James Talarico on Joe Rogan: Loving Your Enemy as the Key to Saving the American Experiment

Texas State Representative James Talarico gave his thoughts on how to save the American experiment on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. His answer is centered around the Biblical command to love your enemy. As Talarico put it: “The test of Christianity is not do you love Jesus because Jesus is pretty lovable. The test is do you love Judas?"

Throughout the podcast, Talarico continued to emphasize the importance of loving your neighbors and enemies, drawing on his own experience in the Texas legislature, where he represents district 50 as a member of the Democratic Party. As part of the minority, Talarico has to constantly work with Republicans in order to be effective and come to many compromises, but he recounts this as “a blessing in this modern era where we're all tribalized and polarized.” 

Talarico further emphasizes this principle of loving your enemy by stating how each person is made in the image of God and is a child of God. He not only challenges Republicans but also members in his own party to adhere to this principle because of the importance that it has in restoring the unity of America. 

He recalls how he has to remind himself “to see Donald Trump as a child of God.” To underscore his point, Talerico quoted the Catholic activist Dorothy Day: "You really only love God as much as you love the person you love the least."

While such a principle may seem idealistic in nature, Talarico gave a powerful testimony about a "snarky comment" on Facebook from a gun enthusiast, where his initial instinct was anger. However, he checked that impulse and instead invited the commenter for coffee. This face-to-face interaction dissolved the online animosity, revealing a "lovely guy" who shared common ground on the value of safety. "It turned from this dunking in comments on social media to when we were face to face, human to human, right? Suddenly we were... we heard each other, we listened to each other."

Talarico’s message and appeal to love one’s enemy resonated so strongly with Rogan that he said, “So I just need you to run for president… We need someone who's actually a good person.” This comes from the person that endorsed Trump less than a year ago.