James Talarico

That maybe what I was told wasn't real.

Maybe this isn't right.

Maybe I've got to question everything.

And that's healthy and essential.

You need that crucifixion to break apart what was there before.

That third step of resurrection, reincarnation, rebirth, reorder, however you want to describe it, to me, it feels like that's what we're on the precipice of.

And it does feel like young people in particular are the ones that are asking these questions because young people have always, on every major issue, have usually been the ones who have been able to kind of think outside the box and see things anew.

But it does feel like they are waking up to how broken organized religion is.

And they are starting to yearn for something bigger and something better and something that's more true and more honest.

I hear from people all day long, yes, on TikTok, but also in real life where they're just like, I want a relationship with God, and I'm just not sure how to find that.

I mean, I think that's maybe it was the pandemic, but there is something brewing out there where people, they're hungry for something bigger and deeper.

So, again, that's me on my hopeful days.

I've also had my days where I'm more cynical.

So I'm in my fourth term in the Texas House, and they're two-year terms, so that's eight years.

In my second term, I kind of had a crisis of confidence, I guess.

It was a brutal session.

It was a lot of really vicious fights on the House floor, a lot of really terrible bills.

The abortion ban, which we just talked about, was passed in my second term.

And I just kind of—I honestly lost faith in—

In the impact I was making and maybe even in democracy as a whole, whether this thing was even going to work, this idea that we were all going to try to solve our conflicts nonviolently and peacefully through a political process.