TEXAS REPUBLICANS ARE DESPERATE TO SOUND MANLY. Attacks on James Talarico show the GOP’s narrow, anxious definition of masculinity.
“Tying together Talarico’s politics and personality, and deeming both to be weak and unmanly, is part of an attempt to turn all of Ken Paxton’s alleged vices into proof of his virility: Real men eat barbecue, pocket unattended stationery, and cheat on their wife. This ideal of masculinity is not a patriarch but a perpetual adolescent, endlessly irresponsible and endlessly indulged. (The archetype is also present on the left.) (The Atlantic)
There is oh so much madness, buffoonery, bull shit, criminality, corruption, hypocrisy, and lies making headlines in the NEWS of each and every day, mostly and mainly spewing from the Republican Party/The MAGA/The Trump Administration, that even a wildfire of decency, normality, and honesty would be diminished in a mere few seconds.
Masculinity has made a resurgence, once again within those who support Trump, and those who understand that to keep their own powerful positions, they MUST support all of the absolute insanity and inane garbage that falls out of Trump’s deranged, dangerous, and demented mind. Once again, the go-to “look over there” piece of propaganda is how to define masculinity, decide who is masculine, and, of course, identify who is not masculine.
It seems that the Republican/MAGA in Texas, knowing full well that their chosen Senatorial candidate Ken Paxton is a loser, has been a loser, lives the life of a loser, actually may be in a bit of jeopardy. Offering very little positivity towards Paxton, because he lacks many or any kind of virtues, values, or morals, the dudes in Texas must somehow pretend that his opponent, James Talirico, ain’t MASCULINE ENOUGH. And in Texas, that ain’t a good thing.
Cheating on your spouse, permitting pedophiles to get out of jail, committing fraud, participating in corruption of public funds, NOW, those, it seems with Texas Republicans and the MAGA, are as manly as you can get. How sad it is that the men in the Texas Republican Party have such low self-esteem and self-loathing with their own masculinity!
