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.
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
There are two excellent (non-partisan) documentaries about American Capitalism every high school student and every member of Congress should watch, starring Tea Party Republican Dave Brat, Republican Alan Simpson (Simpson Bowles Commission) and Robert Reich (Bill Clinton’s economic advisor). The more recent film warns that today’s economic data is very similar to the period leading up to the Great Depression – expenses continue to rise faster than paychecks do.
Films: “Saving Capitalism” and “Inequality for All”
Ronald Reagan’s economic advisor – David Stockman – warned modern day Republicans that the “Trickle Down” theory didn’t work by itself. In addition to “Supply Side Economics” you also need “Demand Side Economics”.
“. . . expenses continue to rise faster than paychecks do.”
Which, of course, is false.
What a ridiculous post. DOES TURLEY THINK THESE INDUSTRIES ARE CAPITALIST?
Government Intervention in the Agricultural Sector:
Price Loss Coverage: The government pays farmers the difference if a crop’s market price drops below a set benchmark.
Agriculture Risk Coverage: This program triggers payouts to farmers when their local crop revenue drops below historic averages.
Federal Crop Insurance: Taxpayers cover roughly 60% of farmers’ crop insurance premiums to shield them from weather losses.
Supply Quotas: The government restricts production of certain items like sugar to keep domestic prices artificially high.Milk
Marketing Orders: Federal regulations dictate the minimum prices that processors must legally pay to dairy farmers.
Renewable Fuel Standard: A government mandate forces oil refineries to buy billions of gallons of corn-based ethanol annually.
Import Tariffs: Heavy taxes and strict limits are placed on foreign food imports to block cheaper international competition.
Government Intervention in the Oil and Gas industry:
Commodity Credit Corporation: A government-owned bank buys up excess crops to artificially boost low market prices.
Intangible Drilling Costs: An exclusive tax loophole lets oil companies immediately deduct the majority of their drilling expenses.
Percentage Depletion Allowance: Producers can deduct a flat 15% of gross revenue, often yielding tax breaks exceeding their actual investments.
Subsidized Public Leasing: The government sells drilling rights on public lands at royalty rates traditionally below open-market value.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve: The state acts as a massive market buyer and seller to artificially shift oil supply during emergencies.
The Jones Act: A maritime law restricts coastal oil shipping to expensive American vessels, altering normal domestic trade.
Master Limited Partnerships: Pipeline companies can use a unique legal structure that completely exempts them from corporate income taxes.
Military Shipping Protection: Taxpayers fund global military operations to secure oil shipping lanes, socializing the industry’s security costs.
Liability Caps: Federal laws limit the maximum financial damages a company must pay after an environmental oil spill.
Anyone who has taken basic economics understands that externalities abound in a purely capitalist system. While reasonable minds may differ as to how much intervention is just, it is a farce to think that we live a capitalist system.
Seizing ownership of companies is also a communist practice. Trump has seized ownership of several large companies that his Executive Branch also regulates. If any other official did this they would be criminally indicted for conflicts of interest.
The leaders of the Democrats are expert at “Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” and terrible at vetting their candidates.
Many of us were hoping Talarico was more like the late great Jimmy Carter. Carter wasn’t perfect and inherited a mess from Middle East oil cartels, but as a small business owner (farmer) at least Carter supported capitalism.
It would be in the best interests of both parties (especially Democrats) to support “Ranked Choice Open Primary elections” – that way both parties would get (non-extreme) candidates that appealed to average voters.
We can create all of the cogent, factual reasons why we must denounce these would-be communists but the main fact is that there is, now, a significant cadre of indoctrinated, functionally illiterate and sadly un-educated citizens and illegals who fall for this tripe with open hearts because they, like Pavlov’s dogs, have been conditioned to do this.
They stay willfully ignorant of real life data and abide, safely, within their bubbles and are the largest threat to this nation by their misguided votes.
This is far more dangerous to a Federal Republic when a vast number of its citizens feel that we are a democracy, refuse to understand the true functionings of our constitution, and will not see the historical data surrounding previous instances of communism that have created such destruction in its wake.
