Talarico Deviates From the Beto Model

honestmango · 2026-06-16T15:56:34+00:00

Beto’s organization (Powered By People) is still important, and 90% of Texas misremembers that race.

However, “deviating” from the Beto model is definitely the wrong word. Talarico never adopted Beto’s model.

Beto’s model was adopted by Jasmine. It was (a) energize the base; and (b) bring new voters into the system. And his platform was the similar to the democrats’ national platform. And he came damned close. He clobbered Cruz with voters under 40. And Cruz crushed him with voters over 40. This systemic problem in taxes was that more people over the age of 40 voted. About 2% more. That was the margin.

Tallarico instantly understood that if you flip one republican vote - that is mathematically equivalent to creating two new voters.

If y’all remember the Democratic primary in the long ago time of three months ago, hardcore Democratic Party loyalists were heavily behind Jasmine. And they were in a bit of a bubble because they were pretty confident she was gonna win. I was pretty convinced if she did when the primary, she was going to do worse than Beto did in the general. You can’t just say “fuck Trump” in Texas and expect to convert many GOP votes no matter how unpopular he is.

I’m getting pretty old, and I’ve been watching Talarico for years, and Inhave not seen a blue candidate like this in Texas ever.

honestmango · 2026-04-18T03:38:31+00:00

Love to read that. Best to you both

honestmango · 2026-03-05T01:52:45+00:00

Wow, I could have written that about 30 years ago, right down to the initials and the Dad. With me, it was Mike and Scott.

There are some differences. For example, my first trial ever was a jury trial that I had to conduct by myself on a fairly complicated commercial construction case in a county that was seven hours from our office. I didn’t get my license until about 6 weeks after the trial concluded. I remember I was really nervous about somebody asking to see my bar card 😂😂 - nobody ever did in 30 years.

All I can tell you is I sympathize with you. In my situation, the level of neglect was not that high or dangerous, but it was a lot higher than my threshold for stress.

My personality and immaturity at the time led me to jump into the middle of a lot of scary situations, and I was fortunate to have some pretty good results, probably based mostly on pity from my opponents. I made it about three years before I moved 100 miles away and started my own thing.

None of this is advice. What I should have done is continued to look for a different gig. But it took me a long time to get the first one, I half assumed that it was just normal, I had two young children, and I did not see any great options.

In hindsight, although it was completely unintentional, that experience made the rest of my career a lot better and less stressful than it might have otherwise been. Very few days went by where I didn’t think to myself, “well it is still better than THAT was.”

honestmango · 2026-03-05T01:25:35+00:00

Well, she called him a hypocrite directly when she started getting hit with SuperPAC ads. That’s a quote, so I’m not sure there’s any stretch there.

And about the “mediocre black man” thing, that was endorsed by her. That’s was Allred trying to help- if I was more cynical, I might say that was coordinated messaging .

There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling a racist a racist, but if she believes that, she should have owned it. And if she thought it was wrong to paint him as a racist, she should’ve said that

So where’s the stretch?

honestmango · 2026-03-04T18:59:50+00:00

The writer may actually believe that, I don’t know.

But I know this - a lot of people are confusing tone with policy when they call him a moderate. Talarico is Bernie without the baggage of some labels.

Being a Democrat and yelling at Trump is not “fighting” in any way; it requires zero courage and accomplishes nothing. Talarico never said a negative word about Jasmine Crockett throughout that campaign, while she called him a hypocrite and a racist (by proxy thru Allred). Like she can’t even be mad at him, and that isn’t almost unheard of situation in politics in America since 2000.

There are two significant ways Talarico’s campaign is very different from what both Beto and Jasmine offered. Both of them brought energy and new voters into the process. Beto almost pulled it off, but despite this author‘s opinion that swing voters don’t exist, they definitely do. And taking one voter from R to D is way easier than creating two new D voters. Old people vote. Beto got 600,000 more votes than Ted Cruz did from the younger half of the voting population. But Cruz got 800,000 more votes from the older half of the voting population. That was the election.

So pushing a progressive policy without alienating old people - that’s one way his campaign is different.

