Is Tulsi Gabbard a closet Republican?

From the perspective of the extreme left, she may appear a closet republican. Politics has become the new religion. Like other religions that consider criticism blasphemy, devout partisans are expected to turn off their minds and tow the line.

I view her the same way I view all politicians, regardless of party.

 

Clinton is history, she no longer speaks for most dems, in my experience amongst my dem friends.

I avoid quoting the Daily Beast, as much as I can, though sometimes, depending on the author, it has something interesting.

Given her abandoning ship, Dems sentiments toward her are reasonable. I think many on the left misunderstood her, but then I fault her for not ameliorating (by clarifying her positions) those schisms of which she is the source and so, rather than try and patch things up, she gets defensive and leaves the party. Not a testament to character, though she is commendable for having served the country. So, with her, it's a mixed bag but after leaving the party, hard to reconcile.

By the way, this is an old thread, and someone decided to bump it up.

 

They can't even beat the Ukraine.

 

Is Tulsi Gabbard a closet Republican?

No.
Like every other Democrat, she says what she needs to say to remain relevant.

 

Duh. Geez, you must think everyone operates at your level.

Your neo-isolationism suggests you would be anti-NATO.

 

Bill Maher is most certainly not a 'conservative', neither is Russell Brand. Greenwald takes particular care not to reveal his personal politics, but he is a gay jewish attorney, graduate of New York University and GeorgeTown law school , writer for the Salon, etc., founder of the Intercept. So, I see nothing about the man that particularly shouts 'conservative' to me. Given his background, I'd say he is left of center with a libertarian streak, which is where I'd put all three, especially Bill Maher, (not to mention myself).

I will accept that most 'neonazis' are republicans, but I don't accept that neocons, on the whole, are 'neonazi'. I consider that a cheap shot, unless you can substantiate it.

I criticize her, that is, insofar as one doesn't abandon ship, if one's strategy is to ever the office of the presidency, or high political office. If she prefers to maintain the sidelines as a host on fox, then that is fine, and more power to her.

 

False choice. We have the means to end almost all illegal immigration by going after all employers hiring illegals.

A united, prosperous Europe. Trump tried going it alone against China and came up short.

 

No, not everyone operates at my level. I am a West Point graduate that served as a US Army Officer actually in NATO for years. I am as far from isolationist as it gets. I dedicated much of my life defending my country, a lot of it overseas. Even after leaving active duty I continued supporting our defense overseas in capacities like training the NEW Iraqi Army and being on staff in Iraq with the over 1,000 US firefighters we had there. I have lived in Israel, working on joint programs with US and Israeli defense companies. I have other experience in defense from Greece to Turkey to Afghanistan to the UK to Canada, and more.

Now... having said that, I still don't see why we are spending billions defending Ukraine's borders while we leave our own wide open. I see no critical US interest in Ukraine that warrants our expenditures.

 

If its so easy to end illegal immigration... WHY THE HELL DON'T WE DO IT???? Could it be that your wild guess about it is DEAD WRONG?
A propserous Europe is, indeed a good thing. I'm not sure what's so special about Ukraine. I would suggest that you'd love to send boatloads of billions all over the globe, driving us into poverty.
China is whoel different issue. Please try to stay focused. We're talking about Ukraine. Nice try though.

 

Bill Maher is a pre-woke liberal, Russell Brand is a communist, Glenn Greenwald is a progressive. None of them are conservative and neither is Gabbard.

 

I wasn't complimenting you.

You're not keeping good company these days in the Trump isolationist wing of the Republican Party.

We did nothing when Putin moved into Georgia. Nothing when he occupied the Crimea. Why wet his whistle?

You keep BSing about our having wide open borders. One wonders if you actually believe the propaganda.

 

Because we like cheap labor.

It's not a "wild guess" and I don't think I'm wrong.

Consider that Trump tried to go it alone on China and after he did, the EU signed a trade deal with China.

China is watching. So, too, a lot of Asians. We backed out of the TPP and that leaves China in a better position.

 

Maher and Brand are left libertarians. Greenwald appears to be left libertarian. Gabbard seems to be leaning more centrist libertarian after being, apparently, left libertarian. Brand believes in a higher power so Brand isn't communist. Maher may not be a communist but he sure adores people who are communist.

All neocons are neo-Nazis. All dems are neocommunists. The neo-Nazi and the neocommunist are the opposite of the libertarian since they're authoritarian and hate, for example, free speech and democracy no matter what lies they tell like Pelosi and Liz Cheney.

 

They're all conservative because they're all libertarian of some stripe of another. A neocon such as yourself is incorrect in believing you're conservative. You're the opposite of conservative. Would a conservative be against free speech? Would a conservative be against democracy? Many so-called conservatives are actually against free speech and democracy...Pay attention to their actions and not their speech.

 

Lol...the weird conclusions you draw...

