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Why won't Nikki Haley be the first female POTUS?


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Decent analysis of Haley, but better commentary on the descent of the GOP.

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What Nikki Haley Can Teach Us About the Republican Party
A presidential bid and a measure of how far Reaganism has fallen.

Ronald Reagan’s brand of neoconservative foreign policy, free-market economics and social conservatism dominated the Republican Party for nearly 40 years.

Then came Donald J. Trump.

Today, everyone would agree that Reagan-era conservatism is no longer the dominant force in the Republican Party. But what force Reaganism does possess, if any, is a much more open question.

Is it as spent as the ideas of earlier conservative leaders like Barry Goldwater or Robert Taft? Or is it an important if diminished faction that might be poised to resurrect itself with the former president now diminished himself?

Nikki Haley, who announced her presidential bid on Tuesday, is one of several Republicans who will help test whether a revitalized Reaganism still has a pulse in today’s Republican Party. Of all the candidates, she might be the likeliest to run back the Gipper’s Greatest Hits and, in doing so, teach us a thing or two about whether they still resonate among today’s Republican voters.

Ms. Haley, a former Rubio ’16 supporter and the child of Indian immigrants, is a darling of neoconservatives and a defender of Reagan’s continued relevance. Her announcement featured many of the old Reagan-Bush classics, if slightly remixed for today’s challenges. She pointed out she had “seen evil” on the world stage and supported tax cuts, and she defended America as the “freest and greatest” country in the world.

There will be plenty of other opportunities to dust off the old Reagan playbook if she so chooses. She could argue that lower government spending, free trade and more legal immigration is the textbook solution to high inflation and a soaring national debt. She could even argue that Mr. Trump’s big government spending and trade wars helped contribute to inflation in the first place. Neoliberalism took off in the 1980s for a reason, after all.

The opportunities on foreign policy are fairly clear as well. With Chinese balloons in the air and Russian troops advancing on the ground, a hawkish candidate should find it straightforward to argue for higher military spending and closer cooperation with allies — and to argue against cozying up to the likes of Vladimir Putin. Here again, it’s easy to imagine the opportunity to attack Mr. Trump.

Ms. Haley’s strength in the polls may not be a great test of the electoral appeal of traditional conservatism. She’s a first-time candidate with single-digit support in the polls. Almost all presidential candidates who start in the single digits end at zero, and that usually doesn’t say much about the strength of their ideological faction.

But if Ms. Haley can gain traction — if she can raise big money, if she can land a punch on the debate stage, if she can draw applause for linking immigration and inflation, or attacking Mr. Putin — it may say something about the appetite for her brand of conservatism.

What might say the most of all is if she could successfully attack Mr. Trump — but, realistically, she is probably not going to directly do so very often. She was a former Trump administration official as U.N. ambassador. Indeed, Mr. Trump appeared to bless her run, perhaps in hope that she will siphon away votes from Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

In an interview with the Fox host Sean Hannity last month, Ms. Haley didn’t seem eager for a fight. When asked what policy differences she had with Mr. Trump, she said she “totally” agreed with “most of the policies that he did.” When Mr. Hannity followed up by asking the question a second time, she pivoted to the baby formula shortage.

This nonconfrontational approach is emblematic of a broader challenge for her in today’s populist, pugnacious Republican Party. She appears to be temperamentally moderate, regardless of her views on the issues. And some of her views really have been relatively moderate. As governor, she famously removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House. She wouldn’t support a bill blocking transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. She’s sympathetic to a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. This is no culture warrior.

In today’s Republican Party, Ms. Haley will have no choice but to try to tap into the culture wars. In her announcement video, she recast her Reagan-like belief in American greatness as a counter to what she said was the left-wing view that America’s founding principles are “bad” or “racist.” Her race and gender might make her an especially strong proponent for this kind of position, especially if she more explicitly embraces conservative views.

