Why do Democrat voters hate Tulsi so much?

[VBM]

What the title said. I don’t understand the hatred for her. People accused her of being a Russian asset, said that she would never drop out of the race, she would accept a job for Fox News, and would run 3rd party or endorse Trump, but none of these things happened. After it became clear that Biden was going to win, she quickly endorsed him. It seems to me like a ton of people just bought into the nonsense smears mentioned above, and have refused to let go of their views on her out of stubbornness.

[slothdem]

She goes on Tucker Carlson a lot.

[VBM]

She goes on Tucker Carlson a lot.

How is that a bad thing tho? By going on Tucker Carlson, she makes sure that his viewers aren’t just listening to a bunch of nonsensical Trumpists all the time

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

She became an conservative ideologue on foreign policy, while she remains a Democrat, like appeasing Assad and agreeing with Fox news

She went after both Harris and Warren in Dem debate, that's why

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Gabbard is just hated by political insiders because she dares to go against the party line. I like Gabbard, but she has her flaws and issues.

[Calthrina950]

I've never understood the dislike for Tulsi Gabbard either. She was actually one of my favorite candidates to run during the Democratic primary (I particularly liked how she tore into Kamala Harris at the primary debate last year), and would have appealed strongly to a substantial number of Obama-Trump and independent voters, given her economically progressive stances, opposition to war and foreign entanglements, and reasonable positions on social issues. She was accused by many on here of being homophobic-notwithstanding the fact that she (like Obama, the Clintons, and most other Democrats) changed her stance on gay marriage and has been supportive of LGBT rights in Congress. And she was accused of being an asset for Assad, Modi, and other foreign leaders-definitely a stretch given her veteran status.

[VBM]

She became an conservative ideologue on foreign policy, while she remains a Democrat, like appeasing Assad and agreeing with Fox news

She went after both Harris and Warren in Dem debate, that's why

Since when did being anti-war become a conservative stance?

[Roronoa D. Law]

I don't hate her. I just don't give her any thought.

[Hope For A New Era]

I have no idea. She really isn't that bad. I appreciate her willingness to break with standards of both parties and go her own way (within reason).


Not sure she would have been a good president, though. Or any kind of executive. She should stay in Congress, or Biden should put her in a Cabinet position somewhere.

[Person Man]

If Trump wins, I see her as a great triangulator.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

She voted “present” on impeachment!  That’s just pathetic.

[Beet]

I don't hate her at all. But she was running as an anti-Establishment progressive candidate and for whatever reason the anti-Establishment progressive people decided to go uniformly with Bernie again. Pete Buttigieg did make her look pretty bad in that one debate.

[Horus]

I agree with her on almost everything but she just gives off the impression that she's hiding something, and I think she may be.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Well, you can start with this chart, which shows that Tulsi Gabbard's supporters, unique among candidates, only like Tulsi Gabbard and HATE every single other 2020 candidate.  Including a net -79% favorability rating for Biden!

Alternatively, you can read this post I wrote very early in the primary.

Tulsi Gabbard.

Origin story

Born and raised by a notorious conservative bigot, she joined a cult where you eat the cult leader's toenails, and was active in the anti-gay movement.  Somehow she still got elected as a Democrat.

She was first known for being a right-wing useful idiot, teaming up with Breitbart to call Obama a pussy for not saying "radical Islamic terrorism."

Rise To Power

Somehow she climbed through the ranks of the DNC, before deciding to declare the entire primary "rigged" based on internet conspiracy theories, and throw her full support behind Bernie Sanders.  Throughout the primary she was one of the surrogates giving voice to conspiracy theories Bernie wasn't able to say himself.  She was frequently mentioned as his VP candidate.

The Calm Before The Storm

Tulsi became a favorite of Russian state media, Syrian state media, Alt-Right media, QAnon conspiracy theorists, white nationalists and the KKK.  Around this time she decided to define herself as an "anti-war" candidate by becoming the world's most vocal defender of the world's #1 genocidal maniac, Bashar al-Assad.

She went on alt-right and alt-left media networks like Jimmy Dore (who was being paid under the table by the Assad regime this whole time) to promote Russian-invented conspiracy theories and outright hoaxes about Syria, sh*t all over the Democratic Party and U.S. foreign policy, and continue repeating conspiracy theories about Bernie Sanders' 2016 loss.  A small army of foreign botnets promoted her all over social media.

The Storm

Tulsi declared she was running in 2020.  The only two notable things she's done are her scorched-earth attack on Kamala Harris (using false talking points widely propagated by alt-left media) and her declaration that the Democratic Party is rigging the 2020 primary just like they rigged the 2016 primary.