No, Brand and Maher are not libertarians. Maher used to call himself one back in the day but all he meant by that was that he wanted legal weed. That's most of the libertarians out there.

 

Dude you're a neocon and have no clue what being conservative means.

 

Bill Maher calls himself a libertine, er, libertarian...FDR is Maher's most influential political leader, so, Maher hates capitalism which makes him a left libertarian, er, a communist in the weeds since Maher is for democracy except for the economy.

 

You have no idea whether I support Trump or not. You cannot read my mind, although I would not be surprised if you heard voices.
Why should we have cared if Putin moved in to Georgia or the Crimea. Those lands were Russian for a long time. Who cares if they are Russian again? Same with Ukraine. They are NOT NATO. Whole different situation if they were.
If you think that 2 million illegals streaming across our borders in Biden's short time in office doesn't indicate an open border... then there is nothing more to say. Its a very logical deduction for most Americans... along with the 100,000 dead Americans from fentanyl which has flowed through Biden's open borders.

 

Cheap labor is nice. there's not enough lettuce and celery in America to employ TWO MILLION pickers. You seem to think that that 100,000 dead Americans from fentanyl streaming across the open border is beneficial too. How sad.
It's not a "wild guess". You just don't have any sources or data. OK... if you say so.
We were talking about Ukraine and you change the subject to China... YAY! I win!
China is an enemy. You seem to want to have a brofest with them. They are DANGEROUS.

 

Gabbard might give the impression she is a centrist, and might harbor a few centrist and right of center views, but her overall positions are liberal, on the whole.

Maher has, on more than one occasion, criticized those who believe socialism/communism is a good thing, he's especially critical of millenials for their naivete on socialism.

So, whom do you believe he has adored who is a 'communist'?

You'll have to substantiate that claim because I don't take PF members' word for wild accusations, and while you are at it, define 'neocommunism'.

 

That's false. Libertarianism doesn't exist on the right to left spectrum, it's a component of each side (for those who are either liberal, or conservative, who have a libertarian streak), with their differences where each have libertarianism in common, but they are libertarian on similar issues AND separate issues specific to the left or right. Now, some academics might disagree with this, but I've been thinking about it for years, and have made, for myself, anyway, a clear picture of the subject. To wit:

A left libertarian would support a women's right to abortion, a person's right to smoke marijuana.

A right libertarian would support a fetus's right to life, and a person's right to smoke marijuana.

A left libertarian would believe in free speech, but would not equate money with speech.

A right libertarian would believe in free speech, but would equate money with speech.

A left libertarian support a person's right to smoke tobacco, but not in restaurants or bars or office buildings, only at home or outside in the open.

A conservative libertarian support a person's right to smoke tobacco, if not in restaurants or office buildings, but definitely in bars, home and outside. .

A left libertarian would not support laws making it illegal to not get vaccinated, nor would they support mandates, but would support mandates in the face of a pandemic.

A right libertarian would not support laws making it illegal to not get vaccinated, nor would they support mandates, pandemic or no pandemic.

Note that it's possible that some of the above can cross pollinate, which is to say, I'm primarily a liberal/left libertarian, and I support a person's right to smoke, but not in restaurants, office buildings, etc., but I would support smoking in bars where no food is served, and places of vice separate from food serving areas, such as large casinos. Some conservatives would agree with that, others would agree with the left libertarian view, so nothing is monolithic.

And it goes on....

The point is, you assumption that all libertarians are conservatives is half right, given that there is such an animal as a liberal libertarian who is definitely NOT conservative, which would be Bill Maher and myself. .That being said, I don't agree with everything Bill Maher believes, these are not monolithic groups.

Members of the Libertarian party, their platform has commonality with liberals and conservatives each of those who possess, within their spectrum, a libertarian streak. .




.

 

What I find interesting is that the slogans, the pitch, the foundations etc of the libertarian line is all about govt regulation interfering with personal choices and business choices. Its big brother govt interferance this and Nanny state that. Taxation is nothing more than theft by govt. and they do NOT distinguish which level of govt, until they get pressed about the consequences on safety and the environment. Then its fine for local and state govts to regulate, but not federal. That is not consistent with their broad view that individuals, not govt should control decisionmaking on their own money. The same people who are fighting so hard to keep Washington from being the decider, will also fight just as hard to keep your state or city or county from being the decider. The same people who hate taxes, will hate them no matter who levies them.

 

Given Gabbard's subsequent positions on Ukraine and her previous links to pro-Putin folk Hilary was closer to the truth than you are likely to concede. In that respect Gabbard is a perfect fit for the MAGA wing of the GOP.

 

I always wanted to be a Libertarian, but I could quite master that Dewey Decimal thing.

 

Even more perfect to run as a spoiler funded by dark money to run as 3rd party national candidate to nip away votes from a second Biden term.