Democrats are calling for the head of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii for not toeing the party line on U.S airstrikes against Syria.

"This is a disgrace. Gabbard should not be in Congress," tweeted former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean Saturday.  Neera Tanden, chief of the John Podesta-linked Center for American Progress, took the political muscle approach, according to the Daily Caller:

People of Hawaii's 2nd district – was it not enough for you that your rep met with a murderous dictator? Will this move you?

What they were criticizing was Gabbard's tendency to do her own thinking on issues, in this case calling for a U.S. investigation to show evidence that there really was a regime-sponsored chemical attack in Syria.  It was a respectable sort of skepticism even if most of us think it's a little Ron Paul-ish.  Whatever it was, it wouldn't hurt to do it, to get the truth out, given the loony tales emanating from Bashar al-Assad and his allies about what really happened.  It wasn't an unreasonable stance, even if one does not agree with it.

It also didn't help with this bunch that Gabbard visited Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad last January, something that incensed Tanden yet didn't seem to bother her when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also did it several years earlier.  Sure, it's a little gamy, given the dog and pony show she probably got, but it's also largely harmless, and in any case, what is the message here?  That it's okay if Pelosi does it, but not Gabbard?  What kind of standard is this?

That's what makes the reaction from the Democratic establishment so crazy.  Why are they jumping on her for doing her own research, having her own take on things? it's not like she's on the take, as Podesta and his brother were in their financial dealings with the Russians.

It calls to mind that they have been hostile to her ever since she supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, that same primary Tanden and company went to such lengths to rig against Sanders and for Hillary Clinton according to the WikiLeaks.  Worse still, she met and talked with Donald Trump after the 2016 election, once again, doing her own research – and for them, in full Trump Derangement Syndrome, an unforgiveable sin.  Now they are calling for her head, for not following the Hillary Clinton party line – Hillary is on record as supporting the strikes.

The Democrats have impressed us mightily by their party discipline in getting legislations accomplished.  The flipside is this disgusting tendency to purge for the slightest deviation.  If ordinary Democrats, such as those who voted for Gabbard in Hawaii, can't wise up about this, then perhaps it's time to break that party up and go third party.  The enforced orthodoxy of the commissars against the Democratic Party's Bernie Sanders types is pretty darn disgusting.