Tulsi Gabbard

In 2015-16, I supported Bernie Sanders. With millions of others, I watched as Mrs. Clinton stole the Democratic nomination from him, using the supposedly impartial Democratic National Committee as an arm of her campaign. “Democracy is messy,” I think Bernie said at the Democratic convention.

And I watched as Donald Trump became President of the United States.

Senator Sanders is running again, this time with a strong network of supporters and volunteers. They had an organizing day last Saturday, April 27, with three gatherings at homes in our county and thousands of similar gatherings across the country. I continue to respect Bernie, but this time, I am supporting a different candidate.

Tulsi Gabbard is a congresswoman from Hawaii. She came to my attention in 2016 when she endorsed Bernie, one of the few members of Congress to do so, and gave the nomination speech for Sanders at the Democratic National Convention.

She and Sanders are in agreement on most issues, with solidly progressive ideals. Bernie tends to emphasize domestic needs such as Medicare-for-all; Tulsi speaks constantly about stopping the stream of “regime-change” wars such as Iraq and Syria and Yemen and now Venezuela that are bleeding this country dry.

She is a long-shot among some twenty Democratic contenders. Like Bernie, she is loathed by the establishment. Unlike Bernie, she is going to have a hard time being heard, and she is not going to have the Big Money that some of the “safe” candidates will have to push their views in the media.

I commend to you this six-minute video, wherein an Afghan-American woman speaks her heart about the war that has destroyed her homeland and Tulsi responds. I think it gives a good sense of who she is, why she is running for president, and why it is going to be so difficult. Yes, she is a long shot. So was Bernie when he started, and he would have won on a level playing field. So was an obscure first-term senator from Illinois in 2007-08, some guy named Obama.

And that is what gives me a glimmer of hope. I think that Tulsi could come from nowhere in Iowa, as Obama did. But in 2007, it looked to me like Obama had a lot of money behind him. Tulsi is not going to have anything like that. If she is to win, it is going to have to be from the support of ordinary people. Like me.

And I am not going to be able to do much. I am barely able to hang on with my bounden duties as organist/choirmaster and husband. I have made financial contributions to both of them, Bernie and Tulsi, and will stand up for Tulsi on caucus night in February. And pray for both of them, and for this country.