Will Haley be held to the same standard as the rest of us?
Or am I just being silly?
Now that Ron “I Don’t Back Down” DeSantis has backed down, the GOP’s last chance to retain some semblance of a shape of a traditional political party just might be the daughter of immigrants, Nikki Haley.
Let us not forget that Haley worked for Trump, parroted Trump, and should not under any circumstance be considered a balm for the broken. As a candidate, she has spouted increasingly hard-line positions regarding social service programs and — ironically — immigration. I don’t much like her politics.
Add to those concerns this one: Monday’s New York Times carried a front page story on early ethical missteps by Haley.
It appears that Candidate Haley took several helpings from the trough when she was a new state legislator in South Carolina. While serving as a servant of the people, Haley was paid a retainer by a company that did extensive business with the state. In short (from the linked Times story):
The blurry line between Ms. Haley’s personal and public interests became the subject of a State House ethics investigation in 2012. The Republican-led committee concluded that Ms. Haley, by then the governor, had not violated any state ethics rules. But ethics experts and even some of her past supporters say the outcome was more an indictment of the lax rules and cozy ties between lawmakers and special interests than a vindication of her actions.
This is a big damn deal — or it would be in regular days — but when you’re backing a candidate with 91 indictments, this might carry no more weight than a mouse burp. The mind wanders as to whether this will register at all with voters who already support the least ethical politician in modern history (I don’t think I’m stretching things here). It’s going to be interesting, if this just sinks beneath the sewage that is TFG. I’m kind of waiting for him to jump on this and suggest his opponent is unethical. Now that? Would be funny.
This is what a country concerned about the rise of fascism, misogyny, racism and the collapse of democracy looks like:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/hundreds-thousands-demonstrate-against-right-wing-extremism-germany-2024-01-21/
The U.S. is still in the nervous "It can't happen here" stage, maybe until it does.
And if it does, Nikki Haley will be there saying, "See? it's not so bad."
I suspect that history would go by the wayside if Ambassador Haley were a white man. Obviously, she's not.
There's nothing the multitudes of racists and misogynists today like better than grounds for saying that their scapegoating of people of color and/or women isn't about bias at all, but their targets' Imperfection.
If President Trump were hellbent on having Ambassador Haley as his running mate he could probably quash all that. But he's a racist and a misogynist and also utterly concerned with anyone but himself, and I very doubt he wants her for his VP candidate. While she remains his opponent he'll throw anything, everything, and nothing at her.
It might be tempting to think of Trump-Haley as an ethnic counterbalance for Biden-Harris. But lo! if Trump-Haley are not paired on presidential ballots President Trump will get pretty much the same tit-for-tat benefits as if they were!
1. MAGAs, Trumpies, and far-righties have a well-developed campaign of claiming that VP Harris is an illegitimate candidate both because of an appeal to a fictional birtherism, and because "she's a criminal." A "criminal the same way Secretary Clinton was: a criminal seldom accused of specific crimes, and those out of urban legend, who is a known criminal because they keep saying she's a criminal.
2. If Ambassador Haley is President Trump's running mate, SEE? The GOP isn't racist or misogynistic, but Unlike Dems they've nominated a competent and legal woman of color to run for VP!
3. If Ambassador Haley is not President Trump's running mate, SEE? The GOP could have cheaply proved that they're not racists or misogynists-- but Unlike Dems they have Standards.
It's all a great weariness.