Tulsi Gabbard & Justin Amash: American Politics Intolerant of Troublemakers

Two troublemakers may be leaving our politics for good. Representatives Justin Amash and Tulsi Gabbard, increasingly at odds with their parties, declined to run for reelection to the House this year. And the tumultuous, improbable course of their political careers over the last decade tells us something unflattering about our two-party system, and the way Congress is organized.

There are striking similarities between Amash and Gabbard. Both, it could be said, were defined by their opposition to what they saw as the bipartisan failure of the Iraq War and America’s overly aggressive Middle East policy. Both of them vociferously opposed American intervention in Syria in 2013 and 2014. Opponents tend to think of both of them as not just wrong, but stubborn and immoral, and have occasionally alleged that they were compromised by unsavory outside interests.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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Two troublemakers may be leaving our politics for good. Representatives Justin Amash and Tulsi Gabbard, increasingly at odds with their parties, declined to run for reelection to the House this year. And the tumultuous, improbable course of their political careers over the last decade tells us something unflattering about our two-party system, and the way Congress is organized.

There are striking similarities between Amash and Gabbard. Both, it could be said, were defined by their opposition to what they saw as the bipartisan failure of the Iraq War and America’s overly aggressive Middle East policy. Both of them vociferously opposed American intervention in Syria in 2013 and 2014. Opponents tend to think of both of them as not just wrong, but stubborn and immoral, and have occasionally alleged that they were compromised by unsavory outside interests.