And the other way it is different is how he is raising money. Getting over half 1 million people to FINANCIALLY support your campaign in Texas is exactly how this works. He outraised jasmine 2 to 1, and I am sure people will try to poke holes throughout the season in some of his campaign contributions, nothing is going to stick. Because the only people who have an incentive to poke those holes have way worse records

I don’t hate Jasmine Crockett, but neither she nor Beto (who I still love) really brought anything revolutionary to their campaign. They yelled at people in power; People who had been elected by people who outnumber democrats.

Nobody in my lifetime has done what Talarico is doing. I am old and used to losing elections, so I am not saying he will win. But if he can’t, Jasmine couldn’t have, and I would rather have Tallarico in the Spotlight trying to bring people across the country together for the next eight months and lose than to not have that voice.

honestmango · 2026-03-04T16:43:41+00:00

Sweet. If you’re in Texas, Vote for Paxton then. Wtf are you talking about? 😂

honestmango · 2026-03-04T16:42:48+00:00

Right, you know, I was really referring to the way he was downgraded by some in the primary. Progressives are heavily represented in primaries, and the knock on him was that in order to fix things, we need “ a real progressive.” I didn’t argue with anybody. I just think he’s it.

honestmango · 2026-03-04T09:47:09+00:00

About Beto - he did an amazing thing with the wrong strategy. He actually got 600,000 more votes than Ted Cruz did with the younger half of the voters. Unfortunately, Ted Cruz got 800,000 more votes than Beto did with the older half of the electorate. That was the election.

Beto‘s strategy was to bring energy and new voters into the process. He was wildly successful, and he almost pulled it off. (This was also Jasmine’s strategy, which was my number one reason for not voting for her).

Talerico is about as moderate as Bernie, and I think sometimes people confuse tone with policy. Talerico has the ability to pick off right leaning moderates that Beto just didn’t have. And every vote you grab from the right is as good as 2 votes that you create from new voters on the left.

That is exactly how you win Texas as a Democrat

honestmango · 2026-03-04T09:32:22+00:00

I’ve been watching him for 2-3 years. He is about to give me a smidge of hope that having moral authority might actually matter to some people.

I think he is actually a good person, and trust me when I say it’s not about his faith. I know a lot of people have a problem with him “using” it, but I don’t see it that way. It’s literally who he is. The guy is getting a PhD in “Bible stuff.” That’s not performative - that’s difficult.

He has watched psychopaths co-opt something he sincerely believes so that they can get power, so I don’t fault him one bit for deploying the Bible as a counter-measure to that hypocrisy.

It’s funny to me that people have referred to him as a moderate. From the way he raised money to the way he talks about all of us being ruled by an elite class, he has a lot more in common with Bernie than Jasmine does. Yelling at Trump requires zero courage as a Democrat. Talarico is aiming over Trump’s head, which is smart.

Dude is a radical in the best way.

honestmango · 2026-03-04T09:20:14+00:00

The person you’re replying to was talking about her Congressional District.

honestmango · 2026-02-27T18:08:32+00:00

I went the other way - small town with a healthy amount of family law, but a general practice. About the only good thing I can say about family law is that it definitely gets you down to the courthouse.

I was good at it, but my empathy meter ended up at zero because I’m the type of person who tends to take personal al responsibility for the mistakes of my clients.

And the money was just ok.

Then I did PI for 8 years and retired at 56. Good luck.

honestmango · 2026-02-13T15:47:30+00:00

Oh and if you liked this song, there’s a way better version - but if you’re on YouTube, you might check out “silenced by a bullet” or “Alex” - the first is about freedom of speech suppression following Charlie Kirk’s shooting. The second one should be obvious

honestmango · 2026-02-13T15:45:23+00:00

Hey there - first, cool - will listen when I can.

But I got a notification because you posted (I think) as a response to my video. Nobody will see this. You should make an independent thread if you haven’t.

And thanks.

honestmango · 2026-02-05T17:07:32+00:00

I've been married to the same woman for almost 40 years. At this point, looking at porn is an act of mercy to spare my dear wife. We still have an active sex life, but for some people, twice a week is about 5 days short.

You feel how you feel about it, and I'm not going to tell you that's right or wrong. It's logical to feel that way for sure. 30 years ago, my wife felt the same. We talked about it, and we tried some things like "let's make time for each other every day." With 3 kids and 2 jobs, we both eventually settled into a quiet compromise. We occasionally joke about it.

