![]() ![]() (Her announcement that she was exiting the Democratic Party was on the day she launched a new self-titled YouTube show.Johnny Harris is a senior video producer at Vox. It’s also possible she finds that her ideas are more likely to provide her with more money and influence as a pundit on the right. Her foreign policy views have remained relatively consistent, and it’s possible that after burning so many bridges with the left over foreign policy, she decided that she could more easily advocate for the views she prizes most by joining the right. THE WAR IN SYRIA VOX YOUTUBE FULLThere are a number of factors that could be fueling Gabbard’s full rightward shift. In her recent statement, she offered standard right-wing culture war positions on law and order, and deemed “woke” politics “anti-white racism.” Strikingly, she also pivoted to the right on economic issues, describing President Joe Biden’s social safety net spending agenda as fostering a “cradle-to-grave mentality of government dependence.” Along the way, she showed up more and more on right-wing shows, including the aforementioned guest hosting on Fox News. Gabbard has taken pointedly right-wing positions on issues like gay rights, trans rights and abortion rights. In the last couple of years, though, Gabbard’s clashes with the left have expanded beyond foreign policy. She dresses up “nationalism in antiwar garb, reinforcing instead of undercutting the toxic rhetoric that treats foreigners as less deserving of dignity than Americans,” he wrote. service members, and neglected to consider the cost of the war for the countries the U.S. As Branko Marcetic wrote in Jacobin in 2017, Gabbard's rhetoric about war has focused almost exclusively on the fate of U.S. Her antiwar activism isn’t driven by anti-imperialism - it’s closer to America First realism. It makes sense that that outlook would resonate with Gabbard. In her exit announcement, she said that “above all” it was Democrats’ tolerance for a potential nuclear standoff with Russia, due to their Ukraine strategy, that was her biggest problem with what she perceived as a changed party. She also cites it as the biggest reason she has left the Democratic Party and effectively joined the right-wing populist media scene. She served two combat tours in the Middle East, she’s a current Army Reserve officer, and her focus on war has consistently been at the center of her political project as an elected official and a commentator. Gabbard's foreign policy worldview has been a source of constant friction with the left because foreign policy is a top tier issue for her. She was too hawkish for the Sanders wing of the party, too dovish for the belligerent wing of the Democratic Party, and too comfortable with repressive authoritarians for either of them. This combination of positions put Gabbard in an odd position. #neverforget911- Tulsi Gabbard □ October 1, 2015 (She also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support for al-Assad over former president Barack Obama’s stance on Syria.) And she wasn't a dove when it came to the Iran nuclear deal, which she opposed, and sovereignty-violating drone warfare, which she supported.Īl-Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 and must be defeated. The combination of these views led her to arguably her most controversial act - meeting personally with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while defending his authoritarianism and vicious use of force against rebels and civilians. So while she opposed the U.S.’s forever wars in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, she felt comfortable supporting brutal authoritarian repression in places like Egypt in the name of counter-terrorism. interventionism and regime change, but she also called herself a “hawk” on terrorism. ![]() Particularly on foreign policy, she held some views that placed her outside of the mainstream of American progressives, leftists and the Democratic Party. Gabbard’s antiwar activism isn’t driven by anti-imperialism - it’s closer to America First realism.īut Gabbard was not without some unusual positions that alienated many on the left. ![]()
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