While we're cleaning house, it's time for Tulsi Gabbard to resign.

[OilemFirchen]

If the standard by which an elected official keeps their job includes past harmful actions or statements, then Rep. Gabbard must be held to that same standard.

In a 1992 interview, she stated that “Homosexuality is not normal, not healthy, morally and scripturally wrong,”

She worked for her father's organization - The Alliance for Traditional Marriage - which supported the use of “conversion therapy” to try to turn kids straight.

She once blasted “homosexual activists” for trying to “force their values down the throats of the children in our schools.”

During her successful run for the Hawaii Legislature in 2002 she vowed to pass a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage.

All of the above is cribbed from here: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/16/18182114/tulsi-gabbard-2020-president-campaign-explained

She did great harm to the LGBTQ community and, despite her recent mea culpas, must be held to account for her past behavior.

Please, let's be consistent in our demands.

[guillaumeb]

1. Indeed.

And in a similar vein,

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211785465

[OilemFirchen]

2. I'm done fighting the neo-Puritans.

If there is to be a purge, then it must include every transgressor, and the punishment must be consistent.

If not, they should shut the fuck up already.

[Cha]

7. Exactly, Oilem.. No Double Standards.

[SunSeeker]

32. Agreed. nt

[msongs]

3. gabbard did not just voice personal opinions she actively promoted anti gay

polices.

[kwolf68]

4. Hmm

Is it possible people change? She has apologized. So we take a strong, unique voice from the Democratic side and lets just get rid of it? I don't get it.

What is she NOW doing on behalf of the gay community?

Her 0% voting record from the Family Research Council would tell me that she's advocating quite well for their position.

She has 92%-100% from the Human Rights campaign and also enjoys a 100% voting record from Americans for Separation of Church and State telling me she has certainly been enlightened on this issue.

Were people calling for Bob Byrd to resign despite the fact he is a KKK Grand Wizard? No, Democrats accepted his apology and decided how to proceed with him based on HOW he actually voted and what he did for the American people. People grow, they learn. Gabbard's dumbass statements in an interview from 19-freaking-92 pales in comparison to actual policy she now supports ON BEHALF of the gay community, votes / support that are ANYTHING but "great harm".

Her voting record is STRONGLY Liberal on issues of social liberalism.

[OilemFirchen]

8. Sorry, the bar has been set.

It doesn't matter what one is doing now. What's past is prologue.

[stopbush]

12. Not a strong or unique voice in the D Party.

Got any other bromides?

[LongtimeAZDem]

13. Those same arguments were rejected regarding Northam.

[Cha]

18. I know.. and I think Gabbard's past Against

LGBT community is just as bad as Gov Northam's racist idiocy.

[DBoon]

30. More so

These are statements of her political positions, which are directly relevant to her job as a politician

I have not heard any arguments that Northam's blackface has had an impact on his current political actions.

[SunSeeker]

33. Good point. nt

[Cha]

39. Yes, it was!

[Cha]

36. I think you're right about that.. it was

just hurtful to see that Blackface and KKK sheet for many people, and I didn't want to take away from that.

But, you're right

[Rustyeye77]

5. Time for her to go

[kwolf68]

6. Maybe the people of Hawaii should decide that

She will face the voters in 2020, it's their decision if she needs "to go"

[bitterross]

14. Then that should be the same for Northam, etc.

Same standard should apply.

[jmowreader]

27. In Northam's case, it can't

No one can be governor of Virginia for more than one term.

[bahrbearian]

9. With 100% rating by HRW I don't think so,

The people who should resign are the ones that vote for war and arms sales.

[OilemFirchen]

10. The HRC endorsed Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring.

What's your point?

[former9thward]

28. That is nearly 100% of Congress.

Please tell me who has not voted for either one.

[pnwmom]

38. That is just one group. The LGBT Hawaiian caucus didn't endorse her,

at least in part because she refused to help them pass marriage equality in 2013. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz did help them.

[bitterross]

11. As a gay man I agree.

Since it seems our collective standard is punish every person who had misdeeds then Gabbard must go.

[ZeroSomeBrains]

15. I'm certainly not supportive of her Presidential campaign

As for resigning from Congress. I would be fine with that. Her anti-gay positions were reprehensible and you didn't even bring up her positions on torture and supporting Assad in Syria. I would say she has a lot more to apologize for than say Elizabeth Warren.

[OilemFirchen]

20. Policy differences, I think, aren't relevant to this discussion.

As I stated, she did harm to the LGBTQ community. Certainly more so than a young Republican dressing in blackface at a private function.

I'm not drawing any false equivalencies, however. If one is reprehensible, all are reprehensible. Either we forgive and forget or bring out the long knives. Scanning this site in the past few days, it would appear that that decision is being made for us. So be it.

[Cha]

16. From Vox.. Gabbard is suppose to be the "peace candidate"..

Link to tweet

Seems to favor putin over President Obama..

Link to tweet

In January 2017, she traveled to Syria and met with Assad personally, blindsiding the Democratic leadership in Congress. After returning to the US, she went on CNN and parroted the regime’s line that there was “no difference” between the mainstream anti-Assad rebels and ISIS.

