Tulsi Gabbard is a lady with political smarts, and when she speaks it pays to listen. She grabs your attention. Why? When did you last come across a truly believable politician: a politician who speaks from the heart and eloquently vocalises her thoughts? I have not heard a better female political communicator since the days of Margaret Thatcher.
Tulsi has an interesting backstory. She was born in American Samoa and now lives in Hawaii. Her father has both Samoan and European heritage, is a Catholic and served in the Hawaiian Legislature. Her mother was born in Indiana.
In 2002, aged 21, she was elected to the Hawaii State House to represent West Oʻahu; the youngest person ever to be elected to the Hawaii Legislature. In 2003 she enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard and served with a field medical unit in Iraq from 2004–5.
In 2007 she graduated from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy and became the first woman in the academy’s 50-year history to earn the title of distinguished honour graduate. She was in Kuwait training counter terrorism units in 2008–9. In 2010 she was elected to the Honolulu City Council and from 2013 to 2021 she served in the US Senate representing Hawaii’s Second Congressional District. She was promoted to captain in 2015 by the Hawaii Army National Guard. In 2019 she launched her presidential campaign as a Democrat.
She filed a defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton in 2020 for telling lies about her supposed involvement with Russia but later withdrew it. In March 2020 she ended her campaign and endorsed Joe Biden. In October 2022 she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party and recently called on “independent-minded Democrats” to follow her. Tulsi gave the reasons for exiting the party being their policies and said it was not the same party that she joined. She spent two years as an independent before linking up with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
A few weeks ago she became a member of the Republican Party and she is now part of Trump’s transitional team. She is with Trump for his policies on freedom and free speech but, most importantly, her belief is, like Trump, that, in order to end wars, you must open dialogue with the enemy. In this case the leaders of Russia and Iran. I am picking he will appoint her either Secretary of State or Foreign Secretary and she will excel in either position.
What a CV. Tulsi is only 43 and is going to go a long way with many picking her as a future president of the United States. Go to YouTube and watch two videos: “My Big Announcement at Donald Trump’s NC Rally” and “Tulsi Gabbard’s Emotional Speech”. Emotional is indeed the operative word. Get to know this lady: you’re going to hear a lot about and from her in the future.
