The Trouble With Tulsi, by John Hinderaker.

Tulsi Gabbard is the most interesting candidate in the Democratic presidential field, but that isn’t how her party sees her. Politico reports: “Democratic establishment reaches boiling point with Tulsi Gabbard.” The knives are out:

“Tulsi Gabbard trashed the Democratic Party as “not the party that is of, by and for the people,” accused Kamala Harris of trafficking in “lies and smears and innuendo” and attacked Pete Buttigieg as naive. …”

Hillary Clinton’s assertion that Gabbard is a Russian agent was the most bizarre outpouring of her increasingly weird post-defeat career, but the fact that she made such a claim, and the tepid response to it by Democratic leaders, shows how deeply Gabbard is despised within her own party. …

She stands out because she doesn’t hate America:

Tulsi’s lane is the one for liberals, not who hate the Democratic Party, but who love America. Her near-isolationism is that of a veteran who loves America and its military. In that, she contrasts sharply with the rest of the field. Visceral anti-military and anti-American views have been central to the Democratic Party for a long time. Bernie Sanders, to take just one obvious instance, didn’t honeymoon in the Soviet Union because he is proud to be an American.

Mainstream Democratic candidates don’t announce their anti-Americanism out loud, of course. You generally need to infer it from their policies. But the presence of an actual patriot on the stage–and one, too, who considers Republicans to be fellow Americans–presents an obvious and unwelcome contrast. …

The Democrats say they want a woman to be president, but they don’t mean it. When they have a woman on the debate stage who shares their views but not their hateful attitudes toward America and non-leftist Americans, they treat her like a skunk at a garden party.

Unlike the Godless left, who hate themselves — perhaps out of unforgiven guilt — and project it onto others. What an unhappy bunch.