After thirty (?) appearances on Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard has announced that she is leaving the Democratic Party, two years after we thought she already left.
https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status ... 0696185859
I posted something when Andrew Yang announced his Forward Party and I'll do it here as well. Back in 2020, I thought a few candidates set themselves up to have some sort of political impact in the future. Obviously, Pete Buttigieg inside the party. And both Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard outside the party. It's a bit harder to pin Yang down. Gabbard is easy to pin down. The only question is how and why is she compromised. But she's far more dangerous in my opinion, because she comes off very well on a debate stage and modulates well to whatever platform she's appearing on. She holds a lot of sway over white voters. She's excellent at choosing emotional issues that are easy to remember, even though it always involves criticizing the Democratic Party. Calling out radical Muslims (criticizing Obama). Supporting Bernie Sanders (criticizing Clinton). Ending foreign wars (but then criticizing Biden). But always by saying "she's concerned about" something.
But most importantly, watching her on that debate stage, I just thought to myself "We're not done with this person." The question is what does that look like, especially as she was leaving government? Well, we're going to find out now. She has a short window to capitalize on her "I left the Democratic Party" energy. So, she's not going to mount an obnoxious primary against Biden or Harris. She's going to run third party or within the GOP. I think she could be reasonably effective as a third party spoiler. Regardless of my distaste for her, she's very charismatic. I (sadly) know many people that would vote for her over Biden or Trump. But I suspect the latter (GOP run) where she will rake in a ton of money through interviews, largely avoid criticizing any of them except Liz Cheney, win no states, but end the primary reasonably better liked than the base than anyone else could do who isn't an anti-choice absolutist. But what then? She's either a dark horse for running mate consideration (I say this only because it would be just Kamala Harris' luck), or she joins some Green, Libertarian, or Forward Party ticket in some capacity. And then what? Books? Move to a new state and run for Congress there? Leapfrog from one third party ticket to another every four years?
I think Tulsi Gabbard is destined to be a barely remembered footnote but she has a short window to cause some damage and this is it.
