Talarico welcomes debate about 'what it means to be a man'

I'm going to write about this later, but for now, I want to get your opinion. The race in Texas between Senate candidates James Talarico, the Democrat, and Ken Paxton, the Republican, has evoked a subject that, in my view, gets too little attention among liberals.

I think liberals have some idea of manhood running in the background as we focus on women's freedoms, the effects of patriarchy and so on. But I think that when the right's idea of manhood is not directly and vigorously challenged, we end up where we are, as a nation currently run by losers in thrall to mediocrity and base impulse.

Here, in this interview on MS Now, Talarico opens the door to challenging the rights in ways that it is not accustomed to. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Tell me I'm right. Tell me to go to hell. But whatever you do, tell me what you think.

But before I let you go, let me remind you about the tip jar!

Thank you! –JS

"There’s been a lot of talk in this race about what it means to be a real man and recently on the campaign trail, I told the story of my adoptive dad, the man who gave me his last name, the man who raised me as his own.

"Every Saturday morning, Mark Talarico would mow our lawn. Whether it was rain or shine, whether he wanted or not, he insisted on mowing our lawn himself. And then without anyone asking him to, he would go next-door and lower our neighbors lawn because our neighbor was elderly. She was a widow.

"And my dad never talked about it. He just did it because that’s what a man does. A man takes responsibility. A man upholds his commitments to his family and his neighbors. A man does what’s right even when no one is watching and here’s what real men don’t do: They don’t lie and cheat their way through life. They don’t sell their soul to the highest bitter. They don’t steal from other people in order to enrich themselves.

"I’ve said before and I will keep saying that real men serve others, weak men serve themselves. So I welcome this debate about what it means to be a man and I don’t think Ken Paxton or Ted Cruz are in a position to tell anybody what a real man is."