Tulsi Gabbard Will Remind Voters What a Democrat Foreign Policy Looks Like

As is often the case, the quasi-isolationist views of the “America First” wing of the GOP align with those of the left’s appeasement caucus.

By Noah Rothman in Commentary

The very definition of quixotic .

". . . On paper, Gabbard seems like a good fit for her party. The first Hindu to serve in Congress, a female combat veteran, and a progressive in good standing—she checks most of the boxes the next Democratic presidential nominee will need. But there will be a lot of progressive women and minorities running for the presidency next year, and most of them will be doing so with more political experience than Gabbard. What makes the congresswoman stand out from the field are her views on foreign affairs, and those views are no asset.

"Gabbard’s staunch opposition to American intervention abroad in combination with her fierce antipathy toward radical Islamist terrorism might seem on its face to fit squarely within the mainstream of the Democratic Party. The problem for Gabbard is that those two beliefs often manifest in overt support for some of the world’s most atrocious and bloody authoritarian regimes.

"Near the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, Gabbard sponsored legislation that would defund the covert American mission to support insurgent groups inside Syria to fight both the Bashar al-Assad regime and ISIS, insisting that these funds essentially support al-Qaeda and al-Nusra. She didn’t just dismiss the fact that both Damascus and Moscow have repeatedly made the same claim; she leaned into the unity of purpose between herself and the Assad-Putin nexus." . . .

. . . But [the appeasement] caucus has lost much of its influence over the Democratic Party in the age of Trump. Those on the left who could once be counted on to endorse a more humble and conciliatory approach to Russo-American relations have abandoned that perennial campaign plank, leaving Gabbard out on a limb. Maybe Gabbard thinks she can command the fealty of that forsaken Democratic constituency in a presidential campaign, and she might. But it’s more likely that Gabbard will stand as a painful reminder to voters about what Democratic stewardship of Russian-American relations and crises like the Syrian civil war looks like. That’s the last thing Democrats want.

Some Democrat foreign policy highlights: