Tulsi Gabbard

Tom Luongo has written a long and speculative piece today about Tulsi Gabbard’s announcement that she’s leaving the Dem party. Even though I call Luongo’s piece “speculative” that’s not a knock. Luongo would like to see a DeSantis/Gabbard ticket in 2024 and he discusses all sorts of interesting scenarios and addresses some of the anti-Tulsi views that are out there in about the best way I’ve seen.

The short version of the anti-Tulsi camp is formidable. She appears to belong to some sort of cult—I’ll let others look that up and decide for themselves, since we’re sure to hear more of that in the future. Luongo doesn’t discuss this. She also has had a progressivish voting record in the past and “went to the WEF mountain” (Luongo’s words). This is the part that Luongo addresses in some detail.

In recent months Gabbard has been more and more openly moving back to her roots, which is to say, to social positions in particular that could be identified with those of her father, Mike Gabbard. She is something of a regular, albeit usually for short segments, on Tucker Carlson, saying things that many of us wish the mainstream GOP would embrace—things she repeated in her statement today:

I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are…

…hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.

I believe in a government that is of, by, and for the people. Unfortunately, today’s Democratic Party does not. Instead, it stands for a government of, by, and for the powerful elite. I’m calling on my fellow common sense independent-minded Democrats to join me….

…in leaving the Democratic Party. If you can no longer stomach the direction that so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, I invite you to join me.

Luongo’s piece is aptly titled:

Who’s Afraid of Tulsi Gabbard? Everyone

Anyone who has watched Gabbard in action will immediately recognize her great strengths, and why “everyone” is afraid of her. She has a great presence, an attractive persona, she’s an articulate speaker with a terrificly modulated voice. She oozes principled conviction and sincerity. The obvious question is, How much of that is for real? The reality is that she’s a politician, and seemingly a good one. And yet, she does seem to have deeper, if disturbingly pliable, views than most. Yes, that’s damning with faint praise, but this is 21st century America. The same could have been said about Trump … oh, wait. The same was said about Trump.

Luongo devotes a lot of space to why we should get past Gabbard’s past—especially her flirtation with the WEF. Read it and see what you think. He makes legit points, but I’m not about to try to steer anyone in a direction on this—we stand to learn more about her in the coming months.

Having done the defense, Luongo goes on offense. His argument amounts to this (I’m interjecting my own interpretation to a certain extent). Gabbard is well positioned to be a third party spoiler. However, both she and the GOP have much more to gain from Gabbard coming on board the GOP as a VP candidate. There’s plenty of time to get this done before the GOP convention in 2024:

But, per my previous arguments in January, Gabbard can position herself as a moderate populist, a kind of John Anderson figure from the 1980 election that ensures that no Democrat has a prayer of winning the 2024 election.

That was then. Today my thinking is even more insane. As the GOP VP candidate she can be a voice of sanity on foreign policy and human rights (vaccines, social credit score, etc.), leaving her running mate to focus on domestic issues and rebuilding America.

So, what does this announcement actually mean for the future?

It means that my off the cuff hope for a Florida Governor Ron DeSantis/Tulsi Gabbard 2024 unity ticket I discussed with Garland Nixon on my podcast back in May is taking shape… and right on schedule.

[Discussion of how Dems are living in the past, obsessed with Trump 2024.]

The fallback plan if Trump is invalidated would be DeSantis at the top of the ticket with someone else to soften the edges and bring the country together.

There is no one else in American politics poised to do just that than Tulsi Gabbard.

If you can’t see the script of Gabbard giving a unifying, edifying speech about healing the divisions and getting back to work at the GOP convention then I’ve taught you not one thing in five years about how screenwriting actually works.

DeSantis is killing it as Florida governor. Davos and the Democrats truly hate him because Ron’s so damn competent and willing to play Alinsky games to win. They’ve never had one of those guys before.

...

For this to work, however, there has to be a quid pro quo. The GOP will demand it. Gabbard switching sides can’t happen all at once. First she has to walk away from the Democrats and help the GOP win a few seats in the House for the mid-terms. Check.

Then she continues to build her credibility as a moderate who speaks against the things that Presidential candidates can’t speak on ...

She’ll be on Tucker Carlson very soon now and a lot more going forward.

By the time the 2024 party conventions occur, the Fed’s tight monetary policy, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and war with Russia over Ukraine will have the people focused almost wholly on domestic issues.

We’ll be in the worst recession/depression since the 1970’s.

Ukraine will quickly morph into Vietnam as a political albatross.

If you think Americans don’t want a war with Russia today, go out another 20 months or so when they can’t feed their families or afford to drive to work.

This is why the neocons and Davos are desperate to upgrade the conflict in Ukraine NOW. They have to flip the switch with the American electorate that Putin is our problem.

He needs to be the scapegoat for the collapse.

And that only happens with a casus belli that is incontrovertible.

Putin continues to refuse to give that to them.

...

DeSantis does not trigger moderates the way Trump does. If anything he’s the governor most people want, even if they tell their friends they don’t.

Gabbard’s strategic value to this situation should be obvious.

The real question comes down to, Is Gabbard willing to subsume her obvious ambition to a bigger cause, or does she see herself as the only possible leader of such a cause? If the latter, then it’s Third Party all the way. If the former, there will need to be a quid pro quo. Note that that works both ways. Luongo is absolutely correct that the GOP will demand a down payment from Gabbard. On the one hand, I suspect Gabbard won’t bite at this opportunity without movement from the GOP that guarantees she can be herself. The GOP wouldn’t do that for Trump, so this fantasy unity ticket is not a given. OTOH, if the next two years turn out to be as dicey for Americans as they’re shaping up to be, Gabbard could have considerable leverage. Either that or things will be so bad that the GOP will feel they don’t need her.

One way or another, this looks to be a continuing and developing story.