Reviewing “For the Love of Country:Leave the Democratic Party Behind”

From Southwest Ledger

Stop me if you have heard this before. The Democratic Party is threatening our freedom and democracy. Its leaders care more about power than safety. By trying to remove Donald Trump from the election ballot they are killing the democratic process. They are using the criminal justice system as a tool against conservatives. In their legal precautions they claim no one is above the law except for themselves. They are using divisions such as race to divide rather than unite the nation. They label Republicans “terrorists” and “enemies.” They have taken away free speech for conservatives. The Party and their media mouthpieces make up lies about Trump and others, including working with Russia, even though there is strong evidence to the contrary. They have ignored border security to garner votes…
Sure, you have heard all this before. Every conservative outlet has made these claims from Fox News to online personalities to elected officials like Ted Cruz. The airwaves are full of similar accusations. So, what makes Tulsi Gabbard’s latest attack book any different? Simple, she was a Democrat.

In 2002, at age 21, Gabbard won a seat in the Hawaii Legislature as a Democrat. In the years after 9/11, wanting to do more for her country she enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard in 2003 and served a tour in Iraq. After attending Officer Training School, she served a second tour in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009. Finally, in 2021 as a lieutenant colonel she served a third tour to the Horn of Africa. Between deployments Gabbard won a seat in Congress for the Hawaiian 2nd District in 2013. As both a state and national legislator, Gabbard joined the Democratic Party, as it represented her views.

Gabbard believed that the Democratic Party was the party of rule of law. It was a big tent party that treated everyone fairly and equally, no matter your race, religion or politics. She believed it was the party of civil liberties and would put freedom above all else, and it was the party of free speech. She believed it was the party that had always supported different opinions and the people’s right to protest. It was the party of Martin Luther King, of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson who wanted to judge people by their character not their skin color. Gabbard believed the Democratic Party was the party that supported women, who fought for Title IX and wanted women treated fairly, supported the people and wanted to help families. Yet along her political journey she found herself at odds with her party and at times even confrontational. What she found out was that her party was no longer the party she once believed it was, the party of her youth or imagination. It started under the Obama administration but came to a head in 2022 under President Biden when Gabbard finally left the Democratic Party to become an Independent.

In “For Love of Country,” Gabbard looks at eight changes to the Democratic Party that made it impossible for her to continue to support it. Through each chapter she talks about her life as well as recent and historical events that have shaped her and her political beliefs. In each chapter she has a key statement. First, “The Democratic elite are using the power of law enforcement to target political or personal opponents, undermining the essence of the rule of law, and exposing their contempt for the American people and our democracy. If we allow this to continue, the America we know, and love will disappear forever. This is why I left the Democratic Party and urge other Democrats who love our country to do the same.” Her focus is the legal attacks against Donald Trump, including his impeachments. She now believes Democrats see him as the largest threat to Biden’s election and hope to illegally use the law to stop him. She sees this as one the largest threats against democracy. It’s the idea that the Democrats believe they know what’s best for everyone, including who should be president. It’s important to note that at no time does Gabbard support Trump; it is not clear her feeling towards him from this book. Her argument is whether you support Trump or not, allowing a party to use their power to remove a rival should scare everyone. That is tyranny.

Second, “They [Democrats] have no qualms about undermining our freedoms and civil liberties in their endless pursuit of power. I could no longer call myself a Democrat and be associated with a party that does not believe in our intrinsic freedoms and therefore cannot be trusted to protect.” Gabbard has several issues here but her largest was against government intrusion to people’s lives, especially the Patriot Act. She was against the Patriot Act and supported Obama believing he would dissolve it. Instead, he increased it power and stepped up surveillance. Gabbard believes there is a real threat from the intelligence community and wrote, “Once we give up our essential liberty to power-hungry politicians and bureaucrats in government, it is extremely difficult to get back.”

Third, “In their [Democrats] obsessive pursuit of power, today’s Democratic elite are only interested in protecting speech they approve of while actively trying to silence speech they don’t like.” She looks at how Democrats have targeted and attacked any speech that does not agree with them. They have teamed with “Big Tech” and media outlets to shut down social media accounts of detractors. She even tells the story of while running for President in 2016 that not only did she get about a minimal six minutes of air time during a debate but that Google suspended her Google Ads account so viewers could not look up her page.

Fourth, “I cannot associate myself with today’s Democratic Party, the leaders of which stand in direct opposition to this freedom, intent on using all levers of their power to target people of faith, especially Christians, and undermine our religious freedom.” She spoke of her own experiences when her father was persecuted for his religious beliefs and how over her lifetime God has been removed from the Democratic Party. In 2002 God was mentioned seven times in their official platform but in 2020 only once. Gabbard also scrutinizes how during the pandemic, churches were shut down–-even drive-in ones—yet liberal political protests were allowed to continue.

Fifth, “I am no longer a Democrat because I could not stomach associating myself with those who, in their blind pursuit of power, defy Dr. King’s dream, tear our country apart, foment racism, and fault division.” Gabbard talks about walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with John Lewis and other Democrats and the feelings she had about the strength of those who fought for civil rights but now the party is “reducing us to the color of our skin, using identity politics to tear us apart for their own political gain.”

Sixth, “I cannot associate myself with a political party that so easily rejects the existence of truth just to score some political power points. If they are willing to sacrifice truth, there are no boundaries, and nothing is sacred.” Here Gabbard is talking about gender issues. Gabbard does not understand how in just a few short years the party went from knowledge of biological differences in men and women to a world where anyone can be anything regardless of science and truth. She also attacked Biden for turning his back on Title IX, which is meant to protect women in sports, but he now supports allowing biological men to compete against women.

Seventh, I can no longer associate myself with a political party who, at every turn, is undermining the family—the very foundation of our civilization—and callously scarifying the well-being of our children and families to advance their woke political agenda.” Here Gabbard attacks the Democratic Party for calling parents at PTA meetings terrorists for wanting to protect their children. She also shares the most powerful story of a young girl who transitioned with support from the medical community and reluctant support from parents. The young person then spoke of the hardships faced when realizing they had made a mistake. They received no support from all the people who originally pushed for the transition, including doctors.

Eighth, “I can no longer be associated with the Democrat elite so willing to jeopardize our freedom, our prosperity, and the very existence of the American people, our country, and the world by pouring gasoline on the fire of the New Cold War in order to satisfy their self-serving ambition. Their actions sicken me.” I took this one out of order on purpose. If it feels like Gabbard is in step with the Republican Party, here she shows why she is an Independent instead. She is very critical of government trying to overthrow regimes in the name of protection. I found this the most interesting chapter as she comes from a different perspective than most in Congress. It is here that she discusses her own military career and the difficulty of the men and women who are in harm’s way for political reasons.

“For Love of Country: Leave the Democratic Party Behind” is an interesting and accessible read. While there are no new issues brought forth for anyone who follows politics, Gabbard does have her own personal spin on the issues because of her life story. What sets her apart, however, is that she is a Democratic insider. She was in the club. You would expect to read about all these issues from Republican writings, but this book brings credibility to these points as she cannot be accused of political partisanship. It’s a telling story of why a powerful woman would leave the party she had always supported, or really why the party abandoned her.  
Published by Regnery, Gabbard’s 2024 book “For Love of Country: Leave the Democratic Party Behind” is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

James Finck is a professor of history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at HistoricallySpeaking1776@gmail.com.