• givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Ken Paxton just keeps doing his best Rafael Cruz impression and running away from anyone who asks him a question…

    Talarico signed up for three debates and said he’ll show up even if Paxton doesn’t.

    Cruz is slimey, but he’s a legitimate master debater, he can slime his way out of shit most people can’t, and Paxton is just expecting it to work out.

    As long as Talarico doesn’t start talking about taking people’s guns, he’s got this in the bag.

    • Folstar@lemmus.org
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      5 days ago

      Talarico signed up for three debates and said he’ll show up even if Paxton doesn’t.

      Yes. Get up there and laugh at am empty podium if you have to. It was beyond frustrating in 2024 when the Harris campaign was like “ok, I guess the debates are cancelled”. No! Make a show of it. Stand on stage for an hour and read everything wrong your opponent has every done. Dare them to show up next time. Do something.

      • velma@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        It was beyond frustrating in 2024 when the Harris campaign was like “ok, I guess the debates are cancelled”.

        They really did run a terrible campaign.

        • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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          5 days ago

          Especially the part where they didn’t have a primary and picked the VP of the unpopular incumbent.

          I fully believe if they had a primary the winner would be president

          • NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip
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            5 days ago

            For those who have forgotten the 2020 primaries, she also had no rizz.

            I get it, they were afraid of losing the funds they had raised, but it stood to reason that everyone who wanted Biden to step down would see her as partly responsible too.

            I’m a tin hat wearer who doubts the veracity of some of the 2024 election results… So I’m on the fence of whether that would have been different with a more compelling Democratic candidate.

        • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          They briefly got some actual traction when Walz was calling Republicans “weird,” but then some idiot strategist stepped in and told him to stop. The campaign fell back to being anodyne and uninspiring after that, and then they tried to bring Liz Cheney in and everything just felt like it was going through the motions and expecting to have the thing handed to them on a silver platter.

        • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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          5 days ago

          Two things felt painfully obvious:

          1. They, being wealthy political class themselves, were completely detached from the people’s plight and motivations.

          2. They knew no matter how badly they threw the fight, they could still be chilling back, buying low and selling exponentially high through whatever easily avoidable economic crisis hit our (not their) country next.

        • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          All part of the riches plan.

          If you think it was a coincidence that he beat two women and almost an old man, I have some ocean front property in South Dakota to give you.

          Democrats play good cop but they are still cops

      • Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        No! Make a show of it. Stand on stage for an hour and read everything wrong your opponent has every done

        That happened here in Romania last presidential election. Our neofascist candidate (Simion) got dunked on by the neoliberal (Dan) in the first debate, so he came up with excuse after excuse as to why he couldn’t come to the rest.

        The media companies got pissed off, and instead of cancelling decided to dunk on Simion by asking the questions to Dan and playing the absolute worst clips they could find of Simion answering those questions. Definitely didn’t singlehandedly lose Simion the election, but it definitely didn’t help him.

          • Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
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            5 days ago

            That’s giving them far too much credit. They’re against losing all that delicious ad revenue from the debates and wanted to make an example of him. If Dan had cancelled, they’d have done the same to him in a heartbeat.

            • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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              4 days ago

              Okay then … must be nice to have media that’s at least neutral, instead of being pro-fascist.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Ken Paxton just keeps doing his best Rafael Cruz impression and running away from anyone who asks him a question…

      Greg Abbott pioneered the strategy of just ignoring your actual opponent and scream “The communists are coming to take your guns!” at rallies hosted by your billionaire friends. To date, it’s kinda-sorta worked. Republicans have a stranglehold on the state senate due to gerrymandered districts. All the statewide offices are reliably Republican, year in and year out. And the Republican base loves to see a candidate throwing out red meat far more than a candidate who treats liberal opponents as serious contenders for office.

      As long as Talarico doesn’t start talking about taking people’s guns, he’s got this in the bag.

      Anyone who thinks Democrats have a statewide office in a bright-red state in the bag because the Republican is ignoring them, is delusional.

      You’ll know Paxton is in trouble when he starts crying about the liberal media not giving him enough attention and demanding a dozen debates a week with Talarico straight through election day.

      • protist@retrofed.com
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        5 days ago

        Having lived in Texas for 39 years, I don’t think it’s delusional this time. Wendy Davis, Beto O’Rourke, Colin Allred…I wanted all of them to win but knew it was super unlikely.

        What’s different this time is that Paxton has such a lengthy, tainted history in Texas. He’s made lifelong enemies of so many Republicans in this state, and Talarico is so very, very palatable to them with his level of comfort framing all of this through Christianity. Obviously, nothing is in the bag, but I have confidence in this race for Talarico I never had for the other 3 candidates I mentioned

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        5 days ago

        I believe it actually began with the Bolshevik revolution and only receded, occasionally, rather than ever having went away.

      • fartographer@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Time to start buying seats at their fundraising events and then debating them while they’re busy fluffing themselves. Get kicked out for this move? Run headlines: “Paxton just proved that he doesn’t care about his own voters or sponsors”

    • Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      “And what’s your stance on gun violence?”

      My stance is that crime goes down when poverty goes down, so let’s work on making sure people can actually earn a decent living.

    • Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      “but he’s legitimate a master debater”

      Stop saying that like it’s some kind of redemption. He’s a lying sophist, it’s like saying trump sucks but he’s legitimately a good golfer.

    • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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      5 days ago

      As long as Talarico doesn’t start talking about taking people’s guns

      Knowing Texan Dems, he’ll probably announce a new proposed policy tomorrow, announcing his intention for door-to-door gun confiscating raids.