‘Pronouns or prices?’: Rising star Dem calls out MAGA ‘picking the pockets’ of regular folk and general culture war garbage

The Republican/MAGA playbook is as obvious as it is depressingly effective. Each day, they come up with innovative new ways to make the lives of their base worse: be it driving up oil prices, closing hospitals, removing worker protections, defunding schools, and so on.

In a sane world, you might expect the downtrodden and victimized poor to be violently opposed to the smug rich a-holes purposefully ruining their lives. But then the rich guy in the suit just points to some gay guy minding his own business, makes an “ewwww” face, and they rush to put the guy that’s killing them back into office.

This is the “culture war”: a tried-and-tested tactic to distract stupider Americans while their money and happiness are stolen from under their noses. Fighting against this onslaught of billionaire-funded propaganda that saturates every single aspect of American culture is all but impossible.

But, to his credit, Texas Democrat James Talarico is asking a simple question of Texans. What do you care more about: “pronouns or prices”? Talarico, 36, is a rising star in the Democratic Party, an eighth-generation Texan, a former middle school teacher, and a Presbyterian seminarian. He’s now the Democratic nominee for the Texas Senate race, which for Republicans is proving worryingly close.

“It’s literally the oldest strategy in the world.”

Talarico is trying to tear down these culture war lies, approaching politics through the lens of his Christian faith and fighting for working people against powerful interests. That was just summed up in a new interview with MS Now:

Talarico: "Here's why they're doing this. There's another war in the Middle East. There's a cost of living crisis crushing the middle class. There's a secret pedophile ring and no one has been prosecuted. So the people responsible are trying to distract us with the same old… pic.twitter.com/yANXmwdjHU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2026

There’s another war in the Middle East. There’s a cost-of-living crisis crushing the middle class. There’s a secret pedophile ring and no one has been prosecuted. So the people responsible are trying to distract us with the same old culture wars. Trump’s own press secretary said they’re not ruling out a military draft for their new war in Iran.

What do the American people care more about? Culture wars or actual wars? What do you think they care more about? Pronouns or prices?”

He underlined that MAGA’s tactic is practically prehistoric:

“This is what the people in power always do. They divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion, by culture, so we don’t notice that they are picking our pockets. They’re closing our schools, gutting our healthcare, raising taxes on us while they cut them for themselves. It’s literally the oldest strategy in the world.”

Whether this message works for Talarico in Texas remains to be seen. Trump’s approval ratings are in the toilet, the economic forecast is grim, and all indications are that the November midterms will be punishing for MAGA.

Whether that means Texas will elect a Democrat to statewide office for the first time in over 30 years remains to be seen!