But while American exceptionalism may be at odds with the left, it doesn’t channel the anger and resentment that fuels large elements of the conservative base. In this important respect, a reincarnated Reaganism will not be like the original. Reagan was the leader of the conservative movement at the time; Ms. Haley and those who would resurrect Reagan today are not. Reagan was not simply running on the views of previous conservatives like Goldwater, or Taft, an influential senator who opposed all elements of big government, including foreign intervention. A Taft Republican on foreign policy would have seemed very moderate on the Soviet Union in 1979, and an older Goldwater would have seemed moderate on abortion. Today, Reaganism is out of step with conservatives in many important ways.

The new generation of conservatives who rose to prominence after Mr. Trump, including governors like Mr. DeSantis or even a Glenn Youngkin, might have an easier time figuring out how to channel today’s right-wing energy into something more like traditional conservatism than Mr. Trump’s populism. They have a record of doing so. Ms. Haley does not.

 

 

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13 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Nikki Haley, who announced her presidential bid on Tuesday, is one of several Republicans who will help test whether a revitalized Reaganism still has a pulse in today’s Republican Party. Of all the candidates, she might be the likeliest to run back the Gipper’s Greatest Hits and, in doing so, teach us a thing or two about whether they still resonate among today’s Republican voters.

Season 9 No GIF by The Office

Today's Republican Party is heading towards being nothing but owning the libs, protecting idiots/snowflakes like MTG, Boebert, George Santos, Luna, etc. and helping the Russians and being afraid of the Chinese.

Whatever you may think of him, the ghost of Reagan is spinning in his grave over the thought of so many Republicans trying to help the Russians defeat Ukraine by reducing aid, or being afraid of the Chinese.

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23 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Today's Republican Party is heading towards being nothing but owning the libs, protecting idiots/snowflakes like MTG, Boebert, George Santos, Luna, etc. and helping the Russians and being afraid of the Chinese.

And being much more open about their racism and bigotry than Reagan was. I saw a snippet of Haley’s campaign speech and she’s already using the “woke” trope. 

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7 minutes ago, Longhornfan1024 said:

It doesn't matter how white she tries to make her name.  She's still a brown woman, which means she has 0% chance of winning the Republican primary.   

Right? Bobby Jindal. How white. Had no shot 

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9 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I assume she's doing all of this to angle herself to be his VP pick. I mean, that's the play here, right? 

Its gonna be something watching Haley, MTG, Noem, Ernst, etc... all try to out-cunt each other for that VP slot. The competition will be fierce. 

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2 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Is your google broken? Try “Nikki Haley” and “name”.  If you’re still struggling after that just hit your call button and my friend Tommy will come back there and hit you on the head with a tack hammer 

Is your brain broken? How white is she trying to make her name? By getting married?  By using her middle name? I am just trying to figure out exactly what the angle is here other than lots of people projecting their own racism. 

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You seem really smart IRL.  I don't say that to a lot of people, but I am saying it to you.  

That said, you are fucking insane beyond belief if you think that means fuck all to MAGA nation.  One fucking photo of her in Salvar garb and she's fucking done and you fucking know it.  Methodism or not, hundreds of photos from her younger days in traditional wardrobe and houses of worship.  You really think dumbfuck trump nation understands the difference between Islam and Sikh?  She's fucking toast and we all know why.

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13 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

You seem really smart IRL.  I don't say that to a lot of people, but I am saying it to you.  

That said, you are fucking insane beyond belief if you think that means fuck all to MAGA nation.  One fucking photo of her in Salvar garb and she's fucking done and you fucking know it.  Methodism or not, hundreds of photos from her younger days in traditional wardrobe and houses of worship.  You really think dumbfuck trump nation understands the difference between Islam and Sikh?  She's fucking toast and we all know why.

Shit, I just mad at myself for not putting some coin on Haley in predicit. Easy double up on her filing. I didn't say anything about MAGA. I don't see any MAGA here running her for using the name Nikki or adopting her husband's last name, but maybe I missed it. 

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I know you didn't mention anything about stupid people.  But we both know it's only because they don't know yet.  If she actually stays in the race, it's gonna come out and you and I both know goddamn well what happens when they do.  We know where this goes once the photos are revealed.  

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1 hour ago, longhornmatt said:

GOP Primary Electorate: “I think Nikki Haley is a real dark horse candidate.”

