In January of 2013, Tulsi Gabbard (then just 31 years of age) was being promoted as the next rising star of the Democratic Party. At the time, Representative Gabbard was everything the Democratic Party alleges to care about as a walking embodiment of cultural diversity. Gabbard was one of the first female combat veterans elected to Congress and a member of both a religious and ethnic minority (as the first Hindu and American Samoan ever to sit in Congress). Being from Hawaii, Gabbard is also an avid surfer and is active in both physical conditioning and martial arts training. As a young, fit, and socially dynamic progressive woman committed to public service and ending wasteful regime-change wars, she was showered with praise from party leaders as she was unanimously elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee:

“Congresswoman Gabbard’s story is an inspiration and her dedication to public service showcases the best of our party’s values.” ~Former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “She’s an emerging star.” ~House Leader Nancy Pelosi “I think she’s wonderful. She’s been in combat in a leadership role, and she knows how to lead. She deals well with men and women, young and old, Republican and Democrat. She’s got an extraordinary political talent.” ~Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

Guilty as Sin: Uncover... Edward Klein Best Price: $1.84 Buy New $7.26 (as of 06:45 EST - Details) So what changed? How and why did Tulsi go from DNC darling to Establishment enemy #1? (Well, maybe #2 behind Bernard Sanders). To understand the vitriol that Hillary Clinton and Establishment Democrats hold for Tulsi Gabbard, it’s imperative to put her trajectory in its historical context.

It was on the morning of February 28, 2016 that Tulsi Gabbard’s political life would forever change. I remember that day perfectly. It was a crisp, sunny winter morning in Kittery, Maine where I found myself drinking coffee at one of my favorite local cafes, when a headline buzzed across my phone:

In relinquishing her prestigious position as Vice Chair of the DNC – Tulsi did the unthinkable: She stood up to Hillary Clinton and the Establishment behemoth that controls the inner workings of the Democratic party. But why? Why was Tulsi Gabbard willing to do what no other high-profile Democrat had the integrity to do at the time: put her political life on the line and risk her ascendant star status within the party infrastructure to endorse Sanders, an outsider who was thought to have no chance of mounting a viable challenge to the Clinton machine. (Incidentally, Sanders would go on to win 22 states and birth a soaring progressive political movement that continues to thrive to this day). Incidentally, Gabbard is the only 2020 Democratic candidate who endorsed Sanders in the 2016 primary. Every other candidate opted to throw their respective weight behind Hillary Clinton.

Tulsi Gabbard actually has a conscience; a moral compass; an inner drive to speak truth to power even if it means risking her own advantageous position within the political elite. After the revelations by Wikileaks (via troves of leaked internal emails) that the DNC was actively and pointedly conspiring to thwart Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic Primary (to guarantee a Clinton nomination), Tulsi felt that she could not sit on the sidelines and perpetuate this injustice to our democracy. Gabbard subsequently announced that she was stepping down as Vice Chair of the DNC, called out the inequitable adjudication and administration of the primary, and cited Bernie’s nuanced and strong track record on foreign policy as additional reasoning for her endorsement, calling out Hillary Clinton’s abysmal record as Secretary of State where she mirrored a war-hungry NeoCon foreign policy that is the delight of Dick Cheney, Henry Kissinger & Donald Rumsfeld.

And then all hell broke loose within the Clinton circle. How *dare* Tulsi Gabbard buck party orthodoxy and refuse to fall in line to kiss the Clinton ring! Overnight, Tulsi went from future face of the party to a target for vengeance by Clinton and her proxies:

The above email was sent by Darnell Strom on behalf of himself and Michael Kives (with long-time Clinton stalwart John Podesta doing the cheer-leading by exclaiming, “Hamme(r) Dropped!”) Both Strom & Kives are serious power brokers who command high-profile platforms that span Hollywood celebrities, Washington power-brokers, media giants and pop culture icons. Both men also boast powerful clients in Washington, namely Joe Biden, Kamala Harris & Cory Booker who are some of Hillary Clinton’s most loyal adherents.

But this threat was just the beginning. As soon as Tulsi announced her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic nomination, the smears came hard and fast. Literally the week of her announcement, coordinated hit-pieces were queued up and reeled out by Establishment outlets, like clockwork. First, there was the bogus NBC article claiming that Tulsi was propped up by the Russians which relied on fabricated data from a now outed propaganda firm known as “New Knowledge.” Thanks to the precision journalism of Pulitzer Prize journalist Glenn Greenwald, this disgraceful hit-piece was readily debunked, but the damage was done – and the hits kept on coming as smear after smear was polluting political media with unfounded, sensational conspiracy theories aimed to thwart any momentum that Gabbard’s candidacy mounted within a Democratic electorate starved for progressive champions.

Fast forward to this past week, and Clinton proxies were strategically deployed with ratcheted up intensity to denigrate Tulsi’s character, threaten her political life, and spin her personal story (a story which they once lauded as their inspiration) into a twisted tale of fiction whereby she is now a Russian asset, a Putin apologist, and even a magnet of white nationalism.

