I was thinking about writing a letter to Nikki when an email arrived from her PAC touting Wednesday's speech. This is the response I sent:
I listened to the speech live. As usual, I agreed with the foreign policy views expressed by Ambassador Haley. But I was deeply disappointed with her revelation that she plans to vote for Donald Trump, who is diametrically opposed to our foreign policy views. He cozies up to America’s enemies and disrespects America’s allies. Joe Biden might be weak in his support for American allies, but Donald Trump at his best is just as weak as Biden, and at his worst he is opposed to everything America stands for.
Over the past few months, Nikki has built a movement of Americans who are ready to move on from Trump. With her announcement yesterday, she turned her back on that movement. For months, my friends and political allies have been warning me that my faith in Nikki Haley was misplaced, and that in the end she would betray the conservative cause again, as she has so many times in the past eight years. My Haley T-shirt says, “Make America Normal Again,” but she has given up on making America normal and has gone crawling back to the crook who permanently banned us. In 2028, I will be looking for a candidate who says the things that Nikki Haley says about foreign policy, but who actually has the courage of her convictions.
I personally find Haley's calculation really obvious.
She badly wants Trump to lose in November, then she can spend the next 4 years campaigning against Biden, which is in her wheelhouse. It doesn't actually matter whether Biden's 2nd term goes well or poorly. Republican media (plus some mainstream media) will tell American's that things are horrible, and a majority will believe them.
Of course, she is also counting on Trump going away if he loses, which isn't a given.
It was hard to know whether Haley was burning the bridges at the end of her campaign. Now we know she was not. All the more distasteful because she obviously knows better but has decided to put her own ambition above anything.
The thing is, Nikki DID burn her bridges! She just doesn't seem to realize it. She is "permanently banned" from MAGA - they don't trust her any more than we do. She could have been the figurehead of the non-MAGA minority of the GOP, but now she is on her own, trusted by no one.
Good afternoon Tim---just listened to today's Bulwark pod with Jasmine Crockett and your take on the sadly predictable Haley endorsement of Trump. This is actually about the mailbag segment: the word "emigrate" is not a non-U.S. English term----it specifically refers to what the mailbag query writer referenced, as follows: Emigrate is used when permanently relocating from a home country to a new country. Immigrate means to arrive in a new country after leaving another."
In fairness to Tim's level of distress, I think Tim knew all along this is where Nikki would wind up and he was being polite to some of his fellow Bulwark contributors (I'm talking about you A.B., Mona, Bill Kristol) until now. But now Tim is freed to say what he always knew about Nikki: she has no integrity.
Ahh, Tim, you seem a bit distressed? Perhaps you still held out some glimmer of hope for Ms Haley choosing country over her fantasy of relevance? Somewhere perhaps JVL is chuckling.
I get your phrase "permission structure" but her behaviour is so much worse than that. To folks who aren't well-informed, Ms. Haley presents an image of a reasonable, professional, normalcy - especially on international affairs, a broad topic on which few "popular" Republican celebrities cultivate an image. Thus, when she promotes the obvious lies of 45's competency, strength, & stability, some people (your ~5%) actually accept her statements as truth.
The real issue is that SHE KNOW BETTER! She's well aware of his "flaws" (such a weak word for such disastrous faults), and in her brief moments of truth-telling she's listed quite a few. Cue up those quotes, advertizers!
The losers gallery of knee-bending Republican hypocrites always has more room for small-time graspers like Rubio, Scott, Cruz... (etc., ad nauseum). But Ms. Haley deserves a special spot because of her decision to knowingly lie to voters about matters so consequential to our national security. Shameful.
I had been holding on to a sliver of hope that Nikki would do the right thing. I kind of also knew she would disappoint us. I can't understand how she and the rest of the "normies" who have given up their souls to the orange baboon can't see where this is headed. IF (and that's a big IF) you are allowed to continue in what has become of the republican party, there is no end to the constant debasement of yourself at the alter of t****. You will NEVER wash the stench of him off you. I hope she gets some really thick knee pads because if he wins she is going to spend the next four years on her knees groveling at t****'s feet. Or, you know, doing whatever else it is you do from your knees. She is repulsive.
