I can't stand this indecision

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October 25, 2019

Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii after the presidential debate on July 31.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

By Jamelle Bouie

Opinion Columnist

I haven't been writing much about the Democratic primary, but I have been paying attention to it. And I want to try to answer a particular question about the events of the past week.

What is the deal with Tulsi Gabbard?

The representative from Hawaii has feuded with Hillary Clinton, backtracked on her support for impeachment and attacked the Democratic Party as a repeated guest on Fox News. To the extent that she's distinguished herself in American politics, it's for her antiwar views. After the 2016 election, she spoke seriously with then-presidential adviser Stephen Bannon about joining the Trump administration. As of this writing, she's not running for re-election in Hawaii and is reportedly mulling a third-party campaign in the fall that — like Jill Stein's in 2016 — could undermine the Democratic effort against Trump.

So, again, what's her deal?

One argument — the one that dominated her dispute with Clinton — is that Gabbard is an "asset" of the Russian government.

I think that's off-base. Yes, Gabbard's foreign policy views are in line with Russia's current geopolitical strategy, but that's not enough evidence to say she's actively working to advance Vladimir Putin's interests.

The key to understanding Gabbard, I think, is to understand her views toward Islam. For her, "Islamic extremism" is one of the principal threats to the United States. In 2016, she told an interviewer that "when it comes to the war against terrorists, I'm a hawk. When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I'm a dove."

She's so single-mindedly focused on the threat of "radical Islam" that she has repeatedly lent her support to authoritarians who justify their actions in the name of counterterrorism. At various points over the past five years, she has endorsed or shown support for Narendra Modi of India, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, all of whom are responsible for brutal violence against their Muslim citizens.

"President el-Sisi has shown great courage and leadership in taking on this extreme Islamist ideology," said Gabbard in 2015, praising a man responsible for the mass killing of Muslim protesters. In 2017, likewise, she met with al-Assad and dismissed his opposition as "terrorists."

Seen in this light, her politics makes sense. She's willing to support anyone who claims to oppose "radical Islam." And Trump, notably, claims to oppose "radical Islam." As a Democrat, she may not have the political space to be openly pro-Trump, but she can be anti-anti-Trump, assisting him against the impeachment inquiry and providing additional political cover by running a third-party campaign and siphoning votes from the Democratic nominee.

And it could work! Trump's 2016 victory depended on a tarnished opponent and a fractured opposition. He is already working on the first, and Gabbard may be on her way to providing the second.

What I Wrote

I had a few words about Bernie Sanders's big rally in New York last weekend.

In his epilogue, Salvatore notes how for many Americans of the era, [Eugene] Debs "symbolized his generation's protest against industrial capitalism. His personal qualities assumed political importance and his agitation touched the hearts and affected the lives of real people." Bernie Sanders has done something similar. His campaigns have given a generation of people a language and framework for understanding the political, economic and ecological threats to American democracy, as well as articulating an alternative vision for the country.

And I wrote about Donald Trump's decision to compare impeachment to a "lynching" and Lindsey Graham's decision to agree.

No, Graham did not live through this era. But his parents did, and the violence of that period marks the place he calls home. It marks the entire region and state. As a lawmaker who represents that state — who represents families and communities upended by racial terrorism past and present — Graham has a particular responsibility to that history. He owes his constituents a degree of sensitivity, an awareness of the weight of a word like "lynching."

Oh, and I'll be on CBS's "Face the Nation" this Sunday if you want to tune in.

Now Reading

Katherine Miller on the 2010s as the decade that changed the rhythms of American life, in BuzzFeed.

Caleb Gayle on the "most incarcerated" ZIP code in the country, in The New Republic.

Francis Wilkinson on the state of play in Wisconsin in Bloomberg.

Judith Butler on Donald Trump in the London Review of Books.

Glenna Gordon on the American women of the far right in The New York Review of Books.

Feedback

If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to friends. They can sign up here. If you want to share your thoughts on an item in this week's newsletter or on the newsletter in general, please email me at jamelle-newsletter@nytimes.com.

Photo of the Week

An abandoned hotel in Oklahoma.Jamelle Bouie

A while back I went to Oklahoma to photograph some old towns. Here is a building from one of them, a hotel built in the 1910s and long-since abandoned. I was aiming for a certain amount of symmetry in the frame, and I think I captured it. This photo was taken on Kodak sheet film using a view camera.

Now Eating: Chickpea Stew With Orzo and Mustard Greens

Trying to use The New York Times Cooking section as much as possible, so here is another recipe that, I assure you, is very good. Best advice I have is to cook dry chickpeas with aromatics and use that "stock" for the soup.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small fennel bulb or 2 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary (optional)
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (or water)
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
¾ cup roughly chopped cherry or grape tomatoes
½ cup whole-wheat or regular orzo
1 quart loosely packed baby mustard greens or spinach (about 5 ounces)
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Chopped scallions, for garnish (optional)
¼ cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, more as needed

Directions

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, fennel or celery, and onion. Cook until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic, red pepper and rosemary, if using, and cook another 2 minutes. Pour in the broth, if using, or water, plus an additional 2 cups water and bring to a boil.

Once the mixture is boiling, add the chickpeas, tomatoes and orzo. Reduce to a simmer and cover with a lid. Simmer 10 minutes, or until the orzo is tender. Uncover and stir in the greens, letting them simmer until soft, about 2 minutes.

Add more water if you want the mixture to be more souplike, and season with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls and top with chopped scallions (if desired), grated cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

IN THE TIMES