If you go on her website right now she has a push poll asking the following:

• Did you know in 2016 DNC rigged the election against Bernie Sanders?
• Do you believe the DNC and its corporate parents are taking the democratic process away from early state voters?
• Do you believe boycotting the next debate is the best option to bring attention to what the DNC is doing?
• Or do you believe it’s better to attend the next debate and bring attention to the corporate corruption during the debate?

and so on and so forth.

Since that post was written:

She was the only "Democrat" to abstain from impeaching Trump.  Peterson and Golden voted against, but they are both trying to save deep-red seats.  Tulsi had no excuse other than being a loon.

Tulsi is the only candidate to receive overwhelmingly favorable coverage from Russian propaganda outlets.

Hillary said "someone in this race is a favorite of the Russians", and Tulsi said HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A RUSSIAN SECRET AGENT and sued Hillary Clinton for $50,000,000.

Tulsi called the entire 2020 election rigged and threatened to "boycott" a debate she wasn't invited to anyway.  Then, by sheer luck, she did score an invite, and decided to attend after all.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/us/politics/tulsi-gabbard-debate.html

[Lief 🗽]

Why wouldn’t Democrats hate a right-wing crypto fascist?

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

She became an conservative ideologue on foreign policy, while she remains a Democrat, like appeasing Assad and agreeing with Fox news

She went after both Harris and Warren in Dem debate, that's why

Since when did being anti-war become a conservative stance?

Gabbard is a lot less interventionist than the foreign policy consensus, but this is not the same thing as being anti-war. She stated that she thought Assad should be executed if he'd used chemical weapons and simply denied that this had happened as opposed to admitting that he'd used them and (correctly) not supporting an intervention anyway (by that point, there was pretty much nothing left to salvage of the "pro-democracy" faction, insofar as it had ever been militarily significant among rebel forces). She has also argued Modi should not have been sanctioned for his massacre of 2000, shilled for the BJP and offered support to various dismal leaders suppressing violent rebellions.

I'm not a fan, but it's still probably going to be better foreign policy than that of the next administration, to say nothing of this one's.

[Crumpets]

Tulsi's history pre-2019 shows that she had a very clear world view of certain religious beliefs, ethnicities, and arguably sexual orientations being superior to or more valuable than others. This is the antithesis of the most basic beliefs of the Democratic coalition. She did an okay job of separating herself from this image during the primaries, but ended up just coming across as Kucinich 2.0 to people unfamiliar with her and as a total opportunist fraud to those familiar with her.

[brucejoel99]

She cray-cray.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Tulsi is a fraud and grifter.

[Crumpets]

She became an conservative ideologue on foreign policy, while she remains a Democrat, like appeasing Assad and agreeing with Fox news

She went after both Harris and Warren in Dem debate, that's why

Since when did being anti-war become a conservative stance?

Gabbard is not anti-war in the slightest. All of her rhetorical claims aside, anti-war people don't tend sign up for voluntary military service.

[Horus]

She became an conservative ideologue on foreign policy, while she remains a Democrat, like appeasing Assad and agreeing with Fox news

She went after both Harris and Warren in Dem debate, that's why

Since when did being anti-war become a conservative stance?

Gabbard is not anti-war in the slightest. All of her rhetorical claims aside, anti-war people don't tend sign up for voluntary military service.

Tbf, the horrors of war can change people quite a bit. I'm are there are Vietnam vets who signed up to fight and became doves later.

[izixs]

A lot of folks have already laid out the basics (she's a grifter, bigot, liar, ect), but to pull it all together...

Democratic voters to a certain degree believe in the concept of cooperation, in working in the interests of everybody for the greater good through construction of sound policy. Gabbard has day in and day out only worked for the benefit of Tulsi Gabbard. If that means pretending to be lefter than thou, she'll put on a hat and play the part. If that means courting right wing conspiracy nuts, she'll change hats and talk like she's been pro-qanon for decades. She will do anything to get an advantage. In other words, she is the most politician of politicians. Willing to say or do anything to get leverage, principal or the common good be damned.

So why the hell should the voters of the Democratic party, who overall are pretty sharp, ever get behind someone like this? So the answer to the initial question really isn't that hard to figure out. A better question is: Why does anyone put up with Gabbard enough to even ask such a question?

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Hindutva crank.

[Crumpets]

She became an conservative ideologue on foreign policy, while she remains a Democrat, like appeasing Assad and agreeing with Fox news

She went after both Harris and Warren in Dem debate, that's why

Since when did being anti-war become a conservative stance?

Gabbard is not anti-war in the slightest. All of her rhetorical claims aside, anti-war people don't tend sign up for voluntary military service.

Tbf, the horrors of war can change people quite a bit. I'm are there are Vietnam vets who signed up to fight and became doves later.

Absolutely. I've just never gotten the impression Tulsi is one of those people.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

She dared to criticize Obama's pro ISIS foreign policy. If only she had been a good Democrat like John Kasich, then she would have been invited to speak at the DNC.