“Ladies and Gentlemen, The President of the United States Is Pregnant”

 by Mary W Maxwell

At the moment I do not see how Tulsi Gabbard, age 38, a newly-wed, can fail to become the next president of the US.  Mr Trump can try all he wants, but 320 million people are bound to fall for Tulsi. So far she has made only a small but effective showing in a “Democrat debate.”

I misled you by saying “pregnant” in the title above. She is not pregnant, but she is now  — officially — a candidate for the big job.

Readers will recall that Tulsi is the “servant leader” who both serves and leads in the US House of Reps for the 50^th state, Hawaii. We have already sung her praises for introducing the boldly-entitled bill “Stop Arming the Terrorists Act.”

The fact that she is a soldier (a lieutenant from the National Guard) who has had two “deployments” in the Middle East means that no one can call her a softy for trying to curtail war.  Furthermore, her military life is the ticket to her appeal to the male population of the US today. I do not see any chance of her NOT wining the 2020 election.

At the moment she is an announced Democrat candidate but I wish she would re-file as an Independent. Or a Green (she is extremely green), or as The Surfers Party.  Yes, she surfs and you have got to see this president in a wetsuit, Folks.  “They don’t make presidents like that anymore.”

A Brain

She has a brain. Fancy that. She can think things through. Name me a president who could think, who had balance, who had humanity. I give you for your inspection, the last five: Obama, “W,” Bill Clinton, Poppy, Ronnie.  See what I mean?

Here is an example of her forthrightness.  The other day in Concord I attended a birthday party for Julian Assange (age 48). The band of nice New Hampshire folk who put the event together were pleased to relate that Tulsi had been asked by one of them for her opinion on Assange. She said she did not know and would get back to him — and then she did get right back to him, with the proper freedom-of-speech attitude.

She also has a plank in her platform for the Second Amendment. I wonder if she packs. I wonder if she is deep down a Republican. She did walk out of the job of Vice Chairman of the DNC, owing to their backroom tactics.

There Was a Deal in 2008

Speaking of which, I have told the Hillary 2008 story before but I’ll tell it again. During the presidential run I was stationed in NH (as well as in Adelaide, don’t ask me how). All candidates come to Concord to make their debut, as NH holds the first primary. Hopefuls also try to make a good showing in Iowa where the first caucus is held.

Being a Repub I did not attend any of Hillary’s functions in 2008 but was aware that she would win the Democratic nomination in NH at the February primary.  Everybody was crazy about her and the Concord Monitor assumed she was the only game in town.

But in the morn after the vote, they counted it all up and announced that Obama had won. (Mind you, a win at this stage is only of symbolic value. The person has to win nationwide, later that year, and the donkey has to win against the elephant in November.)

I am sure it was rigged. I believe an accurate vote count could only have come up with the name Hillary. Nonetheless she did not protest. Why?  OK the rest of this is my guess. I am speculating that she did a deal whereby Obama could have the White House for 8 years and then hand it over to her.

And my speculation is not far-fetched.

Comes the Democratic Convention, around August, at which the party decides who goes where on the ballot. The convention is major entertainment. Anyone remember the riots outside the 1968 Dem Con in Chicago? In the hall there is screaming and balloon-launching and confetti throwing (or shredded document throwing or whatever).

The Barbecue

Each state’s delegate foreman calls out its choice. I can remember being at my uncle’s barbecue in “Fifty-six” with a radio playing in the background calling out the votes. (Nobody had TV, of course.)

Before you diagnose me with False Memory Syndrome, let me explain.  The reason I recall the barbecue is that my uncle, who had a great sense of humor, was passing the hotdogs around the table saying “Idaho passes, Louisiana passes” just as the radio was saying that.  It became a family joke forever.

To “pass” means the state was not ready to yell out its vote at the Convention.  I don’t recall if the convention we were listening to that day was the Repub with Ike as the candidate or the Dem, with Adlai Stevenson.

