Saturday, October 22, 2022

text of Tulsi Gabbard's speech re: why she's leaving the Democrats

It's a good speech, even if I'm still circumspect about Tulsi Gabbard herself. The paragraph that is most quoted from her speech says this:

I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms enshrined in our Constitution, are hostile to people of faith and spirituality, demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.

The Dems are happy to see her go, of course; she's been a thorn in their side since forever, and she utterly embarrassed Kamala Harris on the debate stage when she pointed out how Harris's tough-on-crime stance in the past did not match her woke rhetoric as a campaigner. Gabbard is smart and able to marshal both arguments and evidence in a debate situation; she's a formidable opponent who can make anyone unprepared to face her look bad. That said, she voted for Joe Biden in 2000 and has some dicey opinions regarding guns (despite what she says in her above-quoted speech). it should also be noted that Gabbard, in leaving the Democrat party, is not becoming a Republican—a fact that starry-eyed conservatives would do well to remember. When it comes to Tulsi Gabbard, caveat emptor.



No comments: