Branding is strategic, so a basic promise should stay focused on the distinct desires of a target audience. However, market dynamics often require brands to tweak their promise or competitive edge to address changing attitudes and values of their customers. These principles are especially relevant in today’s chaotic world of politics, characterized by extremism, divisiveness, hateful speech and even violence.
Fringe activists from both the Republicans and Democrats are guilty of vitriolic rhetoric and misinformation to castigate their opponents. Unfortunately, our leader has offered nothing to summon an American common ground. In his recent state-of-the-union speech, for example, he never mentioned the word “unite” and displayed his obvious contempt for Democrats, calling them “sick” and “crazy”, “destroying our country”. Instead, Trump demonstrated his trademark braggadocio with a litany of false claims about his accomplishments.
More Americans Resent “Hate”
For a growing number of Americans, the increase in hateful speech by politicians and social media influencers is starting to alienate the here-to-fore “silent majority” who are offended by such vicious attacks. A 2025 YouGov survey confirmed this:
- 81% of Americans agree (9% disagree) that “we should generally discourage people from expressing views that advocate violence against others” (88% of Democrats agree vs. 75% of Republicans).
- 78% agree (10% disagree) that “freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences of the speech.” (86% of Democrats agree vs. 76% of Republicans”)
- 70% agree (15% disagree) that “it isn’t a bad thing when people avoid publicly expressing views that may offend others” (78% of Democrats agree vs. 69% of Republicans)
The New Talarico Approach
A new type of politician has emerged recently who is capitalizing on this growing desire for more civility and less hate – the 36-year-old James Talarico from Texas. Talarico bases his brand promises on his Christian faith with a central theme of “love thy neighbor”. Instead of attacking his political opponents, he focuses on how our systems and institutions are broken and corrupt – “our economy, our political system, the media, and relationship with one another”. Reflecting these poll findings, Talarico believes people are tired of corruption and extremism, and are hungry for a different kind of politics, not politics of fear, of hate, and of violence, but a politics of love.
Not surprisingly, his views rankle the Christian nationalism movement among conservatives, many of whom believe that you can’t be a Christian and vote for a Democrat. Talarico says that these evangelists start with their politics and then their faith grows out of this, a fundamental reversal: “people are baptizing their partisanship and calling it Christianity”. Furthermore, “Christian nationalism is a sectarian movement based on mutual hate. It is the worship of power in the name of Christ”.
Talarico’s core principles of faith (e.g. “love thy neighbor”) have led to views that differ from these conservative evangelists, including his passion for immigrants, helping the poor, believing racism is immoral and wrong, opposing a ban for abortion and homosexuality (“Jesus never talked about this…”), supporting separation of church and state, and “uniting against the powerful people who have corrupted our politics and our church – billionaires who want to divide people”. For Talarico, our fight should focus on the top vs. the bottom, not the left vs. the right.
When Talarico won the Democratic primary recently, he summed up his frustration saying with great clarity, “I’m tired of being pitted against my neighbor, of being told to hate my neighbor. It’s been 10 years of this kind of politics – politics as a bloodsport, as total war. It tears families apart. It ends friendships and leaves us all feeling terrible all the time.”
Will this novel brand positioning of Talarico translate to a victory in Texas? Probably not. But perhaps it becomes a movement away from the cruelty and corruption of Nixon (or Trump), towards the ethics and integrity of Jimmy Carter. Many Americans seem ready for this transformation. For them, Talarico is all about restoring kindness and giving people hope.
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