When I saw this yesterday at Twitchy, I figured it had to be a Photoshop gag. Ken Paxton had already broken out the “Low-T Talarico” theme at his acceptance speech, and this must be someone making a mockery of it:
Words, I need words. https://t.co/CxHSK4C15Q
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) May 28, 2026
Is this the real life? Is this just AI fantasy? Perhaps it’s a measure of just how much LGBTQ lingo has penetrated into culture, but when people talk about “tops and bottoms,” the first thing that pops into mind is not economics. That made me initially skeptical about this claim, as Republicans have already raised questions about Talarico’s orientation.
It’s the real life, all right, and it’s not new, either. Talarico has made “tops vs bottoms” his campaign theme for months. In September of last year, Newsweek did a splashy interview with the Texas state legislator, covering some of Talarico’s more controversial comments. However, Talarico also talked about his “tops vs bottoms” philosophy:
Talarico told Newsweek that he doesn’t “see politics as left versus right,” but instead “as top versus bottom.”
“I see the billionaires who are trying to divide us with their social media algorithms, with their cable news networks, with the politicians who are fighting on our screens. So I’m trying to bridge those divides,” he said.
He continued, “I’m trying to bring people together across party, across race, across religion and gender, to take power back for working people.”
We’ll get back to the argument itself, but let’s close the loop on verification first. Talarico’s campaign has video of the Democrat nominee making the “tops vs bottoms” argument:
Yeah, it’s real, and it’s … spectacular in its own way, I suppose. Talarico apparently wanted to rebrand the hoary “One Percenters” argument to make it his own, and I suspect he will succeed way beyond his aspirations on that point. If another Democrat sends mass mailers out declaring that the real issue in their election is tops versus bottoms and that they identify with the “bottoms,” I’ll eat my hat.
Can Talarico really not have grasped the connotation of this terminology? Yes, he studied at a seminary for a while, but he also lives in Austin and followed a few OnlyFans accounts. Imagine what Texans will think when they start seeing “tops versus bottom” campaign literature in their mailboxes. They’ll want to have it delivered in a plain brown wrapper.
Even as an economic argument, the terminology is ill-conceived, almost as badly as the ideology behind it. What does Talarico expect from this campaign theme – for Texans to rise up and declare themselves as “bottoms”? That might work in Austin, although color me a bit skeptical on that, but it’s not going to play outside of the deep-blue progressive precincts of the state. This is the difference between campaigning in Austin and campaigning across Texas. No Texas voter will identify as a “bottom” for Talarico, and I mean that in every possible context of that construct.
What about the economic argument? This is nothing more than a rehash of the socialist class-warfare argument that works in deep blue states but falls flat everywhere else, albeit with some very odd terminology. It’s the politics of envy, of shortage thinking, and of forced redistributionism. It’s not aspirational, it’s punitive, and red states are aspirational at heart. That is why capital has fled states with punitive mindsets and chosen aspirational states as their new destinations.
Talarico claims to want to unify people with this argument, but this is an argument that divides and stokes animosity. It uses economic success as a target for grievance-mongering, casting wealth as an immutable characteristic in a political and economic environment that has demonstrated the greatest opportunities for upward mobility. Talarico is selling despair rather than hope, and grudges rather than growth. Like every other socialist demagogue, Talarico wants an angry mob rather than a successful and strong electorate.
Other socialist demagogues find better terminology to sell this, though. “Elites versus working class.” “Fat cats versus the working man.” The Democratic Socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez liked to use “One Percenters” most recently, until people started pointing out that their funding came from 1%er sources, too. “Tops vs bottoms” suggests someone’s getting screwed, I guess, but not in the way Talarico must have thought it does.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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