Who cares why Tulsi Gabbard is still running for president? I know I don’t. And neither should you.
Time to quit wondering, complaining, or caring about Gabbard. It’s time to see her as the isolate and as the irrelevant, minor political figure she has become.
We need to quit wasting time trying to figure her out. That cheapens our politics by making her a celebrity.
All we are doing by making those “demands” about her needing to explain this or do that is keeping her on a pedestal she no longer deserves.
So, enough with the inflated mystery about why she is “really” running for president. She’s not going to tell you anything useful anyway.
She is not big on obligations. Tulsi has refused to carry out the only important ongoing obligation she has to the people of Hawaii when she refuses to resign her congressional seat, toting up the worst absentee record in the House of Representatives.
Hawaii’s voters used to have a decent relationship with Gabbard, but she’s changed. As a result, this relationship has now become toxic. Let’s not stay in this now flawed relationship because we naively think we can change her back.
The fundamental thing to understand about Gabbard is that she has become an isolate with a tight, closed and inaccessible political and social network. An impenetrable, closed circle.
Isolated people with closed off networks make decisions that make sense to the people within them but often not to anyone else.
The essence of her isolation problem is not really what she believes. I think people misunderstand, and maybe are a little prejudiced, when they criticize Gabbard for her religious beliefs.
The problem, which in fact goes a long way toward explaining Tulsi’s unwillingness to go deep about why she is running, is that she has a network of advisors and confidants that has cut itself off from the rest of us.
She has made herself virtually inaccessible to Hawaii’s media. Nick Grube, the reporter Civil Beat sent out to talk to one of her main political advisors, practically had to reenact the Lewis and Clark expedition to get to the place where the guy lives, somewhere on the shores of an isolated lake in the state of Washington.
Results of this solitary journey to the wild? Nada, no interview, no information. Remember, this is a key campaign maven we are taking about. Who ever heard of an isolated political consultant that no one knows anything about?
As far as Hawaii is concerned, Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign slogan should be “no comment.”
And that’s the best it’s going to be.
There has always been more than idle curiosity about what Gabbard is really up to. The furtive mystery woman.
Now, though, it’s time to give it up, time to quit playing ulterior motive detective. Just let the mystery be.
If you don’t believe her past public statements about why she is running, well fine. But that is all you are going to get.
As far as Hawaii is concerned, Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign slogan should be “no comment.”
Looking for her ulterior motives is like using a divining rod. It’s not about really finding water. It’s all about the suggestive imagination of the searcher.
As for discovering her “real” reasons — a Fox News gig, a third-party run, whatever — just stop it. That’s how we think about celebrities.
That’s the sports talk show approach: what is Tom Brady really thinking about staying with the Patriots, what does Lebron James really think of his coach?
That “really thinking” focus subverts the way we need to think about politics. The continuing focus on Gabbard makes politics way too much about discovering motivations and digging up inside dope, way too much about probing for personality rather than looking at issues.
Far from being a celebrity, it’s time to see Gabbard for what she’s become — no longer relevant to Hawaii.
More power to her if that’s how she wants to be. But doing that is her way of saying good-bye to Hawaii.
So let’s get off our high horse about her and say what in effect she has already said to us and what we need to say to her.
As in that old song by the Weavers — you know, the one about how’s it’s been good but now it’s time:
So long, it’s been good to know ya
So long, it’s been good to know ya
So long, it’s been good to know ya
What a long time since you’ve been home
And I’ve gotta be driftin’ along
Right now, we all have more important things to worry about. Far more important things.
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About the Author
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Neal Milner is a former political science professor at the University of Hawaiʻi where he taught for 40 years. He is a political analyst for KITV and is a regular contributor to Hawaii Public Radio's "The Conversation." His most recent book is The Gift of Underpants. Opinions are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Civil Beat's views.