Just days before Clinton’s unhinged personal attack on a David Plouffe podcast where she hurled a baseless accusation of Gabbard being a Russian asset (a claim that could implicate the death penalty), Clinton proxies were peculiarly foreshadowing Clinton’s conspiracy theory, parroting the same old anti-Tulsi talking points, in formation. First it was former 2016 Clintonista surrogate and AIPAC errand boy Bakari Sellers disgracing himself on CNN. Then, of course Clinton crony Neera Tanden had to cape for her boss after Andrew Yang bravely and swiftly defended Gabbard in a tweet. This cycle would repeat itself as legions of Clinton loyalists surfaced, fixated and obsessed with derailing Gabbard, willing to risk what was left of their integrity to bully and dog-pile on a decorated combat veteran who has risked her life to serve her country.

Note the timing of this smear: It was coordinated and released into the viral cesspool of mainstream media just a day before Clinton arch-rival Bernie Sanders was set to host a historic rally in Queens, NY (which featured nearly 30,000 supporters). Sanders had just received the coveted endorsement of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib’s endorsements to follow. Clinton’s smear also came after recent polls showed Tulsi in a dead-heat with the new DNC darling, Kamala Harris, weeks after Tulsi obliterated Kamala (who has inherited a significant amount of Clinton staffers and infrastructure) in a debate. Nothing is done at random in the Clinton world, it’s always done with calculation and coordination.

In what has been a somewhat surprising and telling development, many have to come to the defense of Gabbard in the aftermath of this dangerously reckless smear. Fellow 2020 candidates Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke & Marianne Williamson have all made strong public statements in defense of Gabbard. Additionally, Bernie Sanders, Nina Turner & Ilhan Omar have also voiced their strong support in defense of Gabbard, dismissing the absurdity of Clinton’s baseless accusation on its face. Even mainstream pundits like Van Jones, Jake Tapper & Chuck Todd have expressed their disgust at Clinton peddling this junk conspiracy – which illustrates that even some voices in the mainstream are not buying into the contrived Clinton claim that anyone who opposed her candidacy in 2016 *must* somehow be associated with Russian meddling. Despite the many voices who came to Tulsi’s defense, there are others who have been noticeably silent in response to this hit-job, namely Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Amy Klobuchar. Additionally, Elizabeth Warren has been nowhere to be found with regards to this issue. Warren notably refused to support Bernie Sanders in the hotly contested 2016 Democratic primary – instead opting to endorse Hillary Clinton (despite being clearly more aligned with Sanders on policy) – which has since earned her brownie points with the DNC as she vies for the 2020 Democratic nomination with favorable positioning among her rivals.

In a time when the Democratic party needs to be as united as ever to defeat Donald Trump, the DNC has acquiesced to Clinton’s outrageous smear. Democratic leadership has remained absolutely silent – that is – until Adam Parkhomenko (former National Field Director for the DNC and co-founder of Ready for Hillary Super Pac) decided to disgrace himself by angrily venting his vulgarity aimed at Bernie Sanders because of his defense of Tulsi against Clinton’s smear:

Clinton’s smear and the subsequent attacks by Clinton proxies against Gabbard and anyone who defends her is doing more to sew division and discord within the Democratic electorate than any Russian Twitter bot could ever achieve.

Undoubtedly, the most prominent rift between Tulsi Gabbard and Hillary Clinton features their divergent views on foreign policy. Gabbard – a decorated veteran with a nuanced, first-hand understanding of the cost of war and geo-strategic power struggle – has been one of the strongest and most credible voices opposing reckless, offensive regime-change wars. In contrast, Hillary Clinton’s track record on foreign policy is consistent: It is both hawkish and religiously pro-interventionist. It was then Senator Clinton who enthusiastically embraced the Bush/Cheney position on the Iraq War in 2003, where she fervently advocated for the illegal war which led to the death and displacement of millions in what is largely regarded as the most disastrous foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history. Even worse, Clinton failed to learn the hard lessons from Iraq, and doubled down as Secretary of State to spearhead the horrific regime-change usurpation of Muammar Gadaffi, which left Libya in ruins, overrun with extremists and violence. This atrocity in Libya was cited by President Obama as the biggest mistake of his two-term presidency. As open slave markets persist in Libya right now because of Clinton foreign policy, all Hillary could do was gloat like a psychopath, exclaiming, “we came, we saw, he died.” If Clinton had her way, this grave mistake would’ve already been repeated in Syria.

Despite the shameful efforts of Clinton and her cohorts to wane Tulsi’s star, Representative Gabbard continues to shine and remains steadfast in her commitment to something bigger than partisan politics; bigger than a Democratic primary race; and certainly something much bigger than the twice-a-failure Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — and that is the impenetrable integrity of a truth-teller who fights for justice, love, and the people. It’s fair to disagree with Gabbard on the issues and to debate her on the merits – but to smear her in this shameful manner means that either Clinton and the Establishment view her as a viable threat, or they’ve completely lost their minds. Certainly, an unintended consequence of the Clinton smear has seen Tulsi Gabbard’s name recognition elevate, drawing more attention to her unique story and one-of-a-kind political trajectory to where she now finds herself navigating the sewers of our dark body politic with an incorruptible spirit strong enough to rebuke the seduction of powerful interests, committed to never abandon her hard-fought integrity in exchange for political expediency and Establishment trappings.

Reprinted with permission from Collective Evolution.