Tulsi Gabbard ‘Present’ On Campus

Last Sunday night at the Top of the Hop, the guitarist Billy Sky held a free forty-minute concert. The personification of the white SoundCloud rapper, he performed a catalog of songs by Anti-War Bands including Creedence Clearwater and Green Day, as well as originals written for the Tulsi Gabbard Campaign.

After a mildly incoherent ramble on how he came to support Gabbard, Sky began with an acoustic rendition of God Bless America. Despite a failed sing-along attempt, the dose of patriotism — something lacking within certain Democratic campaigns — was nevertheless admirable. Next came an original song, an ode to “Tulsi 2020,” that touched upon core tenets of the campaign, particularly ending regime change wars and promoting peace. Through the cheesy lyrics and folk rapping, one couldn’t help but smile. At this point, I didn’t want the concert to end. Besides, who really comes to campaign events to see the actual candidate? My wish was granted when we were informed Tulsi was delayed on a phone call. Three songs later, it was clear the stalling charade could no longer persist as Billy Sky was out of tune(s)—literally. The E-string of his guitar had snapped.

The Review could not determine whether this performance was a planned and regular occurrence at Tulsi 2020 events or if they were simply stalling for time. In a sense, however, it is perfectly emblematic of her campaign — weird, kind-of endearing, and no one can really tell if it’s a waste of time or not.  

Luckily, at 6:40, long after the event’s starting time, it was announced that Tulsi Gabbard, or, as Hillary Clinton refers to her, Тулси Габбард, was present in the building. Clinton may have the tendency to label every one of her adversaries as Russian agents; however, the all-American nature of the event was unquestionable after Tulsi’s staff led the audience in a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Despite the lengthy delay, Tulsi wasted no time delivering opening remarks by immediately addressing the issue on everyone’s mind: Iran. In true accordance with her campaign message, she described the killing of General Qasem Soleimani as an “act of war,” warning that conflict with Iran would be much more devastating than the Iraq and Afghan wars of the previous decade.

To those familiar with Tulsi Gabbard, the remainder of her address delivered little surprise. She spoke about her experiences serving in the Iraq war, compelled to protect America after 9/11. And it wouldn’t be a Tulsi Gabbard speech without one specific buzzword: regime-change wars. Indeed, this central campaign issue unites voters of all political affiliations, from America First conservatives to anti-war liberals. In the state of New Hampshire, where attaining the support of Independent voters is crucial, Tulsi made sure not to delve into the more divisive issues such as gun control and immigration. Instead, she emphasized reducing the immense sum of the federal budget designated for foreign wars and global military dominance and reinvesting that money in American citizens. After a short 15 minutes of speaking, it was time for the Q&A.

Voters were looking for genuine answers; a response of present would not suffice, and Tulsi delivered. The first question was posed by a self-described Republican who asked the Congresswoman how she would mend the country’s political divide. History tells us that labelling half of the country as a “basket of deplorables” is not the best route. Unfortunately, Democratic frontrunners, like Elizabeth Warren—who refuses to appear on Fox News and labels the network a “hate-for-profit scam”—haven’t learned. Tulsi could not be more different. She spoke about her commitment to building relationships with colleagues across the aisle and delivered a personal anecdote to demonstrate this. Upon swearing in to Congress, she worked to deliver boxes of her mother’s famous and delicious (I was given some at the event) macadamia nut toffee to all 434 other members of Congress and their staff teams. According to her, this gesture of “Aloha” fostered bipartisan relationships, which led to bipartisan policy action. I think the slogan “Make toffee, not war” has a nice ring to it — perhaps it would be a bestseller in the Tulsi 2020 campaign store.

The town hall continued with questions on topics ranging from Israel to the environment. It was rather uneventful until an attendee named Jayda, armed for ~war~ with his Periscope livestream and a photo of Tulsi wearing a BJP (India’s governing Hindu nationalist party) scarf, accused Tulsi of enabling foreign interference by using campaign funds to fund a Modi election celebration in the U.S.. Tulsi calmly defended herself by categorically denying the charge, while going on to state: “Any efforts to elicit suspicion about me or my motives can only be attributed to religious bigotry because I’m a practicing Hindu.”

Instead of storming out in true Bernie Sanders-Dartmouth-fashion without granting access to any media requests, Tulsi was kind enough to grant me three questions. First, I asked her whether her anti-global intervention stance led her to believe in reducing foreign aid payouts and diverting that money to American citizens.

“It depends how we’re using those dollars. For example, in Afghanistan, we’re spending $4 billion a month, and so much of that money is going to prop up a very corrupt government, and is being wasted. I think there is certainly a role for foreign aid to play, but we should be careful as with any expenditure about how and where those taxpayer dollars are going and the impact they’re having.”

The next question was on Big Tech. Given the Gabbard campaign’s only billionaire donor is Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, whose organization many feel employs an anti-conservative bias through its de-platforming of numerous right-wing figures, I asked Tulsi whether she interpreted the platform banning of conservatives as free speech violations and what she would do as President to protect digital liberty.

“Unfortunately across social media platforms we are seeing, in my opinion, suppression of First Amendment speech. Some of it is coming from conservative voices, others coming from people who call themselves progressives, and other people whose voices are being silenced, even many of them who are complying with the terms of use. Big Tech monopolies need to be broken up under an updated version of the antitrust laws that we have in place because no individual or corporation should have as much power as they have, especially Facebook and Google. There needs to be some oversight and accountability from Congress having to do with First Amendment speech and having to do with protection of our civil liberties and privacy. I think that these social media platforms should be subject to the same governance and laws that we subject other publishers to, and I’m introducing legislation that would do that.“

My final question was simple. Given Tulsi’s public quarrels with the DNC having resigned in 2016 as co-chair to support Bernie Sanders, and criticizing them this election cycle for refusing to release the criteria designating which polls are debate-qualifying, I asked whether she would support the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, regardless of who it is.

“Yes, and I plan on being that nominee.”

Given that Tulsi Gabbard is polling at 4% in the state of New Hampshire, according to a recent Monmouth University poll, statistics would deem this campaign a waste of time. However, after witnessing Tulsi in person, I would argue the opposite. She’s articulate, poised and exhibits the compassion and empathy necessary to unite the country. It’s possible my enthusiasm comes from how refreshing it is to see a Democratic candidate who does not despise conservatives. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that Tulsi Gabbard’s politics may be liberal, but her heart is all-American.