Charles Krupa / AP, file
Republican presidential candidate, former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley during a campaign stop Monday, March 27, 2023, in Dover, N.H. Haley, the former South Carolina governor became the first major Republican challenger to former President Donald Trump in February. She avoided disclosing how much her campaign raised in its initial days, bypassing what’s typically an early bragging point for candidates.
Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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In the aftermath of the first Republican presidential debate last month, we wrote that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley “offers hope to old-school Republicans. She isn’t anti-democracy, appears to focus on actual policy and doesn’t traffic in the utter boorishness of other leaders in her party. Haley acquitted herself well and, if by some incredible return to sanity in the GOP, she became the nominee, would pose the greatest challenge to Democrats.”
A new CNN poll reveals that not only is Haley the greatest threat to President Joe Biden, she might be the GOP’s only hope of preventing Biden from becoming a two-term president. The poll, which was conducted during the final week of August, shows that Haley would defeat Biden by a nearly 6-point margin in a head-to-head matchup, making her the only candidate whose lead is larger than the margin of error.
This is bad news for Biden, but good news for democracy.
For eight years now we’ve been begging the Republican Party to come back to normal behavior. The incessant lies and violent extremism of Trump’s white nationalist base is a threat not only to the Republican Party, but also to American democracy as we know it.
Elections only matter if we agree, as a society, to accept the outcomes and results. Our laws, constitution and judicial system only work if we, as a society, agree to be bound by the authority of the government and the judgment of the courts. And the United States’ position as the most powerful, most trusted and most stable democracy on the planet can only be maintained if we use our power responsibly, act as a trusted partner to our allies, and peacefully transfer democratic power in a way that conveys confidence and stability around the world.
In its desperate attempt to rewind the clock on progress, the MAGA-crazed Republican Party has undermined each of the foundations of what made America great in the first place. Then, just as the national nightmare of Trump seemed to be coming to an end, a virtually endless parade of Trump bootlickers emerged from the gutters like cockroaches after closing time at a carnival.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took Trump’s cozy relationship with Christian nationalism to the next level, crossing over into outright racism, homophobia and hatred. History will show that his home state will pay the price.
Investor and former pharmaceutical CEO Vivek Ramaswamy took Trump’s critique of “wokeness” and launched a one-man attack on environmentalists, feminists and college students. Far from a principled leader, Ramaswamy has laid bare his true identity as a greedy narcissist who will sacrifice anything, including the future of our planet, in his quest for profit.
But Haley represents something different.
At last month’s debate, the former U.S. ambassador spoke hard truths to audience members who weren’t shy about showing their disdain for her or her hard stance against the new GOP.
She was aggressive about defending facts, calling for honest reflection and reform within her own party with regard to the national debt.
“(President Joe) Biden didn’t do this to us; our Republicans did this to us too,” she said as the crowd booed and hissed. “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us.”
She was honest and unwavering in her support of democracy, standing behind former Vice President Mike Pence and declaring that he did the right thing by certifying the results of the 2020 election — because he did — no matter how much the MAGA crowd didn’t want to hear it.
And she took nuanced positions on difficult topics including abortion, in which she spoke to the need for ratchetting down the rhetoric and finding compromise that protects women, doctors and the unborn alike.
In short, she was a leader. In the weeks since the debate, she has continued to show that same leadership, putting her foreign policy experience on display with forceful explanations of her support for Ukraine, and campaigning for a Republican Party that is measured, reasonable and open to dialogue and compromise.
That’s not to say we agree with her on all or even most of her policy positions.
Her recent attempt to blame the crisis of suicide among teen girls on transgender kids asking to use the locker room and bathroom that aligns with their identity is a new low, even by GOP standards.
“How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker room?” she said at a CNN town Hall in June. “And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year.”
The statement was not only absurd, but cruel in that it ignores the fact that transgender youths are even more likely to commit suicide and be victims of bullying and abuse than their cisgender counterparts.
Her record on a number of other issues is equally troubling, including her refusal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, calling for a ban on school curriculums that discuss the history or legacy or race and racism in the United States, and her advocacy for eliminating the corporate income tax.
But with the exception of her statements on transgender youth, these are mostly instances that point to ignorance, misinformation and legitimate policy disagreements, rather than the outright hatred, violence and arrogant extremism of her GOP counterparts.
Moderate Republicans and independents in Nevada and across the country should take note of Haley’s attempts to return the GOP to its roots as a legitimate political party rather than an extremist organization fighting to overthrow democracy.
If they do, Biden will find that he has a significantly more difficult path back to the White House. Moreover, Americans will find that the campaign for the White House will be defined by debate on actual policy and proposed solutions to America’s challenges, rather than on shameful rhetoric, manipulative lies and divisive name calling. That would be good for our democracy too.