Nikki Haley did raise her hand to the question during the debates asking who would support Trump as the party's nominee even if he was convicted. But her decision still jolted me. It jolted me out of believing in any chance to reform the Republican party and ever push back on MAGA from within. One immediate consequence of that realization for me personally is that I shall not vote for Larry Hogan to be one of Maryland's U.S. Senators. That may sound illogical. But I am making a hard rejection of anyone carrying the banner for the Republican party. Simpson, Cohen, and Danforth's “Our Republican Legacy” plan is dead on arrival.
As I said in a different thread (about the problem with supporting so-called "normie" Republicans like Hogan), it's an act of self-deception. The rehabilitation of the Republican Party cannot commence until they are utterly crushed, like the Confederacy in 1865. Hogan, Haley and all the rest of the "normies" stand in the way of that happening. This is not a battle about policy differences, which is legitimate and necessary. It's about one party willing to spinelessly condone criminal and traitorous behavior to obtain power. They must be crushed. Like you, for me that comes down to choices beyond rejecting Trump. In my Congressional district, Mike Lawler is running against Mondaire Jones. I'm lukewarm about Jones, and I agree with some of Lawler's positions. But I won't vote for Lawler, because only when the House, Senate and Presidency are taken away from the Republicans will the possibility of redemption begin.
The only redemption I see for Republicans is one accompanied by quitting the Republican party and either running as unaffiliated or joining a new conservative party. There must a clean slate so that the rejection of MAGA may be clearly demonstrated.
I don't think electoral defeat will reform the party. The cult is just too large and the people who know better are far too weak and cowardly. This isn't a nice thing to say, but the best we can hope for is that they will start dying off while the younger converts grow up and come to their senses.
Not all remaining Republicans are Trump cultists. Many of the politicians (like Haley herself) are just ambitious careerists who will go along with the crowd. And most of the crowd like to win. They were drifting away from Trump until the polls showed that Trump was actually competitive with Biden.
As for the cultists, can the cult survive without its founder/leader? When Trump dies or goes to prison (which is inevitable if he loses in November), the cult is likely to splinter.
While I would love to see the new conservative party that Kevin envisions, I fear the Republican Party is likely to limp ahead, divided and incoherent, but still able to win whenever the Democrats nominate candidates too far to the left. I don't see how a new center-right party could draw more than 20-25% of the electorate unless we first undermine the "binary choice" myth that keeps voters captive to the Dem-Rep duopoly.
I see only two ways out: 1) electoral reform, or 2) a Democratic Party that stops pandering to the left and aggressively courts centrists.
I'm saying the Republican party cannot be reformed. Period. I believe it must be replaced with another conservative party or by conservatives who can compete as independents. Ultimately, we need a functioning two-party system. It could take one or two decades for a new party to replace the Republican party. It won't happen quickly because it seems the electorate was not buying what traditional Republicans were selling. They need to regroup, improve their game, and do the retail politics to regain electoral share.
I'm comfortable with your option as well but I'm not sanguine about the younger cultists coming to their senses. They have real and imagined grievances that keep them in the cult.
For those of us like me who knew from the jump that Nikki would eventually endorse Trump (and make no mistake, her saying she will personally vote for Trump is the endorsement that provides the permission structure Sarah often talks about for so-called "normie" Republicans and Trump-skeptical Independents to follow their true feelings and vote Orange), Nikki's capitulation was inevitable. For all her talk of the military and character, she is, in her core, a scared, petty politician whose blinding ambition eclipses any honor or dignity she might have once had. I'm still saying there's a 20% chance she will be Trump's VP pick.
