Does Anybody Believe Talarico and El-Sayed Have Moderated?

Yesterday, several undercover videos surfaced exposing both the El-Sayed and Talarico campaigns, which got me wondering: is there a single person intending to vote for either candidate who genuinely believes their campaign rhetoric about not holding views that would normally disqualify them?

After all, in both cases, the candidates have taken positions that will have, under other circumstances, turned these voters off. Talarico and El-Sayed aren't walking back their prior statements for no reason; they're doing it because they know that spouting that nonsense and taking the offensive positions they did before the general election would kill them electorally. 

With El-Sayed, his walkbacks have mostly centered on his relationship with Hasan Piker, whom he embraced wholeheartedly during his primary campaign, and most of the other issues he has "changed" on relate to the same issues that make Piker a liability in the general election. 

El-Sayed is suddenly all warm and fuzzy about Jews, and only has a problem with Israel. Hasan Piker is just some random guy from California, not the celebrity he flew in to help him get votes from the anti-American and antisemitic voters he needed to mobilize in order to scrape by and win his primary by a razor-thin margin. 

But El-Sayed's transformation is minor compared to Talarico's. The Lone Star Senator-to-be has done a 180 on just about every controversial issue, to the point where he is pretending to be a completely different guy. 

He has even gone from vegan to brisket. He's suddenly decided that there are only two sexes and not six, and he's donning cowboy hats, waving Texas flags, and hasn't said a bad thing about being white or male in months. It must be painful to him by now to keep his mouth shut. 

The video that got me thinking about this issue is from a pastor at his church. You know, the church where Talarico preaches. She said the quiet part out loud: Talarico is lying in order to get elected.

On the one hand, this really isn't shocking. Nobody reading this thought anything else. Of COURSE HE IS LYING. And not just lying as politicians do, but literally saying things that repel him to his very bones to get elected. 

Normal politicians lie by promising what they can't deliver; Talarico is lying about what he would want to deliver if he could. He would do the opposite of what he is saying now. 

Which brings up the question: do the "Independent" voters who will cast a ballot for him because they accept his about-face actually not know that Talarico is lying? 

There are voters who would never pull the lever for a candidate who SAYS they want boys in girls' sports or want to subsidize a federal abortion corps, but they will pull a lever for the same candidate as long as they lie about those issues?

What does that make them? 

Well, if they know he is lying and vote for him, it makes them evil. If they truly believe that Talarico's positions pre-primary are evil, and also know that Talarico is simply mouthing the right words in order to get their votes, that makes them active participants in evil. 

One of my great frustrations with people stems from their belief that the right words are somehow magical. What matters is what happens, and if you believe a federal abortion corps is evil, and you know that your candidate will vote for it no matter what he says, you don't get a pass just because he said something different during the campaign. 

Both Talarico and El-Sayed have long histories that tell you who they are, what they believe, and, by extension, tell you what they are likely to do. You can't hide behind what they say in a campaign as an excuse to look the other way. 

It's the same BS that PolitiFact used to say Mamdani isn't a communist. '"It's not in his campaign literature" isn't dispositive; reality is reality, and what people SAY is far less important. 

This tactic works, somehow, and it has to do with people's willingness to be fooled. They know they are lying. You know they are lying. But you want what they are selling, so you accept the lie?

I still doubt Talarico is going to win, but know for sure he couldn't if he hadn't "moderated" his rhetoric. I can't get past the fact that enough people pretend to accept his "change" that their votes might carry him over the top. 

It appalls me. But it's a fact. 

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/09/17/does-anybody-believe-talarico-and-el-sayed-have-moderated-n3819060