Despite only polling at around 1%, Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign has been making waves among Democrats with her feel-good “aloha” message. During the second Democratic debate, Gabbard made headlines by attacking Senator Kamala Harris’ past as a prosecutor, launching her to the position of the most searched candidate on Google that night. Between her memorable debate performance and unorthodox foreign policy stances, Gabbard stands out among the 23 other hopeful Democrats in the running.



Source: Marco Garcia/AP

What is Gabbard’s Background?

Tulsi Gabbard was born in American Samoa and moved to Hawaii when she was two years old. Her campaign website proudly details her multi-ethnic, Hindu and Christian background. As a teenager, she and her father founded the “Healthy Hawaiʻi Coalition,” an environmental advocacy organization. However, Gabbard’s history with non-profits hasn’t just been protecting the beloved sunshine and surf of her home state.

In 1995, her father began leading the anti-gay “Alliance For Traditional Marriage.” The organization’s goal was to “oppose the promotion and acceptance of homosexuality as a normal, healthy, alternative lifestyle,” which translated to supporting conversion therapy and funding the push for Hawaii’s 1998 Constitutional Amendment 2, an amendment that gave the state power to ban same-sex marriage. While running for the Hawaiian House of Representatives in 2002, Tulsi Gabbard described working for her father’s organization to pass the controversial amendment. She went on to win the election with 65% of the vote, becoming the youngest legislator in Hawaiian history at age 21.

Rather than campaigning for a second term as a Representative in 2004, she opted to volunteer for a year-long tour of Iraq as a medical operations specialist and a military police officer. Her service continued in 2008 when she deployed to Kuwait after graduating from the Alabama Military Academy’s Accelerated Officer Candidate School. After that, Gabbard became a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard.

Gabbard’s political career picked up again in 2011 with her election to the Honolulu City Council, where she served until her 2012 resignation to focus on campaigning for a seat in Congress. Though she was an underdog in the primary, she won the election and began representing Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District. Since then, she has been reelected three times, serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Armed Services Committee, and the Financial Services Committee. Additionally, the Democratic National Committee elected Gabbard as Vice President in 2013, but after openly criticizing DNC President Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s decision to hold 6 debates and supporting Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election, she stepped down from her role.

Source: Newsweek

What are her stances?

For the most part, Gabbard sides with the left on major issues: socially, she supports initiatives to protect the environment, believes in taking action against the climate crisis, promotes tuition-free education at community colleges and universities for most families, and backs the idea of “Medicare for All.” Since serving in Iraq, she’s also pivoted from her old anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion stances; earlier this year, she issued a formal statement on her homophobic past. In the video, she explains her “socially conservative” upbringing as the root of her beliefs, and notes her congressional track record of supporting LGBTQ rights. In May, she also spoke out against the Alabama Abortion Bill on Twitter.

The #AlabamaAbortionBIll is extremely dangerous. It completely takes away the freedom of women to choose whether or not to have an abortion–even if a woman/girl is a victim of rape or incest. This law must be rejected. #AbortionIsAWomansRight — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) May 16, 2019

Clearly, she’s aligned herself with other Democrats on social issues, but when it comes to war and international relations, Gabbard leans to the right. America-first foreign policy is at the core of the Tulsi 2020 campaign. As a veteran, Gabbard frequently references her first-hand experience with war to defend her unconventional views. In a 2016 interview with the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, she simplified her outlook, claiming “…when it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk. When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove.”

Regime change wars seem to be her favorite talking point, especially in the case of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. She’s staunchly against keeping US troops in Syria, claiming that she doesn’t consider Assad an enemy or adversary because his interests do not directly counter those of the United States. In 2017, she went so far as meeting with the dictator during her visit to Syria. Despite harsh criticism, she defends her decision because she will “never apologize for doing all that I can to prevent more of my brothers and sisters from being sent into harm’s way, to fight counter-productive regime-change wars, and if that means meeting with a dictator, or meeting with an adversary, absolutely. I would do it.”

