That was the comment of a friend in Hawaii following Gabbard’s announcement of a presidential run.
He pointed to just some of the reporting prompted by Gabbard’s move.
“Not a great start for Tulsi,” he observed. That seems a fair conclusion.
Rolling Stone: “Tulsi Gabbard’s 2020 Campaign May Be Over Before It Starts”
Roll Call: “Tulsi Gabbard ‘regrets’ past anti-gay activism as she prepares for presidential race”
CNN: “Tulsi Gabbard once touted working for anti-gay group that backed conversion therapy”
I suppose we’re supposed to feel warm and fuzzy now that another Hawaii figure is making a bid for the White House. But Gabbard is widely viewed warily, and with reason.
Gabbard’s new prominence will undoubtedly prompt more reporting on her background with and continuing ties to the cult known as the Science of Identity.
When Gabbard first ran for a seat in Congress, Hawaii voters who were aware of Gabbard’s past had to decide whether she had actually rejected her former beliefs or whether she was masking them in order to pursue an ambitious political agenda.
She says her views on LGBTQ issues have made a 180 degree turnaround.
But the reality isn’t clear. Gabbard’s aunt, in a letter published by the New Yorker Magazine in November 2017, made public her own concerns about Gabbard’s real political agenda, the status of her ties to the Science of Identity Foundation, and her praise of political strongmen here and abroad.
It has been noted that Gabbard’s Congressional staff and her campaign have included a number of individuals with ties to Science of Identity.
And, as others have reported, Gabbard’s campaign has gone to great lengths to insulate her from questions about her past and present ties to the group, stifling questions at campaign events and allegedly hounding reporters who have attempted to pursue the issue.
Christine Gralow, a Hawaii-based investigative reporter, is one of those who has done extensive digging into Gabbard’s past and present, and says she has suffered as a result.
Her reporting can be found at her website, “Meanwhile in Hawaii“. It is essential reading.
A piece published today in the Washington Monthly raises again the question of Gabbard’s cult background, and asks, “Can Democrats trust Tusi Gabbard?”
The answer is, well, questionable.
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Ian: Tulsi also has the issue of support from Hindu nationalists which likewise alienate most progressives, her only base of support, and it is only a sliver of that base which will be shared with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders (if he runs). The Rolling Stone comment is probably accurate.
in face of questions from the darn gotcha media, Gabbard likely would follow the Trump model: ‘say anything and your base will believe it.’
fortunately, Gabbard has no base. thank god. wouldn’t surprise me at all if she championed herself as the voice of the #metoo movement and as a Rambo war hero at the same time. she really needs to get into acting, like Reagan.
Ian, you are a grumpy old man that has forgotten your anti-establishment roots.
Lighten up brother. Tulsi is not the enemy. She is a breath of fresh air.
this is a breath of fresh air???? lmfao
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the early 2000s touted working for her father’s anti-gay organization, which mobilized to pass a measure against same-sex marriage in Hawaii and promoted controversial conversion therapy.
Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, said Friday in an interview with CNN’s Van Jones that she will seek her party’s nomination for president in 2020. Her past views and activism in opposition to LGBT rights in the late 90s and early 2000s, which put her out of step with most of the Democratic Party at the time, have come under more intense scrutiny since her announcement.
Although Gabbard’s positions on LGBT rights have shifted dramatically in more recent years (she signed a 2013 amicus brief supporting Edith Windsor’s challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act), the extent of Gabbard’s past anti-gay activism has already drawn criticism from prominent Democrats and will likely be a major issue for her as she seeks the party’s nomination.
………………..
and before you make excuses for her, please keep in mind that politicians lie whenever they need to. that’s how they get elected. Gabbard will say ANYTHING to grasp at votes. this is no breath of ‘fresh air’.
Thanks Ian. I was, in fact, targeted in many bizarre ways by people deeply involved with Gabbard and the Science of Identity sect, aka Butler followers. It was traumatic. I feel better now that the whole truth will likely come out. They’d have to track and target hundreds of journalists now to try to stop the truth from surfacing. The surveillance of me started after I asked good questions at a Gabbard town hall. I think I was the first one to start to really get to the bottom of the Science of Identity-connected money laundering charges in India. Can’t wait for that to get more deeply explored. Healthy, benign religious organizations don’t stalk journalists and critical constituents. Members of healthy, benign religious groups also don’t deny they’re even involved in the group. And responsible U.S. Reps don’t pay D.C. public relations fixers to try to personally discredit journalist.
To paraphrase Clint Eastwood: “Tulsi’s got to know her limitations.”
Like Will Rogers said to crowds that showed up for his performances, “Well, what shall I talk about? I ain’t got anything funny to say. All I know is what I read in the papers.”
And just what of operation is this presidential run?. Who are the people involved in it–the thinkers, planners, operatives, money people…?
I really like Tulsi, and I was super impressed with her service as a City Councilperson, but I felt confused after the Assad visit, and would have a hard time characterizing her stance on things if I were trying to explain her to a friend. I think she tries really hard to bridge differences (such as by meeting with Trump), and you really can’t put her in a box. Other politicians get to skate on explaining the distinctions of what they support because the left-right spectrum gives most voters the short-hand to make assumptions about what their policies would be (and they benefit from being vague when they can get voters on both sides of an issue to think they totally agree with them).
I think Tulsi will need significantly more messaging, which will take more time (years), and I would want to see her take a stand on multiple issues and then be proven right. It’s tough in the current media landscape to get attention for saying serious things, not just outrageous things, so this is definitely an uphill battle. It’s made harder by the fact that she gets most attention on foreign policy, which is unfortunately much harder to understand than domestic issues like medicare or energy or consumer financial protection. Since she does have military service to ground some of her foreign policy ideas, I take them more seriously, but when none of the options are good, advocating for the least bad isn’t useful for scoring political points (even if it is life-or-death and very important).
I find legislation much more meaningful as an indication of accomplishments and serious thought on an issue, and additionally, it could be an opportunity for her to be known for something other than talking to Assad. Even with a few solid pieces of legislation under her belt, however, the public will need good explanations of her beliefs in other areas.
Even as a millennial, I’m old enough to remember when “gay” was a scandalous thing that you’d never personally encountered. Seeing people come out of the closet is really what changed my own attitudes and norms in society, and I am open-minded to the idea that others have also had a journey on this issue. There was a Teri Gross interview where she laid into Hillary Clinton for not being sufficiently woke in the 90’s, but it seemed strikingly unfair since society as a whole was in a completely different place back then.
Here’s a couple of progressive pundits weighing in on Tulsi’s video message to the LGBTQ community.
Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show)
https://youtu.be/IB6EChEqJOk
Mike Figueredo (The Humanist Report)
https://youtu.be/TNrDVqE88CM