JONATHAN TURLEY: Talarico brings a touch of Trotsky to the Texas Senate race
Senate Democratic 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 saying that it must be "dismantled" to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Russian revolutionary 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 who 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."
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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. The 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."
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Other candidates have sought to pander to this radical mob. Recently, California Democrat 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.
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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.
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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 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, Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised to show citizens the "warmth of collectivism" from free childcare 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 Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to Talarico brush off their earlier comments as media allies attack any reporting on prior statements. New York Democrat Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is considering a run for president, recently called her own extremist statements "Woke 1."
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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.
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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.