Tulsi Gabbard never held much political power inside or outside the party. So why should we care about her defection?
by Ari Paul, FAIR
The announcement by former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard that she was leaving a Democratic Party driven by “cowardly wokeness,” under the “control of an elitist cabal” which is stoking “anti-white racism,” was met with mixed media enthusiasm. While the New York Times and Washington Post passed on the story, other major centrist media (NPR, 10/12/22; CNN, 10/11/22; USA Today, 10/11/22; Guardian, 10/11/22; LA Times, 10/11/22) thought it worth a headline.
For right-wing media, Gabbard’s leave-taking was a more significant story. Fox News, where Gabbard has appeared as pundit and occasional fill-in host (HuffPost, 8/13/22), celebrated her departure with coverage painting the Democratic Party as an out-of-touch social justice machine (10/11/22, 10/12/22, 10/13/22), while promising that Gabbard would actively support Republican election efforts (10/12/22) and attack the Biden administration (10/12/22).
Other conservative outlets likewise trumpeted her announcement (National Review, 10/14/22), even talking of (another) presidential run to challenge the Democrats from the right (New York Post, 10/14/22). An op-ed at The Hill (10/16/22) propped her up as a voice of reason against “socialism.”
Because Gabbard had supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bid for the presidency in 2016 (Washington Post, 2/28/16), and eventually endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 (NBC, 3/19/20), the right-wing press found in useful to present her as a disillusioned progressive who, as Ronald Reagan claimed, didn’t leave the Democratic Party, but rather was ideologically left behind by an increasingly socially liberal party platform.
Recent Posts
Bases Without Names: How Governments Rebrand the U.S. Military Presence
Take Action Now Across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, governments use an expanding vocabulary to describe sites that accommodate U.S. troops,…
Getting Into ‘Good Trouble’ Over Arc de Trump
Take Action Now A retired Army colonel flew in from Hawaii to make sure Trump’s arch doesn’t go up quietlyBy Jonathan Capehart, Substack On the…
AIPAC’s Network Has Already Spent $67.2 Million to Shape the Midterm Elections
Take Action Now The giant influx from American Israel Public Affairs Committee PACs is a case study in money distorting politics.By Derek Seidman,…
Ed Sheeran’s Craven “Neutrality” Is a Watershed Moment for Mainstreaming Palestine Solidarity
Take Action Now Ed Sheeran’s entire tour quitting in solidarity with Palestine and Macklemore proves the logic of BDS.By Natasha Lennard, The…