MONITOR
Tulsi Gabbard Isn’t As Progressive As She Claims to Be
The presidential candidate’s silence toward Kashmiri Muslims is just one glaring flaw
Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard’s failure to qualify for the next debate birthed an immediate celebratory hashtag on Twitter: #TulsiDidntQualify.
Why? Despite her progressive stance on several issues, Gabbard continues to refuse to disavow Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party’s anti-Muslim violence in India, a secular nation and the most populous democracy in the world.
Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, made history when she became the first American Samoan and first Hindu elected to Congress in 2012 to represent Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District. On its face, her presidential platform seems progressive. She champions Medicare For All, an assault weapons ban, the end of fossil fuels, and abortion rights.
For several years, though, Gabbard demonized the LGBTQIA+ community. In December 2011, seven months after she declared her race for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, she experienced an about-face that shifted blame for her bigotry to her anti-gay upbringing. Gabbard also brazenly backs authoritarian dictators, like Syria’s Bashar Assad and Egypt’s Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and…
