Why Tulsi Gabbard is the best Presidential candidate
In a nutshell, Tulsi is the best candidate because she is the best on foreign policy, 2nd best on domestic policy (after Bernie). She researches her stuff well and hence is able to cut through BS narratives and evolve. She is courageous, authentic and looks at issues on merit, not through partisan lens.
Before getting into the details on all of the above, I'd really recommend to watch this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpdYbJFh5Jo.
It is by far the most powerful and moving video I've seen of any candidates in the 2020 campaign.
Once that's done, lets start with what the biggest responsibility of a US president is and what is the area over which the President has the most control. Yes, that's right, its foreign policy. Tulsi is far and away the best candidate on foreign policy.
The best candidate on foreign policy ? Unequivocally ? Yes and Yes. Firstly her credentials : She is a soldier and has served twice abroad (Iraq and Kuwait respectively) in a field medical unit. She has seen and experienced the cost of war first hand. Ever since she became a part of Congress in 2013, she has been part of various foreign affairs committees. Her platform and actions are geared towards ending the harmful and wasteful regime change wars of choice that have been and are being waged by the U.S. She recognizes that these do not not help the people in those countries, but only make things worse - see the examples of Iraq becoming worse after the overthrow of Saddam and Libya becoming worse after the overthrow of Gadaffi. These wars of course put an enormous toll on the US soldiers and taxpayers end up paying a significant portion of these costs.
She is of course not an isolationist as is misperceived by some people. She is for sorting out international issues through diplomacy. She has met many leaders in the world in the pursuit of peace through diplomacy. In her own words "As president, I will lead this country to bring about a bold change in our foreign policy that bends the arc of history away from war and towards peace. That stops wasting our resources, and our lives on regime change wars, and redirects our focus and energy towards peace and prosperity for all people. The time is now to give up the gunboat diplomacy of the past, and instead, work out our differences with communication, negotiations, and goodwill." https://www.tulsi2020.com/record/foreign-policy-prosperity-through-peace
Good intentions are of course only one part of it. Candidates like Bernie Sanders and Marianne Williamson are also pretty good in this aspect. Another part is whether you can research things, get accurate information, get past the misleading narratives in play - whether it be through the mainstream media, the CIA, the government or any other entity. This is where Tulsi towers well above the rest. For example, she recognizes that Kashmir is a complex issue and lays out the various nuances very well over here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wAMG4sOLuQ. She was the only candidate to get it straight away on Venuezuela - recognizing it for what it is - US supporting a coup attempt. https://twitter.com/tulsigabbard/status/1088531713649713153?lang=en.
Bernie and Marianne have cut through some of the BS narratives, but they have fallen prey to some bad ones. Bernie for example got it terribly wrong on Kashmir and Russiagate - by repeating pro-Pakistan, anti-India propaganda on Kashmir & calling for ensuring sanctions on Russia. Marianne on Afghanistan for instance by saying US forces needs to stay there until women get equal rights and protection - not recognizing that U.S cannot force that issue and US forces being there only worsens the issue!
She is not someone who is a "pacifist" at all costs either. She recognizes that when the U.S is under threat, as a last resort, military action is necessary. She recognizes that terrorism has to be fought on both military and ideological fronts, while being able to draw a clear distinction between the actual war on terror & regime change wars/actions taken under the pretext of war on terror.
The other aspect of course is the will and courage to do what is right. Tulsi has been by far the most outspoken candidate against the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and Foreign Policy Establishment. She has backed it up with actions over the years. For instance, in early 2017, going to Syria to meet Assad, his opposition, religious leaders, common people to actually get to the truth about the situation there as part of her Congressional duties. This was a highly unpopular move and she has been vilified for it ever since. She has of course defended what she did (correctly as part of her duties) and not backed down.
With the talk about will and courage to do what is right, lets move to an issue closer to US internal affairs. In 2016, Tulsi was a rising star in the Democratic party and was the vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee. She saw that the DNC was favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders while it was supposed to be neutral and that disagreed heavily with Hillary's warmongering policies. So she quit her post as DNC Vice Chair, going against the Clinton machine, risking her political career and endorsed Bernie Sanders. Here is an example of the consequences of the risk she took : https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3609.
Now lets look at some of her domestic policies. Of course she intends to use the money saved by stopping the harmful and wasteful regime change wars by investing into domestic programs. She introduced the most aggressive, effective piece of legislation to phase out Fossil Fuels in Sep 2017. A summary and the full bill can be found here : The Off Fossil Fuels Act . For a start, it stops all subsidies to fossil fuel companies and states that no federal permits may be issued for any major fossil fuel project from 2018 onwards.
She has been a vocal advocate and co-sponsor for 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act of 2013 to help protect Americans from the risky investment behaviors of big banks. She is a co-sponsor of "We the People Amendment" which states that corporations are not people and "the judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment."
She has a 100% record on LGBTQ rights (as per the largest org evaluating it : Human Rights Campaign) and a great record on human rights/quality et.al. She has always spoken for respect for the right to worship and is the 1st candidate I have seen mention respect for atheists as well specifically. She has spoken out against religious bigotry - be it Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Hinduphobia etc.
She is for sensible gun control legislation while supporting the 2nd amendment. She is for abolition of private prisons, ending cash bail among other criminal justice reforms. She is the only candidate to have unequivocally stated that she would pardon Assange, Manning and Snowden.
She has been studying various Universal Healthcare models around the world (Canada, Scandinavian countries, Australia, UK etc) to see what would be the best for US. She is a co-sponsor to the House version of Bernie's Medicare for all, but she is atleast slightly deviating from it, in an attempt to improve it in atleast one significant way. Hopefully that works out. Her plan is tentatively titled "Single Payer Plus" in which everyone would be auto-enrolled into Medicare and pay into Medicare, but would also have the option to buy private insurance on top of it. More details forthcoming on this.
There is more stuff on both foreign policy front and domestic policy front, which I will probably cover separately. But let me close with examples of her ability to learn & evolve and the ability to unite the country. She grew up in a pretty conservative household and was strongly anti-gay when young. As a result of her deployments to the middle east, she learnt and realized the negatives of government trying to impose its "morality" on people and that her anti-gay positions contradicted whatever she had learnt about respect for everyone - Aloha in Hawaii as well as the Hindu teachings that she learnt when young and follows. So she evolved both politically as well as personally. That is reflected in her 100% pro-LGBTQ record in Congress as well as her talks about LGBTQ issues on a personal front.
As far as uniting the country goes, she says something on the lines of "even if someone disagrees with me on 9/10 issues, lets work on the 10th one where we agree and get things done". She says people might disagree on things, but its important to discuss, debate and work things out keeping in mind what is the best interests of the American people. She is for issue based bi-partisanship , not just bi-partisanship for the sake of it. She has been critical of the a lot of racism on the right and lot of negative identity politics on the left - recognizing that both cause further divisions in the country. Though a big chunk of her policies are progressive/left-leaning, she looks at issues on their merits, not through a partisan lens. That is why crowds at her town halls have people from all over the spectrum - progressives, liberals, moderates, libertarians, independents, conservatives and she is the best candidate to unite people in the US.
If you want to learn more about Tulsi and her stance on issues :
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