Nikki Haley, GOP Invertebrate Du Jour
After calling him "unstable" and "unhinged", Nikki Haley yields to Trump. Shocker.
I don’t believe in deifying politicians. And I am mainly allergic to their campaign dazzle. When Obama first sought the presidency accompanied by a cascade of enthusiasm which hovered dangerously close to messianic, the ubiquitous “HOPE” poster by the artist Shepard Fairey creeped me out. Sure, I was energized by the potential election of our first black president, but haloing Obama less as an earthbound pragmatist (which he was,) than a national savior, was unfair not only to him, but to the millions of his supporters who would inevitably come to feel snake bit by a politics decidedly more practical than aspirational.
That said, Nikki Haley’s on cue but obscene announcement this week that she would vote for Donald Trump, a man she once referred to as “unhinged” and “unstable,” is more than disheartening. As Haley announced at an event for the Hudson Institute where she is now employed, “Trump has not been perfect on these policies but Biden has been a catastrophe, so I will be voting for Trump. I stand by what I said in my suspension on March 6th. It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party who did not support him, and I hope he does.”
Certainly, presidential primaries have long been characterized by their viciousness, made up of candidates who after swearing one another off like the Black Death, join forces on their parties’ national tickets for geographic diversity and/or ideological balance. JFK and LBJ in 1960 come to mind, as do Reagan and Bush 41 in 1980. A most recent example comes in the form of Vice-President Harris who excoriated President Biden during a June 2019 debate when the two were both vying for the 2020 nod. A week prior the debate, Biden reminisced fondly about his relationships with segregationist senators, a point used to illustrate, however impolitic, his pragmatic temperament. Harris, who was the only Black person onstage that night, took Biden’s words as a personal affront. “You also worked with them to oppose busing. And there was a little girl who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris said. “And that little girl was me.”
Haley’s move might indeed signal her willingness to be Trump’s number two. Regardless, her capitulation represents the further consolidation of the former party of Lincoln into the party of Trump, and the surrender of a onetime promising conservative voice of sanity to unabashed gutlessness. Haley’s newfound compliance is all the more galling given she cosplayed as something as a refuge for Republicans who deplored Trump but resisted being openly critical of him, given his vengefulness for even the mildest slight. As Haley brazenly insisted earlier this year, “Well I’m not afraid to say the hard truth out loud. I feel no need to kiss the ring, I have no fear of Trump’s retribution.” Well, smooch that orange ring, Nikki. As Trump said to News 12 in New York on Thursday, “I think she’s going to be on our team because we have a lot of the same ideas, the same thoughts; I appreciated what she said. We had a nasty campaign. It was pretty nasty. But she’s a very capable person, and I’m sure she’s going to be on our team in some form, absolutely.”
Haley now joins the likes of former roadkill on the highway to Orangeville such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, aka “Lyin’ Ted” and “Lil Marco.” Ted Cruz fell in line after Trump called his wife Heidi “ugly” and accused his dad of playing a role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Marco Rubio was equally an easy lay, despite Trump’s ferocious mockery of his physical appearance and intellect. I suppose it’s small bore then to swear fealty to a candidate who characterized you as a “birdbrain,” stoked xenophobic fears about your Indian first name Nimrata, and suggested that your husband who is on leave for military deployment might be abroad to actually get away from you.
In the end, however, what’s worse than abandoning key positions like standing Reagan-styled with Ukraine against Putin’s imperial conquests or acceding to MAGA protectionism when close to 25% of Indiana GOP primary chose Haley as a bulwark against Trump’s onslaught on
democracy? Actually enabling it, especially when there is still an appetite, albeit one far too small, for a “Never Trump” voice in the party as the results in many a GOP primary this year can attest.
If an inveterate liar like Trump accomplishes anything, as the political philosopher Hannah Arendt long ago warned us, it’s invariably the collapse of consensus. In the inverted Trump era, patriots are cowards, heroes are villains, political adversaries are “human scum,” and January 6th was the work of BLM and ANTIFA. And for all the hand-wringing about Haley’s act of rank expediency, there is nothing harsh about calling her what she is : a liar. Honesty in politics might sound righteous or perhaps naive, but Arendt argued all we can do in the name of democracy is to bear witness to the lie. That means being able and willing to call a lie out for what it is. For a nation born of revolution, telling the truth about the precarious state of the American experiment is an existential imperative. Calling out those like Haley, who are far too willing to collaborate on behalf of its potential demise, may just be our most defiant act yet.
Dirty Moderates: If you haven’t yet heard my exclusive interview with Ron Reagan, the episode is available now. Also, look out for more exciting episodes to drop including my conversations with Shabbos Kestenbaum, the Harvard studentn who is suing the university over antisemitism, and my lively dialogue with Michael Steele, MSNBC co-host of “The Weekend”and former GOP national chairman, whose podcast I recently appeared on.