Let's cover what paleoconservtism is. Paleoonservationism is a conservative political philosophy which stresses traditionalism, limited government, Christian ethics, regionalism and nationalism.
She worked for her father's anti-gay activist campaigns in Hawaii.
Opposing reproductive rights
She appears to be anti-war. Even with the empathy she has for active duty and veterans - nothing wrong with that and as a veteran herself but I don't buy the anti-war outlook. She seems to have no real grasp of what the US is inflicting on other nations. At all. It's nationalism in antiwar garb, reinforcing instead of undercutting the toxic rhetoric that treats foreigners as less deserving of dignity than Americans. No. We have had enough of that shit period. She is also pro-drone, Obama gave us enough of this.
Nothing I have ever seen or read leads me to believe she really grasps the impact of US foreign policy as a catalyst for anti-American sentiment in the Middle East. According to her the cause of terrorism is Islam. You may remember she was a loud voice in the WHY DON'T YOU SAY THE WORDS ISLAMIC TERROISM/EXTREMISM?? directed at Obama. She also made this point on Fox News after the Charlie Hebdo shootings.
I have yet to hear her come out against the domestic terrorism runaway train in this country. There is no difference between Muslim terror and the Trump fan mailing bombs to networks. None. She should be front and center.
She is buds with Steve Bannon. Also with Narendra Modi. Muslims are a pet peeve to say the least, of both.
Tulsi isn't Trump. Or even Dan Lipinski. But her rhetoric about Islam wouldn’t be out of place on a Republican debate stage. Her anti-interventionism is shot through with a pernicious nationalism. Her support for Modi legitimizes a leader with a record of enabling anti-Muslim brutality. She checks many of the paleoconcervative boxes and I'm not picking up what she is putting down.
Ok, regarding AIPAC, it's not a good organization, and Sheldon Adelson in particular is a mummified gasbag. I'm certainly fine with people trashing it but Omar could have used better language. Sorry, but with politics, that kind of thing matters, and approaching the topic differently would have helped her case, in addition to help with cushioning her from a backlash (although probably not preventing it).
As for Tulsi, I don't think she's a paleoconservative, although there are some things in her record I'm not on board with. I'll address this in my conclusion.
Some positives:
- She supports net-neutrality (not paleoconservative, free market sould run amok according to them) , and stopped accepting corporate campagin donations.
- She supported Bernie in 2016 (a paleoconservative would not do this, and supported Keith Ellison (a Muslim) for DNC chair. I'm not convinced that her meeting with Modi is damning when so many other people have done so, although it is fair to compare to Modi to Netanyahu, and condemn both.
- I believe she has integrity and that her change in positions over time don't come from a place of opportunism (it's not like her foreign policy positions helps her with the media). It also helps that she has a millitary background, which will give her credibility in selling her ideas. This is important, because they will (and have) come after her for this.
- A bonus : Also, while this is a bit cynical, the fact that she's a woman of color (she's Samoan) will be helpful if she makes it to the big leagues. They can't lob attacks about her being a racist old white man like they did with Bernie. They may, however, call her antisemitic because she has criticized Israel in the past.
I don't remember the "Radical Islamic Terrorism" thing from her, and while it's a very dumb point to harp on, Obama's response to Charlie Hebdo was really lame and wishy-washy, and really opened him up to bullshit like that. Very disappointing that a bunch of people who spent more than a decade going
on and on at any opportunity about how all religions are totally ridiculous and irrational suddenly decided Islam deserved special treatment and needed to be respected because otherwise its punching down , apparently just because the president said so. I dare say this was what killed New Atheism (and I don't necessarily regard this as a bad thing), more than arguments about Gamergate.
Here's the thing....
I have this framework or idea of what's not right and what needs fixing (and you have something like that as well). That's valuable and useful. But it's not just a matter of finding a politician who crosses all the boxes on a checklist generated by a framework who actually gets elected. Politicians respond to money. They also respond to people (this even matters in authoritarian regimes). Thing is, lots of people are apathetic and disinvested, for understandable reasons. Others just believe things that are incoherent.
I think not enough people have been exposed to good ideas, and too many people have been exposed to shitty ideas. So one thing that would help would be to expose people to as many good ideas as is possible. If Gabbard gets more of a spotlight, this will happen. The outcome will be positive, just as Bernie's presence in the campaign was positive. If she can chip away at the myth of American exceptionalism supported by so many politicians on both sides, (we can avoid making mistakes of history because we're the freedomest country evar! ), that's good. It's incredibly empowering to hear someone else voice your private doubts so you don't feel like a voice in the wilderness. It drives political engagement, and that is to be encouraged.
More importantly, on balance, I think she's one of the good guys, for that reason. she has my vote if she stays in it.