Oh really?  You think she has a chance to win.

GOP Primary Electorate: “What?  No.  I mean she’s a darkie and a horse faced woman.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna71119

She’s actually going to get hit harder with the racism than any black or hispanic candidates because the bigots feel like they can still go after Indian/Sikh without getting the immediate cancellation treatment they’d receive if they used the n word or something.  And they have a lot of pent up racism they want to get out since they don’t have as many outlets anymore.

Oh, and they can even indirectly express their Confederacy style racism and take it out on her, too, because of the statue thing.  It’s like the perfect storm.

Oh shit, this is from today.  At first I thought it was some old rant.  Yeah, she's done already.

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3 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Is your brain broken? How white is she trying to make her name? By getting married?  By using her middle name? I am just trying to figure out exactly what the angle is here other than lots of people projecting their own racism. 

Are you saying that not using her middle name gives her a path toward the GOP nomination - or are you just being obtuse and totally fine with the GOP’s casual racism? 

Your dishonest both sides-ism gets really old. She did not become a Methodist because of her strong feelings toward temperance.  Literally everyone says she is Uber ambitious and her history shows it.   She will take literally any position if it gives her a leg up.   Which is fine. Politicians gonna politician. However, some people think when you change religion to get more votes think that is not a palatable quality in a candidate.  

Might be wrong.  they are the stupidest, most gullible people in the world.

 

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 In an interview with the New York Times, Haley said she and her husband, "chose Christianity because of the way we wanted to live our life and raise our children."

Wait - not because of one’s personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Nothing about being saved? Nothing about blood of the Lamb? If you raise your kids like your parents raised you, that would be a detriment and they would come out worse?  You could not be kind, loving, honest and spiritual if you were a Sikh?

Inquiring minds and all.

Let’s put all of this aside. She is on record as saying Hillary Clinton is her role model, and that listening to Hillary’s address was the motivation for her to aspire to political office when people were doubting her.  Hillary. Fucking. Clinton.    The GQP is more likely to elect ‘Satanist Nikki Haley’ than ‘Hillary Clinton is my inspiration’ Nikki Haley.

We’ll see.

 

 

 

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Edited by Gatorubet
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3 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Is your brain broken? How white is she trying to make her name? By getting married?  By using her middle name? I am just trying to figure out exactly what the angle is here other than lots of people projecting their own racism. 

So you did understand what he meant and you were being intentionally obtuse to condescend. How on brand 

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This is a good reflection of how fucking basic American politics are. Nikki Haley is a horrible person and should never hold the office of President because she is just another in a long line of GOP war mongering neocons. The fact that she is a second generation Indian-American that uses her middle name (common punjabi), took her husband's last name when they married, and made the conscious decision to raise her family in the context of a shared and common faith tradition that she relates to is not the problem. But y'all keep doing your thing.  

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15 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

This is a good reflection of how fucking basic American politics are. Nikki Haley is a horrible person and should never hold the office of President because she is just another in a long line of GOP war mongering neocons. The fact that she is a second generation Indian-American that uses her middle name (common punjabi), took her husband's last name when they married, and made the conscious decision to raise her family in the context of a shared and common faith tradition that she relates to is not the problem. But y'all keep doing your thing.  


yeah bro, the Libs are the one’s painting her in a corner.
 

Not the republicans that are content to choose between trump licking Putin’s taint when him and his family aren’t busy letting MBS’s hedge fund teabag their face or meatball Ron suing Disney. 
 

“THE DEMS ARE THE REAL BADDIES THAT ARE TANKING NIKKI HALEYS STAND FOR NOTHING CAMPAIGN”

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1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

This is a good reflection of how fucking basic American politics are. Nikki Haley is a horrible person and should never hold the office of President because she is just another in a long line of GOP war mongering neocons. The fact that she is a second generation Indian-American that uses her middle name (common punjabi), took her husband's last name when they married, and made the conscious decision to raise her family in the context of a shared and common faith tradition that she relates to is not the problem. But y'all keep doing your thing.  

