Okay, this is a steaming load of horse shit:
Tulsi Gabbard grew up in a secretive offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement and has made a dizzying political journey from anti-gay conservative to Democratic Party star to a celebrity in President Trump’s world.
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) January 27, 2025 at 11:06 AM
I don’t remember Tulsi Gabbard ever being a “Democratic Party star,” so I clicked through to see what evidence the Times cited for her alleged stardom. Here it is:
Telegenic, a veteran and the House’s first Hindu member, she arrived in Washington in 2013 and was soon a Democratic star. She grew close to the liberal commentator Van Jones, befriended Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and posed with a surfboard for Vogue. In her first year in office she was awarded a Democratic National Committee vice chairmanship.
Lots of Democrats (rightly) think Van Jones is a blithering ninny. Cory Booker is famously friends with everybody. And Gabbard was probably awarded a DNC vice chairmanship for the same reason Vogue wanted the photo shoot with the surfboard.
My point is, DNC vice chairmanship doesn’t signify party stardom. Some DNC vice chairs are “Democratic Party stars.” For example, I think Gretchen Whitmer qualifies. Others I’d never heard of until today, and I follow party politics fairly closely.
In any case, Gabbard resigned from the DNC a few years later and endorsed Bernie Sanders. When that didn’t pan out, she went sucking up to Team Trump in 2016 on behalf of recently deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, which rightly appalled and alarmed Democrats. She launched a quixotic run for president herself in 2019, gaining very little support, despite being an alleged “Democratic Party star.”
Hillary Clinton called Gabbard a “Russian asset” in 2019. That’s what transformed Gabbard into a Trump “celebrity,” as the Times calls her.
I don’t know why this “Democratic Party star” thing pisses me off so much. Grading on the Times curve, it’s a small thing. But it contains a both-sides lie that is harmful. Gabbard is a fucking KOOK, and she’s the Republicans’ kook, not ours. Democrats recognized and disowned her for her erratic behavior. So she switched sides and joined the party of crazies.
PS: The Times also declines to forthrightly call the rabidly anti-gay “secretive offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement” in which Gabbard was raised a cult. Instead, the article limply notes that “some critics” call it a cult, even while recounting ex-cult members stories about “disciples” sprinkling the cult founder’s toenail clippings on their food.
What more evidence do they need that it’s a cult? Jesus. Also, sorry if you’re eating lunch.
Open thread.
Gabbard is their kook, not ours (open thread)Post + Comments (94)
