Trey Gowdy: Tulsi would be strongest Democrat versus Trump
Once I was a Berniecrat--but then I grew up. People get divorced after 40 years of marriage. Why? Things change, even imperceptibly until the end of decades before the realization hits. "It just ain't so, no more"--that's a sad song, we all have sung. But some need to keep on singing, while others find alternative things to do with their time--such as other interests, often divergent from long-held earlier views.
Bernie Sanders has fought the good fight for 40+ years, steadfast in his belief that government is for the common man, not the rich man, although rich ones aren't excluded*
*Not excluding the rich necessarily produces some element of capitalism. Capitalism unfettered is a cancer. Human greed can never be exhausted. Look no further than the beloved Medusa, as I am wont to call her. She, the many-snaked headed demon, had poison enough to surround her in all directions at once--sort of like an Evil Ray, transforming all who remain exposed to become tainted with the same sort of malevolence or total unconcern. Like a heat wave causing the air to oscillate indicating motion where there is none, some foul aura exists which has totally warped one large but minority portion of American society. These are the hear no evil, see no evil, but tolerate all evils individuals who honestly think that Hillary Clinton is a person of honor. Who could be that delusional?
Donald Trump is learning on the job, but his relative inexperience will not prevent him a second term--possibly by landslide if no new wars and good economy. If there were a realistic opponent for Trump, i.e., someone who could give El Trumpo a run for the money, in my not so humble opinion, that person with the qualities adequate to beat Trump is Tulsi Gabbard. There are negatives to some of her doings but I can't help but feel that her heart is in the right place. She is strong, straight-forward and plain speaking. I have yet to hear word salad from Tulsi, though she does dodge occasional questions--but not many.
This is an opinion about which several at c99 agree in general: Tulsi is the best. To which I add: Bernie shot his shot and he is spent. He will never win because only the establishment Dems will allow one of their own. It won't be Biden. H.A. Goodman and Greg Gutfeld have independently stated within the past 2 weeks that Hilary is running again. Although famous, notoriously so, the Evil Queen wants what is rightfully hers: official resident of 1600 Pennsylvania for 8 years--or more.
The only standout in the current field, as far as stature and integrity, is Tulsi. And at this point, we get to [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8KahRjEHHk]Trey Gowdy's implicit endorsement as Presidential opponent against Trump
The video is less than 5 minutes. I respect Gowdy's intellect and he's an independent Republican--not McConnel, not quite Freedom Caucus. I also think Gowdy is an insightful political judge.
In essence, Gowdy says the Dems have no one better than to face Trump than Tulsi. Of course, sanity will not have returned to the Demonratic party, should it continue as delusional until perhaps 2024.
Go, Tulsi!
Comments
Tulsi has a strategic advantage
...that is of particular interest to me.
I don't hear a deliberate false note coming from Tulsi — although some here fancy they do. I think she dishes her truth. And I think she continually turns that truth over and over in her mind because she, more that most, continues to evolve her mind in real time.
Her advantage over most of the field is plain and real. She is a Member of the group who select the majority of the nation's Presidents in advance of the elections. They also select most of the important the Secretaries of State and heads of the Department of Defense. Since 1921, these "vacancies" have been filled, in large part, from the membership of the Council on Foreign Relations, where they are carefully groomed for the job. At the Council level, there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. Their realm is global rather than domestic; they are interventionists. They live closer to reality than the rest of America.
Tulsi Gabbard is one of them. She may be playing her own game. It's hard to know.
Yet — I believe that at any moment, when the sentiment of the nation is thus aligned, that the electorate can turn on a populist dime. At any moment, the voters are capable of electing an outsider. This can happen with the speed of a sudden avalanche and nothing can avert the outcome. That turns the table on the Council of Foreign Relations, and it is the thing they fear most.
You could be right about Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Candidate. But that doesn't account for Bernie Sanders, the Outsider. I would not, for a moment, rule that out.
Donald Trump rode to victory as the Outsider because it was 'impossible' for him to be selected the true candidate of the establishment Republicans. Bernie finds himself in the same exact position, now. With each of Bernie's new proclamations (such as, "I will forgive all college debt."), the media explodes with their subversive (and always wrong) messages: "He's toast, now!" "Bernie is crazy!" "He can't win."
