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NYT Story Criticizing Gabbard's White Pantsuit May Be the Most Ridiculous Article Ever Printed

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  November 22, 2019 8:50 AM

The New York Times published an article devoted exclusively to criticizing Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for wearing a white pantsuit. The arguments in the piece are insane enough, but to make matters worse, the same author wrote for the same paper during the last election cycle about how great it was that Hillary Clinton wore white pantsuits.

Gabbard, the author wrote, seems much less interested in representing a symbol of suffragists, but more to “tap into another tradition, latent in the public memory: the mythical white knight, riding in to save us all from yet another “regime change war.”

It gets better than that, as Glenn Greenwald documents. 

"Her white suits are not the white suits of Ms. Clinton, nor even the white of Ms. Williamson, whose early appearances in the shade often seemed tied to her wellness gospel and ideas of renewal and rebirth. Rather, they are the white of avenging angels and flaming swords, of somewhat combative righteousness (also cult leaders). And that kind of association, though it can be weirdly compelling, is also not really community building. It sets someone apart, rather than joining others together. It has connotations of the fringe, rather than the center."

It goes without saying that the piece was widely ridiculed.