As a 9-year-old what would I care? Anyway, in those days Americans seemed to take an interest in both sides. The warring of the parties is recent. As is the Westminister-ization of Capitol Hill.

Probably my Dad, a Democrat, voted for Eisenhower on the basis of his uniform. Also, Ike had already been in office for 4 years and presidents in those days were fatherly. You had to have a good reason to sack one. FDR was so fatherly he got elected in 1932, 26, 40, and 44.  Or else he controlled the polling booth. Whichever.

The 2008 Convention

Back to my story of 2008. Nancy Pelosi and Hillary were both in charge of the convention. Hillary had already been a New York senator by then.  (It is my belief that the point of the Monica Lewinsky caper – if it happened at all – was to raise the First Lady to a position in politics.)

So they call for the states’ votes alphabetically. Alabama first, Alaska second, etc.  Obama was doing OK but Clinton was ahead. The C’s meant California number would soon be revealed. California has a huge population and Hillary absolutely had the delegates for California.

She would have drowned Obama out. States further down the alphabet may have got bandwagon-y and changed from Obama to Clinton. Not in the plan, Stan!  So Pelosi said “California will pass for now.”   Indeed that state withheld its announcement till much later.

Of course I may be wrong in my interpretation.  And it may be that she wanted the Foreign Affairs portfolio in preference to the White House that she had already lived in as a domestic.  Obama indeed made her Secretary of state, just like that. Was she grilled hard at the confirmation hearing?  Of course not.  You don’t come down hard on a jilted wifey.

Note that political parties do not have to be “legal” in their behavior. A party is a private club.  Nobody’s watching. Tulsi had better watch out in 2020.  Oh and there’s the Electoral College.  She should start talking about that now.

Tulsi’s Current Campaign

She won’t have trouble educating people. Maybe her first job should be to spread the word that the smearers will soon be out in force and should be laughed at.

Here is Rep Gabbard’s latest email:

Friend —

This July 4th, let’s take patriotism back.

Since 9/11, I’ve watched as patriotism was used as an excuse for disastrous regime change wars and surveillance of the American people, as a euphemism for bigotry, and as a cover for McCarthyist hysteria and the lead up to a new Cold War and nuclear arms race.

But that’s not what patriotism is, and it infuriates me to see it abused. Patriotism is the reason I and so many of my fellow service members put our lives on the line to defend our country. Patriotism is not about symbols or fake outrage. It’s about love – real, active love.

So let me tell you why I love my country. 

I love our land – our forests and mountains, our rivers rolling through vast wilderness, our canyons, deserts, swamp lands and prairies – the places that have formed us in all their disparate beauty.

I love our people — drawn from every corner of the planet, every creed and every color, pulled by a promise of a better life, a new beginning, a recognition that we are all equal in the eyes of God. 

I love our heritage – the tradition of representative democracy embodied in our indigenous communities that served as a model for our first Congress, those who fought to defeat the institution of slavery as former slaves, abolitionists and soldiers, the strength of our movements for women’s suffrage, labor rights, civil rights and environmental justice.

Most of all, I love our freedom. The freedom endowed by our creator. The freedom that is enshrined in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. The freedom we fight to protect:

• Freedom of speech and of the press
• Freedom of religion
• The right to bear arms
• Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure
• The right to a fair and public trial
• Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment

It’s easy to take our freedoms for granted until they get taken away. Until you see women who are not free to move outside of their own homes without a male chaperone. Until you see children who are not free to play without the threat of land mines in their backyard. Until you see people who are not free to worship, not free to speak and publish the truth, not free to love who they love, without the threat of imprisonment.

Freedom is a real and precious thing. It is alive – in our streets, in our schools, in our houses of worship, and we must protect it. We must protect our freedom from those who seek to remove it through the violence of terrorism. We must protect our freedom from the quiet violence of surveillance and censorship. And we must protect this freedom within our own hearts and minds, our families and communities.

So this July 4th, let’s celebrate by remembering why we love our country, and commit to standing up to protect our freedoms — to live, think, worship and love in peace.

With aloha,

Tulsi