Tulsi's Fall From Grace
Was Tulsi's fall from grace predictable, or was her prophetic transformation into a tool of the establishment just part of the script from the very beginning?
In the summer of 2019, the whole world watched with growing anxiety as the Democratic party tore itself to pieces in a bitter fight between principles and establishments while deciding which horrible candidate they would put up to replace Donald Trump as President.
Tulsi Gabbard appealed to many, as a long-shot outsider who rejected the warmongering of the establishment. She stood up and spoke truth to power, and was put down for the risk she had taken. Excluded, ridiculed, and disregarded, Tulsi spoke only to those who felt her struggle. To the last remnants of the anti-establishment left, and of course, to libertarians. And in a last-ditch effort to force an anti-war candidate onto the debate stage, Libertarians en masse began donating to Tulsi’s campaign to help her qualify for the DNC’s criteria.
On July 9th, 2019, I wrote the following post on Facebook about my opinions regarding that course of action being a path that we would regret. And as Tulsi tours the country stumping for war-mongering right-wingers only weeks ahead of the 2022 mid-term elections, I was reminded of it today as almost being prophetic.
Hot Take: I Don't want to see Tulsi Gabbard or Mike Gravel in the DNC Debates, and I personally think it's a bad idea for Libertarians to send them Money, even a dollar, to ensure debate access.
The DNC Debates are a shitshow of epic proportions, participation isn't a metric of success, and even a dominating performance isn't translating into increased support against Dems or independent Voters. Tulsi knocked it out of the park in the First Debate and even after being the most searched-for candidate on google trends for the next 24 hours, she had no significant increase in polling or support, She's being relegated to a footnote in the future "Democratic Circus of 2020" Wikipedia page.
"Don't you want a pro-war voice on stage in the conversation?" Sure, if they were actually part of the conversation, were ideologically consistent, and bookmarked their anti-war stances with other at least partially liberty-leaning policies. But instead, Tulsi and company are taking the anti-war movement's momentum to push Medicare for All, Student Loan Bailouts, Hiked Minimum wage, and increased federal control of Education spending, all of which is just another mark of an agreement to the crowd of the progressive left on stage. Also, we've had plenty of Anti War candidates on debate stages in the past few Election Cycles... Donald Trump was the anti-war candidate. Barrack Obama was the Anti-war candidate. George Fucking Bush was the anti-war isolationist candidate! What did all three of these Anti-War candidates have in common? They got elected and promptly engaged in warmongering.
The attempts to force support for Tulsi and Gravel's anti-war approaches seem to largely come from non-Dem independent and Libertarian Voters who are singularly focused on the issue, yet not involved in Dem Polling, caucusing, or primary balloting. The entire idea of encroaching on the enemy party's establishment, to slant or change the message from a position inside has been tried, and it's largely failed. The GOP is more big government and establishment today than ever before, and that's after decades of libertarians "Trying to change it from the inside" and failing. You'll see a few one-off successes here and there, but mostly on the level of individual legislators at more local levels, like in New Hampshire, but not organizationally at all. In fact, Tulsi hasn't changed the debate, but the debate HAS changed Tulsi, she went from being anti-war, and moderately progressive, to getting hosed on polling results and pushing her entire platform even farther left towards a socialist utopia in order to compete for the shifting democratic electorate.
The future of Partisan Politics is the #WalkAway movement. Not continued fantasies about being on their stage. Tulsi Gabbard dominated the first debate and was barely a footnote in the news to non-political junkies the next week. Justin Amash Leaves the GOP and was the above-the-fold headline for the entire 3-day news cycle, and his profile has increased, and influence jumped. He's made himself the enemy of the Partisan Structure, and speaks truth to power - that's what's working. Not pandering to politically inarticulate socialists who've become the activist base of the #NotMyPresident #DNC, whose entire campaigns strategy is to scream #NeverTrump! from every rooftop in America until their fairy godmother changes all the rules they don't like.
In Conclusion, Tulsi Gabbard supporters are being sold a bill of goods. Her single policy platform plank that you agree with is contrary to the message of the establishment she's trying to swoon, so she will minimize it in a search for relevance, while simultaneously using what support and visibility you give her because of it, in order to push everything you detest about progressive policies. Libertarians are inadvertently spending their money to campaign for Big government, welfare, student debt bailouts, continued partisan division, minimum wage hikes, increased taxation, and the Validity of the Democratic Swamp - all because the person pushing them also promised to end the wars... just like the last 3 presidents…
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"Donald Trump was the anti-war candidate. ... Barrack Obama ... George Fucking Bush .... They got elected and promptly engaged in warmongering."
Um, while I agree with your overall premise... Please explain the warmongering of Trump? Facts say otherwise. He ended involvement and brokered peace, but no new wars under his term.
As a former Libertarian, former elected Republican in NH, and now a confirmed blackpilled cynic who sees the world crashing now into the iceberg... Good luck in rearranging the deckchairs. The folks steering the ship have no interest in turning, and we sane few are a minority. Zombies rule the landscape and the only sane move is to remove yourself from zombieland.
Am I the only one who doesn't think her embracing populism and stumping for a neo con candidate to presumably unseat one of the most lobbied politicians in all of the swamp is that big of a deal?