Gabbard Sells Out on FISA

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/15/patrick-lawrence-the-predictable-capitulation-of-tulsi-gabbard/

Gabbard was one of those interesting people that captured a lot of attention from the Left and within Alternative Media circles for her opposition to the war in Syria and her general scepticism regarding US foreign policy at the time. It was the second or late phase of the War on Terror - the fallout from the Arab Spring, the campaigns in Syria and Libya, and the war against ISIS. She was a backer of Bernie Sanders and generally speaking had become a pariah to the DNC Establishment. The GOP viewed her as something akin to a traitor.

As a military officer she has retained a degree of credibility regarding her scepticism of US policy and the increasing threats posed by the warfare state at home.

But then something happened. She shifted over to the Trump camp and embraced many of its narratives about immigration and the Deep State - which is real to be sure, but something other than what is presented in the Alex Jones/QAnon/Trumpite orbit.

Not a few eyebrows were raised (including mine) when she was tapped to be Trump's Director of National Intelligence (DNI) - the intelligence czar position created by Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. To many on the Left, it was a position antithetical to the stances she had been taking all along - that is unless she planned to dismantle the system. Apart from being a conceptual impossibility such an endeavour would carry significant personal risks.

To the Establishment, the idea of Gabbard in such a position of authority is repugnant as she is unqualified, unhinged, and potentially disloyal.

And so her sudden reversal sort of makes sense. It would seem she's capitulated and is willing to accept the paradigms and protocols of the Empire when it comes to the world of intelligence gathering and covert operations. The powers of warrantless surveillance are anti-democratic and anti-constitutional and so by agreeing to abide by this system and help administrate it she's completely reversed her previous position. She has sold out.

Does she have stars in her eyes? Is she intoxicated by the prospect of such power? Is she crossing her fingers? Has she convinced herself that by playing the game she can work for good and expose and dismantle many of the functions of the shadow state?

Patrick Lawrence accurately states:

"The imperial seat either eats you alive, it sends you home, or you leave of your own volition with your principles intact. Gabbard seemed to be one of these last for a time; now she is in the first category."

I was additionally struck by his comments regarding the Left:

"Where is the left in all of this?

As the Gabbard surrender reminds me, there is not a single voice of any consequence that can be called anti-imperial — how anachronistic a term is this? — or speaks seriously of the kind of radical domestic transformation that is all America has time for at this late hour.

I do not mean the authentic left, I should add. The left worthy of the name succumbed long ago to suppression operations, post–Vietnam propaganda, and death by fratricide. Lately there are the subversions of the identitarian juveniles.

I mean “the left” in quotation marks, what passes for the left in the American context. Gene McCarthy, any of the Kennedys, McGovern: Not even these kinds of figures can survive in Washington now, where the only party, as the late Steve Cohen used to say, is the War Party."

He's right of course - or should I say 'correct'? The Left hardly even exists at this point. The Identity Politics that dominates the 'Left' doesn't even historically qualify as Left-wing in its motivations. More often than not these actors simply want their piece of the pie or better yet to be granted the reins of power. They are the result of decadent Capitalist individualism run amok and gone to seed. Their critiques almost never strike at the heart of the imperial system - the real source of injustice and global oppression. The same is true of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and so many on the so-called 'left'.

As far as Gabbard, she's certainly tacked to the Right and increased her chances of confirmation. The funny thing is I'm reminded of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and how it was claimed that she was so radical and Left-wing. Many of us knew better and have been vindicated. She sold out and moved solidly to the center, within the confines of the DNC Establishment - and even admits it. It seems pretty clear she'd like to take a leading position. Her 'selling out' was no great surprise. Gabbard's defection is far more of one, but she's hardly the first to do so. The fact that she would serve in a Trump administration at all demonstrates she has no principles, no ethics, and not even a shred of self-respect or dignity.