updated with the response of the Talarico campaign.
I just read “Why We Shouldn’t Cancel the Supreme Court” by Professor Turley in Imprimis. As a pragmatic centrist, I agree with Turley that the Supreme Court, as is, should be preserved. However, he left out why democrats are talking about “stacking the Court.” In my opinion, it all started in 2016 when President Obama nominated Merick Garland for Associate Justice only to have the Mitch McConnell led congress stonewall the nomination for some 293 days before Obama would leave office. And you, Professor Turley, are worried about the democrats and the Supreme Court! Please.
I apologize to readers that this comment is off topic, but I couldn’t find a direct email address for Professor Turley.
I’ve read you commentary on the Trotskyites and have considered that a point might be made in rejection of that position from Lincoln’s position on labor in his Cooper Union Speech and Second Inaugural. Perhaps, this seizure of property might be more accurately framed as “the taking of labor.” It’s a delicate point that reflects exchange vs. seizure.
Apparently Paxton has political baggage. However, for the sake of Texas and the the entire Nation Talarico the Marxist candidate has no business being anywhere near a ballot let alone a US Senate race. Have we learned nothing from the three terms of Obama, two in office and one by Biden proxy? God deliver us from ourselves if Talarico and likeminded Communists are put in office by voters who lack any understanding of the true totalitarian nature of Communism and its overwhelming toll against life, liberty, and freedom.
Capitalism is not a system that was thought up or created. It is the normal way humans barter and trade. It is the default economic system when no other system is forced on humans. It is in fact the worst system except for all the rest.
This is false, Humans did invent money and trade and eventually, the steam engine and industry etc. But along the way, the state always defined the boundaries of both property rights and also regulation of trade, commerce, contracts, etc. Capitalism is not some thing that existed in a primordial state of tribal anarchy before cities. That is hogwash, whether it comes from Rosseau or Rothbard.
Capitalism emerges around the Reformation, which also saw a large Black Death from plague, as wage employment grew, and so did acculation of “capital” by merchants. Then you had mercantile capitalism, and then industrial capitalism. At present a lot of our problems come from the transiton of the US to “Financial capitalism” during the era of “Globalization” that has seen the cancerous growth of parasitic financial elites who didn’t contribute to the economy in the same way Ford or Carnegie did a century before.
We had hoped Trump would bring us back to more socially beneficial industrial capitalism, but his warmaking and evident alliance with the plutocratic “Epstein class” now seems undeniable. Big disappointment. Sal Sar
Under Socialism, a central political/economic planning and coordinating bureau with coercive authority is necessary to make the system “work”. The jobs that MUST be done will be assigned to those who have the ability to do them, in order for the needs of the people to be met. Everyone can’t be supported by the collective state, working as a poet. An individual may wish to pursue a “job” that they feel they have the ability to perform, but there may already be an oversupply of people also wishing to do that “job” – more than enough to meet the “need” for that item. After The Revolution, there is a ‘need’ for only so many poets, songwriters, novelists, artists, actors, playwrights, journalists, influencers, public intellectuals, activists, DEI specialists, DJs, and jewelry designers, compared to the need for people to produce food, housing, clothing, machinery, power and clean water, etc. Imagine some young person of color who pushed for socialism and “dismantling the capitalist system of white supremacy”, and got their wish. In the heady days following The Revolution, all the retrograde white and Hispanic men who couldn’t reliably be reeducated, were simply eliminated. Then, the State discovered that most of the people who knew how to farm, keep farm equipment running, or produce the fuel to power it, were gone. So the Politburo declares that, of all the abilities of the the enthusiastic young revolutionaries with advanced degrees in critical theory, their ability to pick cotton is what the State most urgently needs of them.
Talarico will probably win this election. Most swing voters want to vote D this cycle, and will grasp at any excuse for doing so. Talarico is a slick candidate who knows how to thump his bible to advocate Leftist policies. Paxton is easy to dislike. And Tucker is clearly trying to help the Democrats win the Senate with his endorsement of El-Sayed.
Pray hard that this will not come to pass. I hope those who oppose Marxism will turn out in droves to vote to defeat and any other candidate that supports its treasonious ideology.
Gee, hope he doesn’t end up like Trotsky! Ominously enough US history texts have been wormed through by Left subversives for so long that picture of Leon with the pickaxe in his face is no longer included-OR the one where the Triumvirate of Soviet ideology with Bukharin in the middle is show next to the duality where it’s the same two others with Bukharin airbrushed out! SUGGESTION (from Cal Berkeley alum so old he remembers when they still had free speech there) Constitutionalists need a vocabulary adjustment as “Socialism” is too light and it’s an easy sell to the young. “Totalitarianism” is closer to what the Left wants but maybe not snappy enough. “Central State Control”? Loss of property rights for individuals is one of the 2 pillar issues (the other suppression of speech which they do all the time). “Statism” ?
The warm embrace of collectivism.
The warm embrace of mass murdering Communists.
Capitalism seems to be working PRETTY GOOD for Gavin Newscum. He really wouldn’t like Socialism IF he wasn’t part of the socialistic ruling class. Too many socialists are wannabe socialistic chiefs, but there’s far more indians than chiefs in a socialist country. Just ask some of the emerging capitalistic governments in South America. The only people that do well and get ahead under communistic leadership are the leaders.
What really gets under my skin is when even some people and even conservative commentators try to insinuate that there’s an ideological difference between someone like Nancy Piglosi, Schumer, Jeffries etc and the radically insane members of the DSA. FCOL THEY ALL VOTE THE SAME!!!
The ONLY “difference” between them and the so called “moderates” are the establishment “moderates” are politically savvy and devious enough to understand you can’t announce your communist intentions OUT LOUD to America of course. The not so socialist fools must be fooled.
Tell that to China, where not even 1% of the population are CPC members, but hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty the past 50 years.
You left out the millions that were slaughtered by Mao in order to eliminate all opposition to
what you deem his anti-poverty program. If you want to trade your freedom for being well fed
commit a crime and go to prison. No cell phones, but everything else will be provided no charge.
The jew bots are here in force.
It is going to be interesting watching James Talarico go by the way of Beto O’Rourke. I am going to get rid of meat and oil in a state that prides itself on meat and oil. This should be a wipe out.
You may be surprised at the outcome of the election. The Trump administration has moved from antagonizing its enemies towards antagonizing its base. Between the idiotic war on Iran to failure and broken promises on other fronts, its’ going to get shellacked in November. A lot of people are so mad at Trump now, so disappointed with his lies and self-inurement, they would seriously consider voting for a commie just to spite him. And I mean his former voters.
Sal Sar
Are you crazy? Trump has not lost his base……..a candidate in Texas against beef, capitalism and the traditional church. How is that going to work out?
Trump lost a lot of base. I voted for him 3 times. When the war started, I had it. Patience wore thin even before. I was all for deporting illegal immigrants too, but now his administration is arresting green card holders for petty issues. They have even deported at least one native born American. That’s fascist intimidation, I was all for it in the beginning, now it makes me want to puke
as for beef Trump is importing the toxic beef that China rejected as tainted by chemicals. some solution to inflation that is!
Also do you realize the Republicans wouldn’t back Thomas Massie’s excellent beef bill, because, well, Thomas Massie was blackballed by the kosher mafia at AIPAC? look it up if you think im wrong. you guys need to wake up
Thomas Massie is a Commie traitor, idiot! You must have brain-rot from sniffing Tucker Carlson’s day-old underwear.
It’s practically incomprehensible that a reasonable person would “spite themselves” by voting for a Communist, to express their displeasure against the POTUS. Yet insanity does have political standing today. So, many may express their hatred by voting for their own demise. How unfortunate for the rest of us who KNOW WHAT COMMUNISM IS, and would for the sake of preserving our freedom, would purge it from the USA if at all possible.
Talorico’s core is jelly.
If its jelly. It is full of the fruit of pure Marxist poison.
I hope you are correct. Yet in a world gone mad. What assurance do we have that Sanity will triumph over Insanity?