Tulsi Gabbard Just Delivered the Year’s Most Pathetic Statement on Impeachment
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Here at Paste, we have a complicated relationship with Tulsi Gabbard. We have both praised her courageous anti-war stance and attacked her on the basis of some very problematic beliefs she’s espoused. In certain respects, she’s an actual maverick in a time of groupthink, and she showed courage in leaving the DNC in 2016 to support Bernie Sanders.
And then, yesterday, seemingly way too invested in her own anti-establishment brand to the point of narcissistic delusion, she voted “present” on both impeachment articles. That demanded an explanation, and when it emerged…
…well, look at this shit:
A house divided cannot stand. And today we are divided. Fragmentation and polarity are ripping our country apart. Today, I come before you to make a stand for the center, to appeal to all of you to bridge our differences and stand up for the American people. #StandWithTulsipic.twitter.com/wAvu8PXNoB
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) December 19, 2019
Let me summarize what she’s saying for you in six easy points:
1. Donald Trump was guilty of exactly what the Democrats accused him of in the impeachment articles, and Republicans who defend him are laughable.
2. I couldn’t vote “yes” on impeachment because it can’t be a “partisan” process, meaning that if the laughable Republicans won’t support it, then my hands are tied. Even though they’re wrong, and Trump is guilty.
3. The center is the blessed magical place of heroes like me.
4. We should “censure” him instead to “send a strong message” that Trump’s conduct “will not go unchecked,” even though compared to impeachment, censure sends a weaker message and leaves Trump’s conduct completely unchecked.
5. “Reconciliation” with Republicans is definitely still possible.
6. Please hire me, Fox News.
Tulsi Gabbard deserves respect for a few reasons, and it’s tempting to like her just for the way she pisses off the libs, but this is some cowardly, worthless material from someone who should know better. She clearly wants to be all things to all people, and capture that mythical ground where both Democrats and Republicans will support her. Instead, she managed to lose whatever Democrats hadn’t already abandoned her with this ploy, and at this point she might as well just call it a day and go full Republican. The parties in this country are so far apart that in order to do or say anything meaningful, you have to pick a side. Whether she wanted to or not, she just picked hers. In impeachment, Tulsi met her shark, and she jumped right on over.