During a brief window between blizzards, I dropped by Barley’s “back room” in Council Bluffs to meet Democrat Congresswoman (HI-6) and Presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard. She’s been tracking near the bottom of the polls I’ve been able to see, but she impressed me as a candidate. She’s a woman from a multicultural and multi-religious household, but she also served in the Iraq War in the National Guard, making her fairly unique as a Democrat candidate. Her brief stump speech seemed to focus on ending “regime change wars” overseas and she also said we were at the greatest risk of nuclear war in the world’s history (which I found a bit questionable).
What impressed me most was her apparent bipartisanship, writing a bill that was co-sponsored by Rand Paul and wanting to support issues regardless of the “R” and “D” after them. This was a refreshing change from other platforms that seem to begin and end with “Orange Man Bad.” I don’t agree with her on many issues, but I did stick around to tell her I appreciated her willingness to reach across the aisle. We need more of that.
(You can watch the event here and maybe get a glimpse of me!)
