OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and 2020 presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard posted a video to her Twitter account Friday evening describing what she believes is the “true danger” to the country.
“It is not the government’s job to shield us from information—no matter how ‘dangerous’ they claim it to be,” she said in her video. “The true danger is a nation of citizens who blindly follow and parrot government propaganda instead of looking for and courageously expressing the truth.”
It is not the government’s job to shield us from information—no matter how “dangerous” they claim it to be. The true danger is a nation of citizens who blindly follow and parrot government propaganda instead of looking for and courageously expressing the truth. pic.twitter.com/S8WEpu6E9a
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) April 16, 2022
It’s not clear what Gabbard was referring to, but the post comes on the heels of drama involving Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink founder and CEO Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter this week, an offer he made after becoming the company’s largest shareholder the previous week. He offered $54.20 per share in cash, which represented a 54 percent premium over the Jan. 28 closing price. Instead, Twitter’s board of directors voted unanimously to adopt a so-called “poison pill” plan that some outside observers believe is unethical to shareholders and possibly even illegal — just to keep Musk from buying the company. Musk has been critical of Twitter’s reported efforts to censor certain viewpoints and content as well as ban figures the platform deems controversial, including former President Donald Trump and other conservatives.
As for Gabbard, she has become an increasingly vocal critic of her own party as well as the Biden administration and President Biden himself.
In November, she accused her party of “tearing our country apart” during an interview with Fox News’ Neal Cavuto after he cited a survey showing that nearly half of Democrats said they didn’t want Biden to run again in 2024.
“I think that the American people, it’s clear as we saw in Virginia, it’s actually a positive sign that they’re rejecting the kind of divisiveness, the racialization of everything in this country, the fomenting of anger and hatred, that unfortunately, we’re seeing coming from so many of my fellow Democrats, and they’re standing up and saying, ‘Hey, we want to choose an optimistic future, a hopeful future, a future where we can live up to that dream of Martin Luther King about judging each other by our character, not by the color of our skin, respecting each other as fellow Americans and Democrats and Republicans actually coming together to work towards a shared goal, a shared objective of doing what is best for the American people and our country,’” Gabbard said, referencing big GOP wins in the Old Dominion state.
“That’s the direction that we need to head in. And I think the Virginia governor’s election was a positive indication of voters taking a stand and letting their voices be heard through the ballot box,” she added.
Cavuto then asked the Hawaii Democrat and Army National Guard officer about a Democrat strategist — James Carville, who first rose to prominence running Bill Clinton’s first campaign — saying that members of the party have a “wokeness” problem.
“It’s true, you know, when you have people in positions of power, who arrogantly believe that they’re not accountable to the people and who treat us like we’re stupid like they know better, they know best what’s good for us more than we know ourselves and all we got to do is blindly follow along and listen, it’s no wonder that people are rejecting that. If there is no respect for us, as individuals, as Americans coming from our leadership, then how could they expect that we the American people should offer any respect or trust towards them?” she said.
“You know, I’ve considered Joe Biden a friend for many years and I’ve been disheartened to see the direction that he’s taken in this administration, that is undermining the fundamental principles of our country that is actually tearing our country apart, rather than working to bring us together to find our way forward and have respectful dialogue, even as we may have disagreements or differences on different issues, but come together as Americans treating each other with respect,” she continued.
“And I think that’s, it’s something that makes me sad to be quite honest,” she noted further.
