The attacks on James Talarico have not been subtle. In the weeks since the 37-year-old state representative won the Democratic U.S. Senate primary in Texas, Republicans have been describing him as 'Low-T Talarico,' 'James Talafreako,' and 'Six-Gender Jimmy.' On May 28, the White House immigration czar Stephen Miller said on Fox News that it was 'brave, courageous, that the Democratic Party would choose Texas, of all places, to nominate their first transgender Senate candidate.' The Republicans have long marketed themselves as the manlier party, but the anti-Talarico blitzkrieg is both obviously coordinated and unusually overt. The overarching strategy here, as the Democratic presidential hopeful Rahm Emanuel has previously pointed out, is to associate the entire left with being 'weak and woke.' Not manly, in other words. Talarico's aw-shucks niceness and youthful looks are reframed as the result of low testosterone, and his (admittedly mawkish and over-egged) statements of concern...
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