I wrote,
I have an old friend in Hawaii, diehard 'liberal' all his life, who's dead set against Gabbard, and I need to write him for details about why
And the reply came:
Tulsi does have some good positions on foreign entanglements, but
she has been not so progressive on social issues like gay rights and abortion rights.
She has also been wobbly on gun control in Hawaii. (A lot of us here, even most gun owners, in Hawaii vehemently oppose allowing carry permits in Hawaii)
None of this is really surprising, given that her father has been a perrenial, Republican pest in the state legislature for years. He's one of the reason's Hawaii didn't become the first state in the union to allow gay marriage.
I think that the main reason Tulsi is a Democrat, is that she knows that if she ran as a Republican for Congress, she'd face a stiff fight in blue Hawaii.
Quite a few center right types have done that in the state legislature.
She would of course still be infinitely better than Trump, but as Democrats, I think we can do better.
This is a little softer than "dead set against," as I characterized his earlier remarks. He's for Bernie and would rather not settle for less.
My debate notes (heh I took some) merely quotes Gabbard: "'...take your taxpayer dollars and invest them..." which, along with her 'disinterest' in a JG, reflects the usual misunderstanding of the role of money in fiscal policy. (Bernie seamlessly deflected the "pay for it" question. I was a little disappointed but his larger point---"we are going to DO IT!"—drew applause.)
edit: should add, I did not hear all of the debates tonight (glitchy NBC steam on YouTube).