I was thinking about writing a letter to Nikki when an email arrived from her PAC touting Wednesday's speech. This is the response I sent:
I listened to the speech live. As usual, I agreed with the foreign policy views expressed by Ambassador Haley. But I was deeply disappointed with her revelation that she plans to vote for Donald Trump, who is diametrically opposed to our foreign policy views. He cozies up to America’s enemies and disrespects America’s allies. Joe Biden might be weak in his support for American allies, but Donald Trump at his best is just as weak as Biden, and at his worst he is opposed to everything America stands for.
Over the past few months, Nikki has built a movement of Americans who are ready to move on from Trump. With her announcement yesterday, she turned her back on that movement. For months, my friends and political allies have been warning me that my faith in Nikki Haley was misplaced, and that in the end she would betray the conservative cause again, as she has so many times in the past eight years. My Haley T-shirt says, “Make America Normal Again,” but she has given up on making America normal and has gone crawling back to the crook who permanently banned us. In 2028, I will be looking for a candidate who says the things that Nikki Haley says about foreign policy, but who actually has the courage of her convictions.
I personally find Haley's calculation really obvious.
She badly wants Trump to lose in November, then she can spend the next 4 years campaigning against Biden, which is in her wheelhouse. It doesn't actually matter whether Biden's 2nd term goes well or poorly. Republican media (plus some mainstream media) will tell American's that things are horrible, and a majority will believe them.
Of course, she is also counting on Trump going away if he loses, which isn't a given.
It was hard to know whether Haley was burning the bridges at the end of her campaign. Now we know she was not. All the more distasteful because she obviously knows better but has decided to put her own ambition above anything.
The thing is, Nikki DID burn her bridges! She just doesn't seem to realize it. She is "permanently banned" from MAGA - they don't trust her any more than we do. She could have been the figurehead of the non-MAGA minority of the GOP, but now she is on her own, trusted by no one.
Good afternoon Tim---just listened to today's Bulwark pod with Jasmine Crockett and your take on the sadly predictable Haley endorsement of Trump. This is actually about the mailbag segment: the word "emigrate" is not a non-U.S. English term----it specifically refers to what the mailbag query writer referenced, as follows: Emigrate is used when permanently relocating from a home country to a new country. Immigrate means to arrive in a new country after leaving another."
For Nikki Haley, I quote a real republican who has real integrity and real courage:
"There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone...
but your dishonor will remain."
Liz Cheney
In fairness to Tim's level of distress, I think Tim knew all along this is where Nikki would wind up and he was being polite to some of his fellow Bulwark contributors (I'm talking about you A.B., Mona, Bill Kristol) until now. But now Tim is freed to say what he always knew about Nikki: she has no integrity.
Ahh, Tim, you seem a bit distressed? Perhaps you still held out some glimmer of hope for Ms Haley choosing country over her fantasy of relevance? Somewhere perhaps JVL is chuckling.
I get your phrase "permission structure" but her behaviour is so much worse than that. To folks who aren't well-informed, Ms. Haley presents an image of a reasonable, professional, normalcy - especially on international affairs, a broad topic on which few "popular" Republican celebrities cultivate an image. Thus, when she promotes the obvious lies of 45's competency, strength, & stability, some people (your ~5%) actually accept her statements as truth.
The real issue is that SHE KNOW BETTER! She's well aware of his "flaws" (such a weak word for such disastrous faults), and in her brief moments of truth-telling she's listed quite a few. Cue up those quotes, advertizers!
The losers gallery of knee-bending Republican hypocrites always has more room for small-time graspers like Rubio, Scott, Cruz... (etc., ad nauseum). But Ms. Haley deserves a special spot because of her decision to knowingly lie to voters about matters so consequential to our national security. Shameful.
