Lee Cataluna: Boycotting debate hurts only Tulsi Gabbard

Honolulu Councilwoman-turned- Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard released a video on social media this week saying she is considering boycotting Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate because the process is “rigged.”

Tulsi Gabbard may be right. The process for selecting the 2020 Democratic nominee for president might be rigged. Politics on all levels of American government feels kind of rigged at the moment, and people from every political affiliation have been saying just that, though there is furious debate over who is responsible for the rigging and who the system is rigged against.

But Gabbard’s solution to this alleged subterfuge is to threaten not to participate. This affects no one and nothing except Gabbard. It will not suddenly straighten up an alleged crooked process. It will call no one to task. It shines no light. All it does is hurt Gabbard’s campaign.

Or help Gabbard’s campaign. It’s sometimes hard to tell what exactly she’s campaigning for.

If she were truly aiming for the presidency, she wouldn’t threaten to boycott an event for which she barely qualified. There has been speculation that Gabbard is gunning for a cabinet position or her own show on Fox news or some Sarah Palin-like glamorous speaking career that will bring in six figures per 30-minute keynote.

It could also be argued that Gabbard is, in fact, playing the game. It’s just that she’s not winning.

She’s learned to become very quotable. Every time she complains about something or takes a shot at a fellow Democrat, she gets a spate of publicity in the same media outlets she disparages.

But voters tend to favor candidates who stand for something, not just the ones who lash out against everything.

Gabbard called the series of televised debates “commercialized reality television,” and she’s close to the mark on that one, too, though maybe she’s sore because she managed to score shots off Kamala Harris in her last debate appearance but her attack didn’t amount to anything in her own poll numbers.

Modern politicians seem to think fair coverage is fawning coverage and anything critical is coming from the enemy camp.

Worse than criticism, for Gabbard, is being ignored. A realistic appraisal of her chances of becoming a front-runner is proof, in her mind, that the deck is stacked against her.

Winners know that in order to play the game, you have to build your strength, hone your skills, and learn through experience. It isn’t enough to have the right look and some sassy talking points.

You have to do the work. Tulsi Gabbard’s main work, always, has been to lure print and video magazines into positive stories, avoid daily journalists when there are tough questions to answer, and to blame “the system” when nobody is paying attention to her.

So she may boycott the Tuesday debate. Or she may not.

Doesn’t really matter, though she did get a bump of self-initiated publicity, and that seems to be her favorite game of all.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.