What we are dealing with is a demographic assault on our constitution that will not be solved by politely discussing the evils of communism. We need a direct action to stem the tide of this misbegotten horde of ignorance.
Whimsical Mama above, Diogenes and suezappa below are Estovir.
“Someday, you’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.”
If you own nothing, you own no cash.
If you own no cash, you have nothing to bargain with.
If you can’t bargain, they won’t care if you’re happy.
Someday, you’ll own nothing, and you better act grateful.
How about if all “white people” stop paying all taxes???? If they hate us, they hate our tax money. Good luck!
Red counties in tyrannical blue states can be Haven Counties, and there are lots of red counties in blue states. If they don’t pay taxes and refuse to prosecute state laws, Richmond, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, and LA quickly become rump states. This chaos is the logical extension of sanctuary cities, but the left never thinks about such unintended consequences.
Clarification: if red counties don’t pay taxes and refuse to prosecute state laws, their big blue metros become rump states.
HAHAHAHAAH Turley supporting Ken Paxton is literally the only thing you need to know about Jonathan Turley right now. A Law Professor at George Washington University is so convinced that his party is going down in flames in a few months that he’s out here shilling fo PAXTON, of all people, alongside his book. Man, oh man – what a look. I can practically see his flopsweat through the computer screen….
Why are you so worried JT? If the GOP has been doing such a bang up job over the past two years – if Trump has been so effective as President, then Republicans will easily sweep the midterms – right? Paxton should easily win. Why is a Professor Law at George Washington University campaigning for a Texas Senate candidate?
If the left is such a shoe-in, why all the media desparately vouching for everything they do?
A confused, directionless voice can only tell us what s/he opposes. A true leader speaks in a proactive, affirmative voice, saying what is the best path forward through the unknown — s/he does not use oppo-branding, anti-this, anti-that. Once you recognize this difference, you’ll be able to tell the true leaders from also-rans. America is drowning in oppo-politics, and craves leadership that knows which way to go, and is willing to take responsibility and make corrections as sideways results come in. A great future awaits us when we demand proactive, responsible leadership from all candidates for office — which means sidelining the performative creeps who play to negativism.
“. . . a world without landlords, debt, mandatory work hours, and ‘food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation… are common goods and utilities.’”
A young child was asked: “Where do your clean socks come from?”
His answer: “My clothes drawer.”
Yes! Children must be gradually developed into capitalist agents, so that by the time they reach age 18, they are able to thrive as independent actors and thus appreciate freedom with responsibility. The reason young adults are flirting with socialism is because we haven’t adequately prepared them emotionally, financially and intellectually for immediate success as capitalist actors. The idea that you start out by failing (which many older conservatives now defensively claim) just doesn’t make sense to 18-22 year olds. You can’t sell a product that has failure as the entry point.
If conservatives are unwilling to expend the creative thinking on how to acculturate children early, and have them show up at age 18 fully prepared for success as budding capitalists, then we’re going to forfeit the game to the socialists. This isn’t the economy of 50 years ago.
Sam above is Estovir.
“It is a crisis of faith on the 250th anniversary of the oldest and most successful republic in history”
I could see this as a crisis of faith if I could observe real suffering and oppression through the system’s ineptitude. What I see instead of oppression is that the “oppressed” can find ways to game the justice system such that someone with dozens of felonies can be let free to murder someone. Instead of poverty I see college educated people so careless about their future that they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an idiotic degree for which there is no market.
No one ever promised a system whereby one would become wealthy and live a comfortable life despite making all manner of bad choices.
Is a 20-year-old who is forced to go into serious debt to begin earning a slouch who got there by making “bad choices”? And, is his same-age peer who won the birth lottery and receives start-up funding from parents a person of superior character and work-ethic?
I’m all for a reward system based on effort, learning and responsibility-taking. That means I’m opposed to perverse distortions of the reward system such as the birth lottery and the zip-code you’re born in. We’re still very far from an equal opportunity, individual meritocracy. Pretending we’ve already achieved it guarantees we’ll never get there.
