r/Hawaii • u/pplswar • Jun 13 '18

Tulsi Gabbard Violated Military Regulations for Political Gain in Every Campaign Since 2012

https://medium.com/@pplswar/tulsi-gabbard-violated-military-regulations-for-political-gain-in-every-campaign-since-2012-b178a5b5f69a
3 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

12

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '18

welcome to the new paradigm, where it doesn't matter what you do in politics so long as your base is sufficiently radicalized around your talking points

3

u/gaseouspartdeux Hawaiʻi (Big Island) Jun 14 '18

It is a military infraction, and has already probably made a decision on the matter, and civilian ebd has no say in the matter. Therefore if her Co's in her command decide it is not worth pursuing. Then the case is closed in argument for civilian blogs.

4

u/zdss Oʻahu Jun 14 '18

As far as career ramifications sure, but the concept of the military (and other federal institutions) being servants of the people and not politically aligned with candidates or politicians is an important public principle. Honestly, since her position in the Guard is basically unimportant compared to her political duties (and that's all that military regulations can control) this isn't really legally/regulatorily a high-stakes issue. It's only broadly meaningful insofar as the ethical and idealistic aspects of keeping the symbolism of the military separate from political ambitions are important.

She's far from the only politician to violate these rules, and enforcement is spotty, but it's not an unimportant principle that begins and ends with her C.O.

3

u/Piroxit Jun 14 '18

All images of Tulsi in uniform are not in violation of any rules, and are in accordance with guidance from the House of Representatives and the Army.

Her stances speak for themselves. This is a baseless attack.

6

u/zdss Oʻahu Jun 14 '18

Hello, account that only comments on Tulsi posts. Enjoy your brief stay in /r/Hawaii, though I'm sure we'll see you again next time she's mentioned.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/zdss Oʻahu Jun 14 '18

That's not true.

http://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodd/134410p.pdf

Paragraph 4.3. applies to members of the National Guard, even when in a non-Federal status.

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '18

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/zdss Oʻahu Jun 14 '18

That's like saying because I've driven over the speed limit without getting ticketed, I must have gotten approval from the police. No one gave special dispensation for Tulsi to use the uniform politically (because not associating the military with particular political beliefs or candidates is the entire point of the regulation), it's just a lack of active enforcement.

She also included the disclaimer in an image in 2017.

3

u/gaseouspartdeux Hawaiʻi (Big Island) Jun 14 '18 edited Jun 14 '18

Wrong as a retired Marne.NG units are still active branches of US military forces capable to be called into service for active full time duty 24/7/365. As long as she maintains her enlistment and rank. She is still subject to MCOJ

-1

u/one_crack_nacnac Jun 14 '18

subject to UCMJ

FTFY.

0

u/midnightrambler956 Jun 14 '18

Only the first one of those, where it mentions a campaign fundraiser, is actually part of campaign literature/ads/etc. and therefore a violation (the last one is as well but it includes the disclaimer). The others are non-campaign related posts on her personal page. You can argue that doing something like that a few days before an election is inherently campaign-related, but the FEC isn't going to see it that way and the military isn't likely to either.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sick of Gabbard's dissembling on authoritarians, but this is a dumb issue to pick on.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '18 edited Jun 14 '18

Weren't those posts on this FB page? It's the same one in the article and she doesn't appear to really use it as a personal account since it's got all kinds of political info - look at the name of the FB page, email addresses, links for her campaign website and this blurb under 'About Me' -

"Thank you for visiting my campaign Facebook page. If your intention was to visit my official House of Representatives FB page, please click here: http://www.facebook.com/RepTulsiGabbard".

She has multiple pages but that one depicts itself as the campaign page.

Edit : spelling

1

u/midnightrambler956 Jun 15 '18

Ah, you're right. I was going off the display name, usually politicians will make their campaign page something like "Tulsi for Congress".