The people begin lying to the pollsters, again, just as they did during Brexit and the 2016 election. The Intelligence Community begins setting up China or Russia to take the fall, which pushes another steep increase in defense spending.
If Trump can knock out 17 competitors with his boldness — Bernie can certainly do the same.
Watch it unfold from this perspective. Or not. I probably won't explain these dynamics again. It's ineffectual.
As for Trey Gowdy
...where is he now?
During his time in DC, Gowdy proved himself to be a dogged investigator. He received an up-close and personal view of how the FBI bent the rules and abused their power in order to target Barack Obama’s political enemies.
Trey Gowdy quit Congress in 2018. He saw the light and took a job at the high-powered South Carolina law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, as a white-collar criminal defense attorney. He told his supporters, "You’ll never see me on the ballot again.”
It's hard to say where he's coming from with his comments about Tulsi, not that I disagree with him.
Trump didn't win in 2016
Clinton lost, and even then got 3 million more votes. There are fewer Republican voters each cycle as they age out of the population. I haven't seen Trump get over 48% in any matchup poll against any Democratic candidate, usually he's under 45%. For an incumbent, that's terrible.
Trump can't win in 2020. The Democrats can lose by ignoring swing states and by failing to expand the electorate.
Every Democrat is potentially electable. The real question is who can expand the electorate.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
Trump won the Republican Primaries.
Hillary probably lost the Democratic Primaries.
That accounts for the 2016 outcome, as far as I can tell.
YMMV
While I must agree with your premise, I don't believe we can trust polling anymore.
In any event, if the economy is good, the incumbent always wins a second term in US elections. Something extraordinary would have to happen to change this.
Agree, Pluto. Your comment,
nails it.
I've also seen 'rumors' that FSC is in the wings, waiting for Uncle Joe to implode. Not sure I believe it; but, with the Clintons, who knows?
Regardless, with DT averaging about 90 percent of Repub Base support, the DP Candidate will clearly need to garner equally broad support. And, that may be difficult, with the divisions between the various DP factions. Of course, it's hard to judge this early in the game.
I don't foresee the majority of so-called 'Reagan Dems' switching back to the DP, unless, a 'moderate' Dem is nominated. Still, I've never believed that Biden has the appeal to them, that some claim he has. From my observation, he's only had a captive audience (of them) at his rallies--union members. What does that prove? Little, IMO.
Clearly, if FSC does jump in, it'll blow the race for Dems. A part of me just can't believe that it'll be permitted to happen. IOW, they'll tell her to "go packing."
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
This sounds right to me, Mollie
Sky high. Hoards of non-voters will come out for the first time just to vote against her.
So, then, there is no deadline to when a candidate can enter the Primaries? The strategy would be that all other candidates would agree to throw their delegates to the late-comer if they drop out — in this case, Hillary. There is no reason why that wouldn't work.
I don't think there is anyone who could stop her, if that is what she wanted to do. She could come in at the end and vacuum up all the delegates.
Wow. Can you imagine the fanfare?
Scenes we'd love to see.
The Neocons would own both tickets, the way it was always meant to be.
Magic wand
Judging by past lawsuit attempts, the Democrats®, they can do any damn thing they want. Even though We the People are paying for their damn election events.
Television's Dancing with the Stars probably has far more honest voting.
Fixed
I don’t know if anyone ever did the numbers on this but I am convinced voting against HER was huge for Trump. I certainly knew people who weren’t thrilled with Trump who voted for him to prevent HER from getting in.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
As you know, the eventual nominee
doesn't even have to partake in the primary at all.
If there's a plan afoot to nominate Hillary in 2020, it would fit with what the Dems are doing now. Flood the primary field with candidates, the goal being to prevent anyone from receiving 50% + 1 delegates on the first ballot, with the result being a brokered convention. At that point, the party PTB could nominate anyone they want to.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
I'd say that they are sane
...when viewed through the proper lens. One that operates in the real world.
The Democratic Party is controlled by the targeted donations of the .1 percent. The American plutocrats. Their job is to improve corporate profits via political influence.
The Democratic Party generates members and votes by inventing domestic issues to sponsor. But the votes they receive in national elections are used to influence corporate profits. Little meaningful progress is made in domestic issues, by design. Thus, Democrats fight the same social battles over and over again, and their lives do not improve.
I'd say the Democratic Party is working perfectly.
