Gabbard separates herself from party’s hard leftists

We’re living in an age of rising intolerance, even within party ranks.

With the Democrats’ sharp turn to the socialist left, the party is in an identity crisis as many moderates are now having a hard time finding a seat in the former big tent.

A few months ago, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper was booed at a California Democratic Party convention after warning that the party’s turn toward socialism would alienate moderate voters. He said that if Democrats want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer. Some in the audience booed and jeered, and one attendee gestured to him with a middle finger.

Hickenlooper ended his remarks to more boos when he stated that a Medicare for all policy urged by the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination would kick tens of millions of Americans off their employer-backed health care plans. Hickenlooper supports a public option as a compromise.

But any talk of compromise or trying to work in a bipartisan way with Republicans is a no-no in today’s politicized climate.

A fresh example is Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who last week bucked her party by ripping the liberal press, along with a number of Democratic headliners, including Hillary Clinton.

Leading up to last week’s debate, which was co-sponsored by both CNN and The New York Times, Gabbard had to answer claims by the media that she is a Russian asset or an “apologist” for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. While other Democrats on the debate stage blasted Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria — stating that his decision endangers the Kurds — Gabbard called it a smear against anyone calling for an end to regime-change wars, including veterans.

Gabbard said she wasn’t surprised by the hostility and the “hit pieces” against her by major media. She called the criticism absurd considering that media members at the debate tried to portray themselves as neutral arbiters and independent entities while working with the DNC to have a “legitimate” debate.

She later criticized politicians from both parties who have supported any ongoing regime change war in Syria that started in 2011, a period overseen by President Obama. Gabbard said they were aided by many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading a regime change war.

Any attacks on Obama are seen as sacrilegious by party loyalists.

Trump’s recent policy in Syria, however, resembles the anti-regime change stance that Obama was promoting as a candidate in 2008. The Obama-Biden ticket won the White House by opposing Bush’s regime change war in Iraq and they promised not to repeat that mistake. But that was before Trump took the White House.

Last week, Biden completely flip-flopped on the issue, stating that if the U.S. military didn’t remain engaged in Syria, “ISIS is going to come here.”

Gabbard, who served in a field medical unit of the Hawaii Army National Guard in a combat zone in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and was deployed to Kuwait from 2008 to 2009, is not afraid to challenge Democratic orthodoxy. On abortion, she supports the Roe v. Wade decision but favors restrictions, stating that during the third trimester, abortion should not be an option unless the life or severe health consequences of a woman are at risk.

She’s also not intimidated by the others in the crowded Democratic field or by party stalwarts like Hillary Clinton. In the second debate she exposed Kamala Harris’ abysmal record as California attorney general, attacking her for having locked up thousands of people for mere marijuana possession and laughing about it when asked whether she had smoked pot herself. She also ripped Harris’ shameful move to keep people locked up to preserve “cheap labor for the state of California.”

Harris’ numbers nose-dived after that, and her campaign hasn’t regained traction since.

Later last week, Gabbard came out swinging against Hillary Clinton, who alluded that Gabbard was a Russian “asset.”

In an interview, Gabbard said she stands against everything Hillary represents and that the former secretary of state knows she can’t control Tulsi now, or if she becomes the Democratic nominee for president.

The one person bold enough to step out from the pack and confront other Democratic contenders on the issues is Tulsi Gabbard, who’s also proving that she’s no toady to the far-left liberals in control of the party or that she’s obligated to kiss the ring of former Democratic icons like Mrs. Clinton.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com