Tulsi Gabbard announces White House run; first Hindu to aim for presidency

[Stradlater]

WASHINGTON: Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard pipped Senator Kamala Harris in announcing she will run for the White House in 2020 in what is expected to be an expansive Democratic field of up to a dozen aspirants who will compete for the party nomination to take on Republican incumbent Donald Trump.

“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week," Gabbard said in what appeared to be a carefully choreographed interview on CNN’s Van Jones Show over the weekend. She will be the first Hindu-American to run for the White House, and should she win the party nomination and eventually emerge victorious in the tortuous race to the White House – a long shot by most accounts – she could become the first non-Christian, and indeed first Hindu President of the United States.

Gabbard, 37, is the first significant candidate to plunge into a field that has two other prominent women casing the ground. California Senator Kamala Harris, who is of Indian-African-American heritage, is weighing a run with a memoir and travels in primary territory. Also in the hunt is Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has been scouting the ground in Iowa, which typically is the first state to hold primaries.

A dozen other aspirants have expressed interest in running – among them, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, former vice-president Joe Biden, Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Eric Swalwell, Senators Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Bob Casey, and governors Steve Bullock and Terry McAuliffe.

At least one former Hillary Clinton aide has said she may give it another shot in 2020 and some Bernie Sanders supporters want him to also give it another try.

A fourth-term lawmaker from Hawaii, Gabbard, along with newer first-time Representatives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex and Rashiada Tlaib, is among the new set of Democrat insurgents who are challenging the traditional power structure in the Party with their radical leftist approach.

Gabbard, who served in the US military herself and is an Iraq War veteran, stunned her party and the Washington establishment in 2017 when she made an independent trip to Syria and met the country’s leader Bashar al-Assad, who the US regards as a sworn enemy.

"There are a lot of reasons for me to make this decision. There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I'm concerned about and that I want to help solve," she said about her White House bid. "There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace.

Her views are already attracting an army of trolls on social media who regard her as an outlier.

“Assad’s favorite Democrat is Running for President,” read a headline in a far-right publication, while another critic characterized her as a “next-level politician,” saying “Any amateur can be a traditional US racist politician, but it takes skill to succeed in America as a Hindu-nationalist racist/tankie Assad apologist.”

Such attacks have never bothered the Hawaii Representative who hasn’t been afraid to take on her own party establishment –including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- and its stranglehold on the nomination process.

 

Born in American Samoa in 1981 to Carol and Mike Gabbard, she is the fourth of five children, all brought up in the Brahma Madhwa Gaudiya Sampradaya that her mother embraced following her introduction to the Krishna movement. She named her five children Bhakti, Jai, Aryan, Tulsi, and Vrindavan.

 

After taking oath of office in 2013 on the Bhagavad Gita – a first in the US Congress -- Gabbard said her practice of Hinduism awakens the karma yogi in her, motivating her to serve others without thinking about rewards.

 

''The Gita has been a tremendous source of inner peace and strength for me through many tough challenges in life, including being in the midst of death and turmoil while serving our country in the Middle East,'' she explained. ''Its teachings have inspire

 

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[Stradlater]

Time to rope her in for next RSS chief 

[MechEng]

Why should religious identity matter in any elections? Especially America which prides itself on meritocracy.

[Gollum]

Now watch libtards lose their collective sh!t.

 

 

Edited January 12, 2019 by Gollum

[Stradlater]

3 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Now watch libtards lose their collective sh!t.

 

 

They are already on it blaming her for allying with Assad and being a Warmonger.

[UrmiSinhaRay]

Lol Trump will have a face off with that Elizabeth Warren and then trump will win .
Loool

Sent from my CPH1609 using Tapatalk

[Vijy]

1 hour ago, UrmiSinhaRay said:

Lol Trump will have a face off with that Elizabeth Warren and then trump will win .
Loool

Sent from my CPH1609 using Tapatalk
 

I don't know for sure if trump will be around then. warren is a likely candidate to emerge out of the democrat primaries.

[Alam_dar]

I like her. She has humanity in her and that is the most important thing for me. 

[JourneyMan]

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are the only democrats who can definitely beat Trump. I don't know if either will run but anyone else has a 50-50 chance at best

[Alam_dar]

Her stance regarding Syria was also correct, and even Trump and CIA now decided that Assad should stay for peaceful Syria as compared to the Muslim Jihadists. 

 

Her Stance regarding SISI is difficult one, but again seems to be Ok to me. 

 

Her friendship with RSS is certainly going to hurt her Secular Democratic Image. Sooner she gets rid of RSS, better would be for her. She should be able to see that RSS are fanatics. And such fanatics could only be friend to other fanatics. For example, RSS members in US are great admirers of Trump. 

 

Therefore, it would be my first wish that she get's rid of RSS members in US, and start winning the hearts of the real secular democratic Indians in US, who also support the Democratic party or at least oppose Trump. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2019 by Alam_dar

[Stradlater]

11 minutes ago, Alam_dar said:

Her stance regarding Syria was also correct, and even Trump and CIA now decided that Assad should stay for peaceful Syria as compared to the Muslim Jihadists. 

 

Her Stance regarding SISI is difficult one, but again seems to be Ok to me. 

 

Her friendship with RSS is certainly going to hurt her Secular Democratic Image. Sooner she gets rid of RSS, better would be for her. She should be able to see that RSS are fanatics. And such fanatics could only be friend to other fanatics. For example, RSS members in US are great admirers of Trump. 

 

Therefore, it would be my first wish that she get's rid of RSS members in US, and start winning the hearts of the real secular democratic Indians in US, who also support the Democratic party or at least oppose Trump. 

 

 

 

 

 

Her friendship with RSS? What the * are you even talking about. She ain't even an Indian ffs.

[Alam_dar]

On 1/13/2019 at 3:05 PM, Stradlater said:

Her friendship with RSS? What the * are you even talking about. She ain't even an Indian ffs.

I read it in an article that RSS/BJP members residing in US donated her a lot of money for her campaign. 

But now problem is this that these same people and their organisation is supporting Trump. 

 

In fact, article wrote that Tulsi is well aware of this problem and want to get rid of these RSS/BJP people and thus she refused to attend one their latest gatherings as chief guest.