Ta-ta, Tulsi, as Gabbard gives up

I had another plan for the second post of the tenth year of the blog, but COVID-19 intervened, causing the cancellation of Marche du Nain Rouge.  Looks like the Nain won this year.  Instead, I'm reporting on another fallen tribute in The Hungry for Power Games, Tulsi Gabbard.  The Hill reposted the video Gabbard uploaded on Thursday, Tulsi Gabbard makes 2020 endorsement, drops out of 2020 race.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) dropped out of the 2020 presidential contest Thursday, endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in what is now officially a two-man primary with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Now that Gabbard has suspended her campaign, there are no more women running for a major party nomination for president.  That's disappointing, given the record number of women running for U.S. President I reported for International Women's Day last year.  At least Joe Biden's pledge to select a woman as his running mate partially makes up for it.

As I have for all the other candidates who have dropped out, follow over the jump for the drink suggestions and memes I am retiring now that Gabbard is gone from the race.

I begin with the drink suggestion I made first in Drinks for the Democratic debates, Part 1, then recycled for Drinks for candidates at the September and October Democratic debates and Drinks and drinking games for the 2020 Democratic Primary debates.


Since Tulsi Gabbard represents Hawaii, the obvious choice would be a Blue Hawaiian.  However, she named her favorite comfort food as vegan cupcakes, so I'm recommending a cupcake drink instead.  Here's Tipsy Bartender's Chocolate Cupcake Cocktail.

This creamy shot is the perfect dessert martini for chocolate lovers!

I hope it's vegan!

Now the memes, beginning with the one I made for OnTheIssues.org's take on the Democratic presidential candidates from left to center.

Neither is Mike Gravel, who ties Tulsi Gabbard with an economic score of 30.  However, he also ties Sanders' social score of 98 to make him one of the two most socially liberal candidates in the contest.  On the other hand, Gabbard's social score of 75 confirms the hypothesis I set out to test, first on Twitter and then in the entry I posted at the beginning of the month, that she was one of the more moderate candidates running for the Democratic nomination, not "objectively further left then the rest of the Dem[ocratic] primary field."  Instead, she's objectively farther to the right than most of the Democratic field, including all of the other currently serving members of Congress.  Despite the big difference in social scores, On The Issues rates both as Libertarian-Leaning Progressives.

Tulsi bucked the trend in On The Issues shows most of the Democratic candidates have moved left during the campaign, too.

Speaking of Gabbard, the candidate who inspired me to perform the analyses of the Democratic candidates' ideological scores in the first place moved to her right economically from 30 to 33, making her three points more moderate.  However, my notes listed her social score as 70 (the 75 in last month's entry was apparently a transcription error), so her current social score of 78 shifts her a net five to her left.  That written, Gabbard has now fallen to the twenty-third most liberal from the twenty-second, making her the third most moderate candidate in the contest.  She retains her designation as a Libertarian-Leaning Progressive.

She continued her contrarian ways in Democratic candidates continue to drift leftwards according to On The Issues.

Thanks to John Hickenlooper dropping out to run for U.S. Senate from Colorado, Tulsi Gabbard is now the most conservative candidate running for the Democratic nomination.  Her economic score increased from 33 to 35, the highest of any candidate in the contest, while her social score increased to 85, making her the most libertarian candidate running among the Democrats.  As this entire project of mine began with me debunking the idea of Tulsi Gabbard "being objectively further left then the rest of the Dem primary field" and pointing out she was among the most conservative, if not the most conservative, this result gives me great pleasure.  Ha, ha, ha, ha!  I told you so!

Sorry (not sorry), I couldn't resist gloating.

Gabbard finally drifted to the left in time for Democratic candidates from left to center for the 2020 primaries.  Even so, she maintained her position as the most economically conservative Democratic candidate, as the title graphic for the entry shows.


Now for final meme showing her ideological position according to On The Issues.

Once again, Tulsi Gabbard is the most conservative candidate running for the Democratic nomination, at least according to On The Issues.  This is despite her economic score returing to 33 from 35, the highest of any candidate in the contest, while her social score remained at 85, making her both the most libertarian and most conservative candidate running among the Democrats.

She ended her run with her scores remaining at 33 economic and 85 social.

Now for her ranking according to Voteview.


I begin with my observations from Democratic presidential candidates from left to center from Voteview.

After traversing the political spectrum from left to center and examining a dozen candidate[s], only now do I get to Tulsi Gabbard[, t]he other person touted as "being objectively further left then the rest of the Dem primary field."  She has an ideology score of -0.279, which is more conservative than 77% of Democrats in the 116th House as well as more conservative than a dozen other candidates.  Her score has not changed since April.

So, Gabbard is not "objectively further left then the rest of the Dem primary field" — she's objectively further right than most of the Democratic field, including all of the other currently serving U.S. Representatives. No wonder her "message resonates better with the right," the other part of the tweet I responded to.

I made a graphic for Senators and Representatives running for the Democratic nomination are drifting to the left as they campaign.

Now I come to the candidate who inspired me to track ideologies, Tulsi Gabbard.  Gabbard's ideology score has held steady at -0.279 since April.  Back then, she was more conservative than 77% of Democrats in the 116th House.  Oddly enough, that has not allowed her to hold her place relative to the rest of the Democrats currently serving in the House of Representatives, as she is now more conservative than 78% of them.  At least one other Representative has moved to her left even as several Representatives have moved to the right past Ryan and Swalwell but stopped short of Moulton.*  Still, her current relative move to the right reinforces the reason I started tracking candidates on Voteview, which was to demonstrate that Gabbard is not "objectively further left then the rest of the Dem primary field," but off to its right.

She maintained her score and position when I wrote An update on Democratic candidates' Voteview scores before Congress returns from August recess: "Tulsi Gabbard remained unchanged at -0.279 and more conservative than 78% of Democrats in the current House."

While her score remained unchanged for Democratic candidates from left to center for the 2020 primaries, she continued to become more conservative than the rest of the Democrats in the House.

Meanwhile, her Voteview score remained unchanged at -0.279.  Because the House Democratic Caucus has moved to her left, she is now more conservative than 79% of Democrats in the current House.  In August, her score made her more conservative than 78% of Democrats in the 116th House while in June, she was more conservative than 77%.  Her fellow Democrats are leaving her behind, in more ways than one.

Her score is still -0.279, but she's now more conservative than 78%, so she's catching up with her fellow House Democrats.

This should be the last one of these I post until it's time for an updated Bye, Bye, Bernie!  In the meantime, stay tuned for this year's edition of World Water Day.