Sanity, sanity, wherefore art thou?
Hillary will win the nomination because outside of Tulsi, the rest are lightweights--now including Bernie. Bernie has good ideas but he is no longer The Messenger. His feet are as of clay. He is an invertebrate, whose cartilagenous spine has become too supple to resist the oncoming vicissitudes of a bitter campaign battle. Right now, if you can believe the polls, which I don't, he trails Creepy China Joe by plus or minus 20 points. Is Bernie still drawing the immense crowds which followed in 2016. Sizeable yes, but not the same. Not as excited except for a small cadre of die-hard Bernie enthusiasts. I once was one of them, button longer.
Your comment about membership in the CFR is important and in fact, may give her an advantage, behind the scenes of campaign showmanship. Tulsi is most definitely an outsider xdespite CFR and D party membership. She is the only one to go her own way, overstepping "boundaries" that the 22 other Dem Klowns are so careful to observe. She's forthright, willing to say unpopular things.
But she'll not get the nomination because Clintonians will steal it from her. DWS is still in a position of power. The DNC game has not changed--in fact many of the players have not changed either.
The lines are drawn.
We shall see.
Thanks for the interesting essay. Always a pleasure.
Don't really share your admiration for Gowdy.
I thought HRC made him look like a blithering idiot.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
HRC made Gowdy look bad only because she lied, lied, lied
Optics would not have even slightly favorable to HRC if Gowdy had known about the email server, Sid Blumenthal involvement, and her callous disregard for security in Benghazi--but then again HRC didn't want to call attention to her gun running scheme to Syria and other hot spots.
Besides Gowdy looked bad only because Killary stonewalled every question.
Gowdy looked bad because he said stupid things, and HRC
was able -- because whatever else she might or might not be, she is wicked good at thinking on her feet, when she's well prepared -- to point out that he was saying stupid things.
HRC may be the victim of her own hubris, but she's never been actually stupid. Gowdy struck me as quite remarkably dim -- or at least, substantially dimmer than HRC, and disadvantaged by his own smug and utterly unwarranted hubris. I'd have a hell of a time winning an argument with HRC about anything where she was knowledgeable. I believe I could shred Gowdy and toss him to the wind, arguing about whether he quite knew what his own favorite color was.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
the
pinhead known as Shit Howdy is a dunce who reached his zenith demanding the death penalty for retarded people.
And it's the gods' truth
...the top of his head comes to a perfect point.
That's gotta mean something.
Definitely not a good move
but it was matched by Bubba relishing the frying of a literal imbecile--leaving Little Rock to view the festivities.
Bill's voyeurism at the death scene
Definitely not a good move
but it was matched by Bubba relishing the frying of a literal imbecile--leaving Little Rock to view the festivities.
Bill's voyeurism at the death scene
[Edited] AE, didn't see Gowdy question FSC
or, HRC, but, saw him take the hide off of an Obama Administration official.
Her name is Marilyn Tavenner. She oversaw the fiasco of the ACA rollout--the website crash, etc.
Here's a link to her Wikipedia bio, so folks can read about her.
At any rate, Ms Tavenner literally resigned her post the following day--"to spend time with her Family!"
Naturally, this is not mentioned in her Wiki entry. I read it in mainstream media. But, no doubt that she lost all credibility, after he exposed her incompetence, and, maybe lies.
Frankly, I don't know enough about the background of the ACA website launch fiasco, to make a judgment regarding her part overseeing it. I'll leave that up to others.
BTW, at the time, I had no idea who Gowdy was. And, today, can't say that I'm exactly a fan of his. But, credit where credit is due--that day, he was on his game.
Phew! Mr M and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But, we definitely felt sorry for the woman. He flat-out excoriated Tavenner. Later, I Googled, and found out that he's had a cameo role, playing himself on "America's Most Wanted." IOW, he's prosecuted, and won, a very high profile case involving Mark J Allen - who robbed post offices and a Waffle House, carjacked, etc. (while a Federal prosecutor in South Carolina).
[Edited - Added Link To Mark J Allen Piece]
Allen gets more time added to sentence Convicted post office robber found guilty of carjacking
Now, Ms Tavenner's background is in nursing. And, we know that FSC is an attorney. That may be one difference, if she fared much better. Dunno.
Mollie
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.