We're just pointing out the obvious that her own party is going to eat her alive over it. The horseface out front shoulda told ya. 

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15 hours ago, Anastasis said:

This is a good reflection of how fucking basic American politics are. Nikki Haley is a horrible person and should never hold the office of President because she is just another in a long line of GOP war mongering neocons. The fact that she is a second generation Indian-American that uses her middle name (common punjabi), took her husband's last name when they married, and made the conscious decision to raise her family in the context of a shared and common faith tradition that she relates to is not the problem. But y'all keep doing your thing.  

We did not realize you were her spiritual advisor and privy to her innermost thoughts.

We also understand you don’t like her because she masturbates while bombing Yemen. 

 

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5 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

We did not realize you were her spiritual advisor and privy to her innermost thoughts.

We also understand you don’t like her because she masturbates while bombing Yemen. 

 

No kink shaming!!

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4 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

We did not realize you were her spiritual advisor and privy to her innermost thoughts.

I just read interviews where she discusses these things in her own words. 
 

4 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

We also understand you don’t like her because she masturbates while bombing Yemen. 

If she rubbed one out every once in a while she could probably get some release all that pent up militaristic imperialism. There’s a good number of you neoliberals that would benefit from same. 

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9 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I just read interviews where she discusses these things in her own words. 

And when David Duke ran for governor in Louisiana, he said he was born again and Jesus Christ was his personal savior. That was used by many Louisiana voters as a justification to excuse his racist Klan grand dragon past.   My God, there are millions of idiots who think that Trump is a Christian man favored by God to lead the nation.  Religion and politics has always been intertwined.  JFK being a Catholic was the subject of much discussion and a reason for people not to vote for him.   Why you do not think it more likely that a known flip-flopping, hypocritical, power-hungry political candidate would change religions as a matter of future political electability surprises me.  

I know there were many voters convinced Obama was a Muslim. Why? First of all they are all dumb. But second, many people associate a strange sounding name in a negative way.  Candidates want to create the illusion that the candidate is similar to the voter…or at least has much in common.    So she does at every step make choices out of political expediency.   All candidates do.  But the unique quality of a person’s religious beliefs is one of the few things that are beyond the pale as a cheap political ploy, and should not be subject to that manipulation.  Not all character flaws are equal, and many people view that one as particularly egregious. 

But you feel free to believe that the flip-flopping, politically ambitious hypocrite is telling you the truth about just this one thing.

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4 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

But the unique quality of a person’s religious beliefs is one of the few things that are beyond the pale as a cheap political ploy, and should not be subject to that manipulation.  Not all character flaws are equal, and many people view that one as particularly egregious. 

I agree. We should make sure that the sincerity of all presidential candidates religious beliefs is thoroughly and publicly investigated during the nomination process. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what methods of interrogation we should use. Do we get to break out the rack? Or do we go with dunking first?

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5 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I agree. We should make sure that the sincerity of all presidential candidates religious beliefs is thoroughly and publicly investigated during the nomination process. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what methods of interrogation we should use. Do we get to break out the rack? Or do we go with dunking first?

Dispense with formalities and go straight to burning at the stake.

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4 hours ago, Anastasis said:

I agree. We should make sure that the sincerity of all presidential candidates religious beliefs is thoroughly and publicly investigated during the nomination process. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what methods of interrogation we should use. Do we get to break out the rack? Or do we go with dunking first?

Maybe the first thing we do is figure out how many politically ambitious politicians change their religion about the time they were entering politics. The second thing we do is figure out how many of those politicians have a history of major flip-flops on seemingly non-flip-flopable issues to pander to voters.   Once we establish that number, then we can move on to your question. 

As opposed to your proffered interrogation method, maybe use the more likely than not, look at the whole situation thing.  Of course we cannot know her true thoughts.  But your cavalier rejection of even the possibility that an ambitious politician who panders for votes on a side that has issues with the browns or non-‘murica, fuck yeah sounding names and HATES non-Jesus-y religions is puzzling.  Or not. 

I continue to find it fascinating that your both sides act always includes you falling off the fence on only one side. Hmmmm…..

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