Alpha Female: Tulsi Gabbard

Gabbard in New Hampshire yesterday

Tulsi Gabbard communicates confidence. There is something powerful about calm serenity.

She looks alpha. She looks presidential.

There are four women who are potential Democratic nominees: Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, and Tulsi Gabbard. 

(I leave out Marianne Williamson, who is growing her brand as a New Age writer, but whatever else she is doing, it isn't running for president.) 

Tulsi Gabbard is the odd person out among the group of four.

She is the least credentialed by of the four, a three term Member of Congress, and she is in her thirties. However, she brings assets to her campaign:

   ***Supported Bernie. Four years ago she left the DCC board, protested its bias toward Hillary, and she endorsed Bernie Sanders, which endeared her to Sanders' supporters. That is a big deal within a big  subset of leftist activists.

   ***Anti-War. She has a point of view on an issue that resonates with Americans, especially Democrats, the anti-war sentiment. She says America should stop acting like an imperialist, interventionist world caretaker. Bring our soldiers home.

   ***She looks the part. She carries herself like a leader. It is more obvious in person than on TV. In person she is positively regal.

A premise of this blog--gained by recognizing something so obvious that it had been invisible to me--is that presidential politics is performance.  Indeed, primarily performance. The voters on the margin--the persuadable voters--are people who choose a narrative, people who decide on a brand story. They choose a character in the grand drama of America. 

For example, Trump: Trump’ story, in 2016, was that he was the outsider business tycoon who was so rich he didn't need to be corrupted by "the system" or "the swamp" so he could shake things up, reject liberal political correctness and the invasion by foreigners, and return us to a traditional America of the pre civil rights era Good Old Days. His TV show, The Apprentice, made him a celebrity with that brand partially in place. His birther story demonstrated to Republicans that he was willing to be outrageous in poking a stick at a Democratic leader. He was alpha, the fearless leader.

A lot of people bought it. Shake things up. A playboy lout is better than Crooked Hillary, they decided. 

Tulsi Gabbard demonstrates an alternative brand, a strong alpha character. She does it with a low pitched, modulated voice. She always appears in costume: solid color white, red, or blue blazer atop a matching  blouse. She speaks slowly. She seems serene, imperturbable. She is a soldier, fearless in danger. Dignified and tough.  She looks like she cannot be bullied by the likes of Trump.

She is creating an alternative brand to Trump's. Her story: she is a soldier, home from foreign war, courageous, honorable, capable, serene amid the Trump whirlwind. She looks that part. Her billboard: “a soldier’s heart.” Strong. Loyal. Devotion to duty. 

Gabbard in white today

It is a good counterpoint.

She needs more battles, done where people can see them, here on the home front. More attacks on her by Hillary would help. She made a Hillary look bad, a win for Gabbard. 

Attacks on her by GOP senators and Trump would help. Possibly Lindsay Graham could condemn her for opposing some foreign intervention and she could disagree, in her trademark style. Many would admire and respect her answer and her way of answering.

The real gift would be Trump himself criticizing her. She cannot demonstrate  the matchup against Trump until she in fact fights Trump herself. She won’t do it like Rubio did it, like-for-like.That brought Rubio down. She would hope to expose Trump as a blowhard and foreign policy dilettante by conspicuously not being one. To win the matchup, she would need to look serious and serene, swatting away a fool. And she would. That is the brand she is developing.