The Washington Examiner’s Kimberly Ross has published an opinion piece cautioning right-leaning Americans not to assume that because former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has left the Democrat Party she is now a Republican or a conservative.
As Ross put it, “It’s a good thing Gabbard is rejecting many aspects of leftism. It also doesn’t make her a conservative leader.”
Background
This past week, Gabbard – who dropped out of the presidential race in 2020 and endorsed then-candidate Joe Biden – renounced her membership to the Democratic Party.
Gabbard did so in a video that she posted to YouTube. Gabbard also placed key points from the video in a Twitter thread.
She said:
I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.
Gabbard is right on the money here with a lot of what she says. She, in fact, says many things that right-leaning Americans would agree with.
So, the big question remains…
Is Gabbard now a conservative?
Gabbard has yet to answer that question one way or the other, although reports indicate that she now plans to campaign for Don Bolduc, a pro-Trump Republican U.S. Senate candidate from New Hampshire.
That being said, Ross, in her piece, argues that Americans ought not to jump to any conclusions.
Ross writes:
It’s far too easyfor people on the Right to embrace those who leave the Democratic Party. Defection isn’t easy, given our intense polarization.It is certainly admirable. However, not being a Democrat doesn’t make Gabbard, or anyone else, a Republican, conservative, or like-minded when it comes to the most pressing issues. That point is often overlooked when ideological enemies lose one of their own. That Gabbard rejects the progressive mentality fueling leftist culture wars is commendable. But conservatives must remain sober in their evaluation.
In the remainder of the article, Ross, among other things, provides readers with reasons why Americans might end up disappointed if they think that Gabbard is all of a sudden a conservative. Ross, here, points to Gabbard’s very low conservative rating on a number of issues. Ross then concludes, “Tulsi Gabbard is not a Democrat. Don’t confuse that as a synonym for conservatism.”
It’s an important point that needs to be made.