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Unlike Liz Warren, the senator from my home state, Gabbard is someone who I knew as only a name before today (same as Julian Castro, who I'm going to read up on next). I figured I'd write a thread to collect my impressions & share them in the hopes of being helpful.
I didn't start with this New Yorker profile of Gabbard, but once I read it I wished I had, so I'll link to it right at the start. It gives the clearest picture I could find of Gabbard's childhood and her Hindu spirituality. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/06/what-does-tulsi-gabbard-believe …
Gabbard is an anti-war veteran, a committed environmentalist, and she's particularly beloved by Bernie Sanders supporters because she left her position in the DNC to support him in 2016.
Gabbard fell into a trap anti-war politicians too often fall into: Whitewashing the crimes of a brutal dictator in the course of arguing for less US military involvement overseas. In this case, the dictator was Assad, who she met with in January 2017.https://www.civilbeat.org/2017/01/after-secret-trip-gabbard-derided-as-stooge-praised-as-courageous/ …
Her anti-war stances (also called anti-interventionist by the mainstream press) are further complicated by her Islamophobia. She criticized Obama for not saying "Islamic extremism" and she was for bombing Syria before she was against it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/15/rep-tulsi-gabbard-the-democrat-that-republicans-love-and-the-dnc-cant-control/?utm_term=.c9415bcc5a8c …
Gabbard has also strongly supported the anti-Muslim Hindu nationalism of India's prime minister Narendra Modi. https://theintercept.com/2019/01/05/tulsi-gabbard-2020-hindu-nationalist-modi/ …
Gabbard's environmentalist beliefs seem to have been a lot more consistent than her anti-war stances (or her support for LGBTQ rights, which I'll get into later).
Gabbard won the endorsement of the Sierra Club in her very first race for congress, when she upset the popular mayor of Honolulu. http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/17654588/sierra-club-endorses-hirono-hanabusa-gabbard-in-federal-races/ …
She went to Standing Rock with a group of veterans in 2016, and has introduced climate change legislation aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels by 2035. https://observer.com/2016/11/tulsi-gabbard-to-join-veterans-at-standing-rock-to-protest-dakota-access-pipeline/ …https://medium.com/@TulsiGabbard/tulsi-gabbard-we-must-pass-the-off-act-to-protect-our-people-and-planet-237476038545 …
Very little out there about Gabbard's relationship with labor. Her opponent seems to have been the preferred candidate of labor in her first election, but that doesn't always say much- we all know unions sometimes strategically endorse the favorite.https://www.civilbeat.org/2011/12/hannemann-picks-up-labor-backing/ …
Since Bernie is a dyed-in-the-wool labor guy and Tulsi risked DNC ire to back Bernie, I guess I'd lean towards giving her the benefit of the doubt. But she doesn't seem to have any passion for labor issues like Bernie, or like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
I'll predict that when we start hearing about Gabbard, though, what we'll hear about most is her tepid support for LGBTQ issues and her anti-gay activist past.
The worst is way back in Gabbard's past. Gabbard's father, Mike Gabbard, ran for congress unsuccessfully in 2004. During that campaign, Tulsi once wrote to a journalist: “It’s clear to me that you’re acting as a conduit for … homosexual extremist supporters of Ed Case.”
To understand the context of this ugly remark, you have to understand a bit about Tulsi's religion & upbringing. The New Yorker profile gave the clearest picture of that, but I'll try to summarize. (Source of "homosexual extremist" quote: https://www.civilbeat.org/2015/03/krishna-cult-rumors-still-dog-tulsi-gabbard/ …)
Gabbard was homeschooled, and she grew up in a close knit religious group, an offshoot of the Hare Krishnas led by a yoga teacher/guru named Chris Butler.
Butler's teachings included vegetarianism, environmentalism, peacefulness/aloha, and rabidly anti-gay sentiments. The group entered politics in the 90s and early aughts, making common cause with the anti-gay, anti-abortion right. One of their candidates was Gabbard's pa.
Tulsi Gabbard currently supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights. The character of her support, however, is a trickier question.
In the New Yorker profile, Tulsi's quoted as saying, in the summer of 2017: "Just because that’s not my life style, I don’t think that government should make sure that everybody else’s life styles match my own."
But the author notes that in a later conversation Tulsi also said that “gay marriage should be celebrated.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Here's a second link to that excellent profile: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/06/what-does-tulsi-gabbard-believe …)
Gabbard toes the line adequately on LGBTQ rights. She seems to support transgender people who serve in the military. https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/rep-tulsi-gabbard-statement-president-trump-s-decision-ban-transgender … Her heart may not be with LGBTQ rights- but neither was Hillary Clinton's- or Barack Obama's.
To summarize: Tulsi Gabbard has been called a progressive but it might be more accurate to think of her as an eclectic. Her most principled beliefs revolve around environmentalism and support for veterans. Her weakest are LGBTQ rights, and she's a question mark on labor.
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