By this point, Democratic leadership considered her disloyal. “Rep. Gabbard loses me and, I think, many others when she claims to support peaceful values and policies that protect civilians and still engages with and even defends a murderous dictator, Bashar al-Assad,” Loren DeJonge Schulman, a senior NSC official in the Obama administration, told me. “There is no excuse for this. The hypocrisy of these actions is astonishing. One can be antiwar without being pro-murderous dictator, a fact that seems obvious.”

When Assad’s forces used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians in April 2017, Gabbard said she was “skeptical” that Assad was responsible, aligning herself with conspiracy theorists against both US intelligence and the overwhelming majority of independent experts.

Mahalo for this, Oilem.. one of the best comprehensive articles on Gabbard I've seen. If not the best.

[SunSeeker]

34. Is she your rep, Cha?

[brooklynite]

17. Question: when did she change her position? And when did she acknowledge her change?

[OilemFirchen]

21. What difference does it make?

Have you lost the script?

[pnwmom]

40. As recently as 2013 she refused to help the LGBT caucus pass Hawaii's marriage equality law

on the spurious basis that it was a state, not federal, issue.

By contrast, Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz DID help.

And in 2015, in an interview, she said that she had changed her political position on LGBT as a result of her military experience, but she hadn't changed her personal view.

[theboss]

19. Her stuff falls more into repugnant policy positions

I disagree with her on a million things, but she keeps getting elected with a D by her name.

Find an example of her gay-bashing and I'm in.

[OilemFirchen]

22. I provided quite a few in my OP.

Nothing stopping you from reading it again.

[OilemFirchen]

24. ... not normal, not healthy...

You've made it clear that "you don't like rapists and racists". Homophobes though? Meh, not so much.

[theboss]

25. I don't like homophobes either, but she's pretty fucking open about it

And keeps winning.

If Northam had said, I wore blackface, and then won the governorship, I would be in favor of him completing his term. Elections have consequences, and I believe in that.

What I don't like is discovering horrible shit about people after they were elected.

The best defense of Ted Kennedy post-Chappaquidick was simply, The voters have had their say repeatedly.

Admittedly, it's not a great defense, but like everyone else, I'm making this up as I go, because everyone apparently sucks.

[Blue_true]

26. Whao Captain "general beliefs"?

I happen to believe that LGBTQ people were meant to be LGBTQ and they are no less legitimate than I am. So, I have a belief that drives what policies I want to see enacted into law. I think that the vast majority of democrats agree with my "general belief" and have some say as to whether Gabbard is suitable as a Democratic Party nominee.

[theboss]

44. I agree with you. I wouldn't vote for her

But I feel like she gets the same pass that asshole steve king gets.

If the voters know that you are an awful person - and keep voting for you - it changes the discussion.

It Beto had won, I wouldn’t demand he resign over the DUIs.

[ChubbyStar]

47. That would be DUI as in one

One DUI in 1998, not DUIs. I'm sure you knew that but just made it plural DUIs as a mistake.

[watoos]

29. Give me the name of one of our candidates,

I can find something he or she said or did that is harmful. C'mon everyone let's play the game called eating our own.

The only way we lose in 2020 is if we fight among ourselves.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. I never liked her.

[Mr.Bill]

35. It's time to stop any resigning

until a long list of republicans resign, starting with Trump.

[Liberty Belle]

42. Bingo, exactly.

The person's voting record and recent actions are the most relevant thing. As long as they have been voting in line with Democratic party principals, we should forgive past transgressions. If we allow Republicans to convince us to throw out everyone with any skeleton in their closet, They are likely to be replaced by Republicans in some places and we could lose some people with decades of good service standing up for the rights of minorities, gays, women, etc.

There are MANY people whose views have evolved on these issues includiing Barack Obama. If anyone who ever opposed or had concerns about gay marriages was forced to resign, he would not have finished his term. Yet he did much to advance civil rights for LGTB people.

Particularly when a transgression was merely someone posing for a photo in high school or college, decades ago, that should not be the sole defining moment of their career. If voters really don't like it, they can vote them out next election.

Resigning also forces a high financial burden on taxpayers to fund a special election, so should be limited only to severe voilations committed while the person is in office, unless it's an actual crime for which they can be removed from office.

[yaesu]

37. We need every Democrat we have in office, the good, the bad & the ugly

I will not, in any way, shape or form call for a fellow Democrat to resign. Nobody is perfect, and some have made big mistakes but if we are going to keep the fascists from completely destroying this country we need unity now, not division. I'm including independents that vote with Dems also, we need them all.

[George II]

41. If she doesn't resign, she should at least change her party affiliation - then Hawaiian Democrats...

....can vote her out next year.

What's mind boggling is that, with her history and policy positions, she's trying to become OUR nominee for president next year.

[Texin]

43. Totally concur.

[watoos]

45. Trump would love this thread.

[OilemFirchen]

46. Bet you're getting a kick out of it too.

Just a hunch.