Allowing immature, irresponsible, poorly-educated teens to reproduce shows we don’t care about equal opportunity for the child born. If we really cared, we’d have birth-licensing to enforce standards of readiness to parent. As it is, we have conditions for operating a motor vehicle, but none for hopping in the driver’s seat as a parent? Yet, both have life-altering consequences?
Kevin T Kilty is a new, Estovir puppet.
Having knowledge of the law is beneficial to being a crook.
Do Republicans have a plan for homelessness, poverty, and drug abuse, or will they just inject capitalism into the situation and hope for the best?
Socialism isnt a plan to cure those ills. It’s just a drug to make folks high enough to forget them.
The democrat party is fully on board with these issues other than John Fetterman. Bill Clinton and JFK would have no place in today’s democrat party.
It is apparent that the DNC (Democratic National Communists) have decided that Communism is not well received by the voting Americans. So let’s try Democratic Socialism of America and see if that sticks, after all it involves “free” stuff for electing Communism. BTW let’s add the Islamic Jihad to our “large tent”!!!!!!!
Bcofdt13 is a new, Estovir puppet.
“[A] few white lies hardly seem of much consequence.”
Sounds kinda Muslim to me…
Introducing capitalism into every nook and cranny should make everyone rich, but this has not happened.
LAME as usual MORON ANON!!
Would you care to elaborate?
Figure it out MORON ANON!!! ANON spelled lose as loose and Covid as Corvid!! I think MORON ANON is a 8 year old!!!
Are you yellow on the outside, and white on the inside?
PSYCHO ANON!! FY for the 15th time today!! Too many CO(R)VID SHOTS? MORN ANON spelled Covid as CORVID!!
Kirk, hi, this is a very different Anon. It’s not worth it caps’ing and crashing at stupid nothing comments from others. Save the bandwidth of your internet and brain, and contribute peacefully.
Kirk is Estovir, of course.
Introducing Socialism into every nook and cranny makes everyone ( except thd elites) miserable. That has happened.
If capitalism is the panacea it is cracked up to be, should everyone be living in mansions and being driven around in limousines?
Of course not. Only those with the skills and drive to succeed will rise to the top.
But it is telling that the average person in poverty in the U.S. has a higher standard of living (cell phone, multiple big screen TVs, gaming system(s), air conditioning, etc.) than the average European. Why do you think that is?
These accoutrements are of much less comfort when you have to go into debt to acquire them. Put yourself into the shoes of an 18-year-old from a poor family trying to get started job-hunting. You need:
– a phone, and phone account
– a computer, and ISP account
– a bank account (for direct deposit)
– clothing to match the job
– transportation, car, drivers license, gas, insurance
– health care, dentistry, vision care
– confidence, nerve (negotiating skills)
– marketable skills (reading, writing, social skills)
If all young entrants into the capitalist system started out in possession of these basics, then your presumption that ours is an equal-opportunity individual-meritocracy would be credible.
But, we’re still very far from that ideal. Worse yet, many conservatives refuse to accept the defects (“imperfections”) and are unwilling to undertake the needed repairs to capitalism. That complacency is what is fueling the socialist pipedream.
“If all young entrants into the capitalist system started out in possession of these basics . . .”
Paid for by whom?
Like our Constitutional Republic, Capitalism isnt perfect its just better than anything else for most people.
OK, what should we do about the imperfections? Hunker down defensively and do nothing? Or, figure out what improvements take modern capitalism closer to perfection?
If you’re not willing to do the latter, you’re giving the socialistic pipedream oxygen.
The cream rises to the top, and the chaff, separated from the wheat, is left behind because it has no use. That is capitalism. If you do not make efforts to rise up, you are left on the threshing floor.
Trump is coming to Texas; Talarico is going to get chewed up like deer meat in a grinder. POTUS and Elon both are going to throw huge amounts of money into these RED States knowing the importance of winning. Texas is awash in natural gas and still have vast pools of untouched oil. Talarico will hate the day for mocking God with that garbage about multi-sex are whatever on TV commercials, terrible. He is a liar and a freak! Ken Paxton’s knowledge of the law far exceeds that of babbling Talarico, what a joke; all his money is from out of state. WIN RED!