“Ted Cruz basically said he wouldn’t use the word ‘masculine’ to describe you,'” Jen Psaki said to Talarico on MS NOW. “It seems pretty clear what they’re trying to do here, at least to me. Not only are they going after you, but they’re really trying to attack groups of people you’ve defended in the past, including trans people and others. What do you make of that?”
In addition to Cruz’s pathetic smear, Trump’s pet fascist Stephen Miller falsely asserted that Talarico is transgender. Other Republican influencers have implied that he’s gay. The strategy here is clear: lean into culture war lies about Talarico rather than contest him on actual policy.
“Yeah, there’s been a lot of talk in this race about what it means to be a real man,” Talarico said to Psaki. “And recently on the campaign trail, I told the story of my adoptive dad, the man who gave me his last name, the man who raised me as his own.”
“Every Saturday morning, Mark Talarico would mow our lawn, whether it was rain or shine, whether he wanted to or not, he insisted on mowing our lawn himself,” the Senate candidate continued. “And then without anyone asking him to, he would go next door and mow our neighbor’s lawn because our neighbor was elderly, she was a widow. And my dad never talked about it. He just did it.”
“Because that’s what a man does. A man takes responsibility,” he said.
“A man upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors.”
“A man does what’s right even when no one is watching.”
“And here’s what real men don’t do… They don’t lie and cheat their way through life,” he went on. “They don’t sell their soul to the highest bidder. They don’t steal from other people in order to enrich themselves. And so I’ve said before, and I will keep saying, that real men serve others.”
“Weak men serve themselves,” he added. “And so I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man. And I don’t think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is.”
Someone should tell Ted Cruz that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Donald Trump called his wife ugly during the 2016 Republican primary, only for Cruz to go on to become one of Trump’s staunchest supporters. There is nothing “masculine” about selling out your own family in pursuit of power.
Similarly, Talarico’s disgraced opponent Ken Paxton is the furthest thing from a good man. He was impeached as state attorney general by his own party for bribery, and his wife divorced him for adultery. If that’s what a “real man” does, then we need a lot fewer “real men” in government.
H/T: OD
About the Author
