There was a flurry of enthusiasm in various quarters of the right at the announcement by former congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard that she was leaving the Democratic Party, which she characterized as “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism. Who actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms that are enshrined in our constitution.” Republicans and conservatives eager to embrace Gabbard have a mixture of three motives:
- A natural instinct to embrace converts who criticize their old party and might bring with them people who feel the same way;
- Personal enthusiasm for a woman who is attractive, telegenic, and (as we saw with her 2019 debate-stage ambush of Kamala Harris) ruthlessly aggressive in argument; and
- A desire to prosecute an argument within the Republican Party for a foreign policy that is anti-interventionist and more congenial to alliances with tyrants.
The first of these, at least, is reasonable, but it should be tempered; despite her distaste for wokeism, Gabbard remains a progressive in good standing on a great many economic and social issues. I cannot think of a Republican over whom she would be an improvement, at least in terms of positions on issues.
If Gabbard is actually inclined to go the next step and become a Republican — or a Republican-aligned independent — much depends upon the uses to which she puts her talents. If she were to run for office again in Hawaii, even the possibility of winning elections that are typically closed to the GOP would be worth making some common cause with her. Surely, Gabbard as an independent in the Senate, for example, would be an improvement on Mazie Hirono. But all too often, what some sections of the right prefer is to make Gabbard a national figure speaking at CPAC and on Fox News, taking up places better filled by actual conservatives, or — worse yet — encouraging her to run as a third-party candidate in a race Republicans might stand a chance of winning without her. No thanks.