Nikki Haley's Recent Gaffes Related to Race
The Former South Carolina Governor Needs to Acknowledge the Pain of Our Past and Present
In recent months, I’ve written in this space and elsewhere, as well as told friends and colleagues that I wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump. I’ve also said that I wouldn’t vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The reasons I won’t vote for Trump are obvious, but those reasons include January 6, blatant racism toward immigrants, xenophobia, illiberalism, and more. With DeSantis, it pretty much boils down to his illiberalism, culture war nonsense, and historical revisionism.
I plan on voting in the Republican primary. Originally, I was leaning toward former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. He seemed good on policy. I liked that he was talking about getting our politics back to normal. His policy stances were mostly close to mine. I also had the privilege of ghostwriting something for him a couple of years ago. When Hutchinson failed to gain any traction, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie intrigued me because he was pretty much the same as Hutchinson, except he was more outspoken. He also was the only person talking about some issues I care about. Christie recently dropped out, as did Hutchinson.
Which brings me to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Emily and I had a conversation before Christmas about Haley. She asked me if we should vote for Haley if she began to look viable or competitive. I said I’d wondered the same thing. I wasn’t there yet. A friend and colleague called me recently to try to convince me that I should vote for Haley and even send her some money. Well, I don’t give money to federal candidates. (I did once eight years ago, but the candidate and her husband are good friends.) But I mentioned to my friend and colleague that the subject of voting for Haley came up at home and that it was something we were both considering.
There’s no such thing as a perfect candidate. I’m well aware of it. I’ve voted for Republicans, Democrats, and Libertarians since my first election back in 2000. No one, even Libertarian candidates, has had the exact same views as me on every issue. I gather each of you reading this would say the same thing. Haley is being labeled as a neo-conservative by clowns in Trump world and some libertarians. I don’t really know how to label myself on foreign policy issues. War or military intervention should always be a last resort, and it should only be an option when there are clear national security interests. I’m not an isolationist, though. I believe very much in free trade, foreign aid when necessary, and assisting liberal democracies threatened by authoritarian regimes. If that makes me a “globalist” or an “internationalist,” then so be it.
Until recently, Haley was the only candidate talking about deficits and debt. Granted, I don’t think she spoke about the drivers of deficits and debt—which are trust fund programs and net interest—but she was still the only candidate discussing the issue with any substance. I appreciate that. She also recently filled the void left by Christie’s departure by talking about drug addiction and treatment.
Haley has also had some gaffes, the first big one being her suggestion that “[e]very person on social media should be verified, by their name.” She called the lack of such a requirement a national security threat, likely a reference to the fact that foreign nations, notably Russia, use social media to influence our elections. Look, I get it. Also, absolutely not. Anonymous speech is protected speech under the First Amendment. Anonymous speech also has a long history in our nation. See the Federalist Papers, for example. The suggestion gives me pause about Haley. It’s illiberal, unconstitutional, and wrong. Still, in 2024, it’s not necessarily disqualifying when there’s another candidate, Trump, who is openly saying that he’ll retaliate against his political opponents.
More recent comments from Haley about the cause of the Civil War and racism also rubbed me the wrong way. I have to be fair here. Haley was Governor of South Carolina in 2015 when the Confederate battle flag was taken down at the State House in Columbia. Not only did Haley sign the bill that made it happen, she publicly pushed for it. She deserves credit for that. No question.
Last month, though, Haley was asked her thoughts on the cause of the Civil War. Haley replied, “I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are.” Wrong answer. The South Carolina Declaration of Secession makes it abundantly clear that slavery was the cause. As the document states, “[A]n increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution.”
Specifically, South Carolina seceded over the lack of enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act by nonslave states and the election of Abraham Lincoln. The document further notes, “For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that ‘Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,’ and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.”
If memory serves, virtually every other state that seceded cited slavery, in some form or fashion, as the cause. Alexander Hamilton Stephens made it clear in March 1861 when he said, “[A]gitating questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery as it exists amongst us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.”
To Haley’s credit, she said she should’ve answered that slavery was the cause. She also said, “[T]hat's a given that everybody associates the Civil War with slavery.” I gather that she’s mostly right, but there’s a lot of historical revisionism out there about the Civil War and the Confederacy. Haley should know that from the debate over the Confederate battle flag in 2015. Also, the conservative movement’s general aversion to race—because I wouldn’t be surprised to hear someone complain that saying slavery caused the Civil War is “woke”—one can’t be too sure about Haley’s motives here.
Just this week, when asked by Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade if the Republican Party is racist, Haley replied, “We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country.”
I’m sorry, but what the actual shit.
We can debate whether the United States is a racist country. I think it’s a fair debate to have. Certainly, if you were to put yourselves in the shoes of people of color, most of them would point out the racial issues that exist, including racism. Much of the rhetoric around immigration is blatantly racist. What’s undeniable is that racism is all over our past. We have deep stains that we’ll never wash away. We need to be honest about that. Racism took the form of enslaving people from Africa, Jim Crow laws, laws that excluded immigration from China, Hibernophobia and anti-Irish sentiment, the internment of the Japanese, and the treatment of Native Americans/First Nations.
Atrocities—not all government-sponsored—have been committed against people who aren’t white, and Haley’s is going to claim that “[w]e’ver never been a racist country.” You chalk up one gaffe to a misstatement or a feeling that you don’t need to claim the obvious. Why someone who’s running for the highest office in the United States would say that, I don’t know. When it happens again, you begin to assume it’s intentional.
Haley is pretty much the only candidate left who was an option for me. Right now, I’m not so sure she is anymore. Again, I don’t expect perfection. I expect competence. I hate to assume that Haley is playing to the lowest common denominator in our politics, but I don’t know what else to assume.