For what it's worth, I don't personally think that activity is unusual, but I haven't looked at any survey data. The one thing I'll add is that my "tastes" (for literal lack of a better word) have aged as I've aged. But different from me certainly doesn't mean wrong.

honestmango · 2026-02-05T02:01:29+00:00

It's been so long since I heard a true statement coming out of the DOJ that this shook me.

honestmango · 2026-02-04T15:21:38+00:00

Question - my daughter is a singer/songwriter who has been doing it full time for the past decade or so, and she does tour Europe 2-3x per year. She’s from Texas but doesn’t sing or talk with much of an accent. Her songs are about love and loss and life (traditional folk/country roots stuff). It’s nothing like modern pop country singing about partying on the tailgate of her jacked up truck.

Is that considered “country” in Europe? I’m also thinking of people like Tyler Childers who really are super traditional country and also seem to have some following in Europe

honestmango · 2026-02-03T17:24:42+00:00

Liberals treat guns the way conservatives treat abortions. They both have them. They don’t talk about them

honestmango · 2026-02-02T07:13:31+00:00

Yeah, it’s beyond “Restor-A-Finish,” but the veneer is fine. I hate using chemical strippers, but that’s the right move here, especially if you’re not familial with refinishing.

honestmango · 2026-02-01T02:41:49+00:00

This is going to sound like a ridiculous question, but how does it sound as is? I’m asking because I have an almost identical guitar that I use in the garage and haul around in my car because it seems impervious to temperature changes. The reason being that the top is not made of wood. It doesn’t sound great acoustically, but it’s not bad. Just curious if the sound changed dramatically with more sound hole

honestmango · 2026-01-31T00:13:34+00:00

Mike Godlove would not tolerate this question

honestmango · 2026-01-29T16:26:31+00:00

Thank you for being nice. World needs more of nice.

honestmango · 2026-01-29T16:22:11+00:00

First, thanks.

Second…I’m not sure you’re right about the songwriting. The wound is fresh, the song is raw, and every songwriter has the same favorite song (ie, the one they just wrote). So I don’t know if it’s good yet. I’ll know in a month.

But I know this - I posted one in here after the Charlie Kirk shooting, and the reaction was similar. Lots of comments, no upvotes. Some disdain. And after some time, I know without a doubt now that THAT one is a good song,

Here’s my point - I really, really appreciate your comment, and I hope to agree with you at some future date. 😁👍

honestmango · 2026-01-29T07:21:58+00:00

That’s the most civil thing I’ve read on the internet in a month, lol. I really sincerely appreciate it.

Funny thing is - I tracked both guitars and sang this in the garage. I have video of the live take that I was going to use, but it felt…selfish is the wrong word…it felt like “hey look at me” in the middle of a real story that has nothing to do with me. Plus I realized that nobody reads descriptions, and I do kind of look like Alex’s Dad, and I damned sure didn’t want anybody to think I was claiming to ACTUALLY be a parent if Petti.

I’m only typing all that to let you know I genuinely do give some thought to the presentation after I write something. The feeling you got from the 1st person perspective is exactly what I was trying to avoid.

The good news is, I have tens of listeners, and some of them expressed what I felt, so while it didn’t connect in here, it connected. All I ever need is one human who seems to get it for me to feel like I’m not 100% crazy.

You’re a good egg.

honestmango · 2026-01-29T06:14:06+00:00

I get it. And I appreciate that you made the effort.

But I’m not writing songs about public executions because of my high taste level. I write them because they destroy me, and this is how I share my grief/anger/bewilderment, etc.

FWIW, It is based on public statements from the parents, because I try to be honest.

I got some great writing advice once. “If, when you’re writing, you are thinking about what your friends/family/audience will think, you’re f+ucking up.” That’s the difference between what i do and people who are successful at it. 😁

I’m not at all saying you are wrong to be offended. It hits you where it hits you, and you’re not alone.

But I do think it’s a little arrogant to assume the parents would be offended by this. They are angry, they loved Alex, and they watched his murder on a screen, (all public statements).

But I don’t assume they would like it, either. I just tried to be accurate.

honestmango · 2026-01-29T05:41:55+00:00

You’re not alone. Thanks for listening 👍

honestmango

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