552 Comments
тна Return to thread

Tulsi Gabbard's hard right turn has been a bit shocking. Her early views were promising and at times seemed almost too good to be true. When she was elected I remember thinking DC could use some Aloha. But a change this drastic makes no sense for a person of conscience. I wish someone would update her Wikipedia page because she reads like a perfectly sane, sympathetic person.

Expand full comment

Mazie Hirono is amazing. Schatz is pretty good too. At least Tulsi is out of office for now.

Expand full comment

Hmm. "hard right turn" might not be the best way to describe Tulsi's strongly-phrased anti-Establishment views, but perhaps you're thinking of something else.

Tulsi, alone among Democratic candidates in 2020 election cycle, had significant support among military personnel. Do you think that's important?

Expand full comment

ItтАЩs important to the extent it shows that our military seems to support authoritarian candidates operating outside the reality based world. Turning off Fox News on bases would likely help. Note: I havenтАЩt checked your assertion, and doubt that no other D candidate had support among military personnel.

Expand full comment

Careful please: I said SIGNIFICANT support. Military Democrats were Tulsi's hard core of nationwide grass-roots support.

If people like Biden (who has very little grassroots support but a lot of Establishment support) can't attract support from military personnel, is that a problem? Does how the average serviceman/woman views the Commander in Chief play a role in combat readiness? And is it fair to describe Trump (if that is who you had in mind) as an "authoritarian candidate operating outside the reality based world"?

It's hard to think that you were describing Tulsi there.

Expand full comment

YouтАЩre right, I donтАЩt know if sheтАЩs authoritarian or not. She certainly acts like either a Russian agent or a useful idiot a la Tucker Carlson. And of course itтАЩs fair to describe TFG thusly.

I got curious, and did a little research on your assertion. Surprisingly (to me, at least), it was Bernie Sanders who garnered the most support among military personnel during the primary season. Not just among Democrats, but overall as well. Like any other group, the military isnтАЩt a monolith, and there are lots of disparate beliefs within.

Expand full comment

Perhaps you're echoing Hillary Clinton's talking point when you smear Tulsi as a "Russian agent." Tulsi retorted by calling Hillary the "corrupt queen of the war-mongers."

If you have a source for 2020 military support for Bernie, I'd be interested in looking at it.

Expand full comment

That may be the case, but it doesn't affect the fact that military people formed (and still form) the core of Tulsi's support base. Personally, I'm not inclined to follow her away from the Democratic Party.

Expand full comment