Unsurprisingly, Tulsi got the Ron Paul treatment during the first debate: little speaking time, disproportionate attacks, etc. Yet it was impossible for NBC to make her look and sound like anything but a voice of reason among a throng of the most hide-bound corporate puppets imaginable. And despite the fawning over the corporate-backed candidates, it was equally impossible to make them look and sound anything other than old, frail, and fake. The candidates most favored by the Political Class came across as hideously insincere, particularly Warren and Biden. Well, all of them really. At each new question, Beto O’Rourke roused as if awaking from a stupor, giving the most banal, empty boilerplate answers in both English and Spanish. Buttigieg brags about military service, yet his only “service” consisted of sitting behind a desk from the safety of a military base for six months. In contrast, Tulsi deployed on two combat tours, and experienced real war. According to her sister, the stress of war gave Tulsi the signature streak of silver in her jet black hair. It also gave her a unique perspective on war, as well as her intransigent stance against the endless stream of regime-change wars that have ruined nation after nation in the Middle East. That type of talk is vanishingly rare coming from a Presidential candidate; we’ve only heard it once before from Ron Paul. It’s an unalloyed attack on Imperialism, no waffling, no fine print. It’s also a frontal assault on the Political Class, for whom war is their very lifeblood. They’ll come down on Tulsi hard, but it’s clear she is going to put up a hell of a fight. And, just as it was a blast to watch the corporate puppets from every sector panic over Ron Paul, so it will be with Tulsi.