After her infamous trip to Syria, Gabbard sparked more controversy when she expressed skepticism about Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people. Again, she often cites her experience in Iraq to justify her statements, and emphasizes the cost of war on our troops: “My skepticism in the past has been solely on saying “Show us the evidence before you deploy US troops into military action,’ because I served in Iraq, and I understood what that cost came when the American people were lied to and presented false evidence where we started off a new war.”

Another central theme of Gabbard’s foreign policy is national security. She saves her anti-interventionism for ideological “regime change” wars where she doesn’t believe Americans face a significant threat, but when it comes to terrorism, Gabbard isn’t afraid to promote the War on Terror. In a 2014 interview with NDTV, an Indian media company, Gabbard stated that the Bush and Obama administrations were distracted with “nation-building” and “removing dictators” that diverted efforts away from “taking out Islamic extremism.” She also called on the United States to “root out the evil” of “radical Islamic terrorism,” and supports using airstrikes to take out terror threats much like the Obama administration. She also voted to increase the military budget while in Congress.



Source: Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Image

Does she have a shot in 2020?

In a field of Democrats stacked with top dogs like Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, Gabbard’s odds of winning the Democratic nomination are slim. First, because of her eagerness to create tension within the party. In 2016, Gabbard rose to fame as a potential new face for progressives– Nancy Pelosi even described her as “an emerging star.” But an odd series of political missteps lead to Gabbard falling from Democratic grace.

Gabbard was quick to align herself with Republicans in attacking Obama, repeatedly slamming the president for not saying “radical Islam” on CNN and Fox News. Then, in 2016, she went against her requirement to stay neutral in the Democratic Primary as Vice President of the DNC to announce support for Bernie Sanders. The endorsement, and a public feud with DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, lead to Gabbard stepping down from her position, cementing her downfall from her star status. Her confrontational tendencies seemed to resurface as she challenged Senator Kamala Harris on her past as a California prosecutor during the last debate, which gained her attention on both sides of the aisle.

Praise from the far-right also might be an obstacle for Gabbard. Sources close to former Trump advisor, Steve Bannon, reported that he “loves her.” In February, Gabbard also had to reject the endorsement of former KKK grand wizard David Duke, who sympathized with her “America first” foreign policy on Twitter. Neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer, also recently took credit for Gabbard’s appearance at the first two democratic debates. To be clear, Tulsi Gabbard herself does not support Bannon nor the KKK– she commented on her right-wing supporters by stating “I don’t know why people like you keep bringing them up other than to try to make it out that I’m something that I’m not.” However, for many progressive voters, support from the Trump base could be a significant red flag going into the primaries.

The third and final obstacle for Tusli Gabbard in the Democratic presidential primaries, is her unusual political stances and actions. Criticisms of her 2017 meeting with Bashar al-Assad are still rolling in. Kamala Harris responded to Gabbard’s debate performance by calling her an Assad ‘apologist’ and noting how she has yet to refer to him as a war criminal. Her anti-LGBTQ past may also prevent her from gaining significant support despite her apology statement. And her ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a notorious Hindu nationalist, have been chastised. Liberal voters may also find her anti-interventionism unconvincing because of her self-proclaimed “hawk” status on terrorism. Additionally, the base of her foreign policy platform is prioritizing American national security and little focus on the lives of citizens in countries where troops are fighting. Democratic socialist magazine, Jacobin, condemned her stances, writing that “her comparative lack of focus on the carnage they wreak in the countries under attack, is troubling.”

Ultimately, because of her clashes with other Democrats, right-wing support, and problematic past, Tulsi Gabbard likely will not be saying “aloha” to the White House in 2020.



This article is part of a series on smaller 2020 presidential candidates. Read other articles in the series here:

Bill Weld (R): http://www.thenewvoice.co/bill-welds-ambitious-campaign-against-trump/



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