I had been holding on to a sliver of hope that Nikki would do the right thing. I kind of also knew she would disappoint us. I can't understand how she and the rest of the "normies" who have given up their souls to the orange baboon can't see where this is headed. IF (and that's a big IF) you are allowed to continue in what has become of the republican party, there is no end to the constant debasement of yourself at the alter of t****. You will NEVER wash the stench of him off you. I hope she gets some really thick knee pads because if he wins she is going to spend the next four years on her knees groveling at t****'s feet. Or, you know, doing whatever else it is you do from your knees. She is repulsive.
Nikki Haley did raise her hand to the question during the debates asking who would support Trump as the party's nominee even if he was convicted. But her decision still jolted me. It jolted me out of believing in any chance to reform the Republican party and ever push back on MAGA from within. One immediate consequence of that realization for me personally is that I shall not vote for Larry Hogan to be one of Maryland's U.S. Senators. That may sound illogical. But I am making a hard rejection of anyone carrying the banner for the Republican party. Simpson, Cohen, and Danforth's “Our Republican Legacy” plan is dead on arrival.
The Republican party was actually dead before Trump took that ride down the escalator in 2015.
Remember that Ted Cruz, who is just a different flavor of Trump, was the only realistic alternative to Trump in 2016.
As much as I detest Cruz, I doubt even he would have acted as Trump did on Jan. 6.
As I said in a different thread (about the problem with supporting so-called "normie" Republicans like Hogan), it's an act of self-deception. The rehabilitation of the Republican Party cannot commence until they are utterly crushed, like the Confederacy in 1865. Hogan, Haley and all the rest of the "normies" stand in the way of that happening. This is not a battle about policy differences, which is legitimate and necessary. It's about one party willing to spinelessly condone criminal and traitorous behavior to obtain power. They must be crushed. Like you, for me that comes down to choices beyond rejecting Trump. In my Congressional district, Mike Lawler is running against Mondaire Jones. I'm lukewarm about Jones, and I agree with some of Lawler's positions. But I won't vote for Lawler, because only when the House, Senate and Presidency are taken away from the Republicans will the possibility of redemption begin.
The only redemption I see for Republicans is one accompanied by quitting the Republican party and either running as unaffiliated or joining a new conservative party. There must a clean slate so that the rejection of MAGA may be clearly demonstrated.
I don't think electoral defeat will reform the party. The cult is just too large and the people who know better are far too weak and cowardly. This isn't a nice thing to say, but the best we can hope for is that they will start dying off while the younger converts grow up and come to their senses.
Not all remaining Republicans are Trump cultists. Many of the politicians (like Haley herself) are just ambitious careerists who will go along with the crowd. And most of the crowd like to win. They were drifting away from Trump until the polls showed that Trump was actually competitive with Biden.
As for the cultists, can the cult survive without its founder/leader? When Trump dies or goes to prison (which is inevitable if he loses in November), the cult is likely to splinter.
While I would love to see the new conservative party that Kevin envisions, I fear the Republican Party is likely to limp ahead, divided and incoherent, but still able to win whenever the Democrats nominate candidates too far to the left. I don't see how a new center-right party could draw more than 20-25% of the electorate unless we first undermine the "binary choice" myth that keeps voters captive to the Dem-Rep duopoly.
I see only two ways out: 1) electoral reform, or 2) a Democratic Party that stops pandering to the left and aggressively courts centrists.
I'm saying the Republican party cannot be reformed. Period. I believe it must be replaced with another conservative party or by conservatives who can compete as independents. Ultimately, we need a functioning two-party system. It could take one or two decades for a new party to replace the Republican party. It won't happen quickly because it seems the electorate was not buying what traditional Republicans were selling. They need to regroup, improve their game, and do the retail politics to regain electoral share.
I'm comfortable with your option as well but I'm not sanguine about the younger cultists coming to their senses. They have real and imagined grievances that keep them in the cult.
For those of us like me who knew from the jump that Nikki would eventually endorse Trump (and make no mistake, her saying she will personally vote for Trump is the endorsement that provides the permission structure Sarah often talks about for so-called "normie" Republicans and Trump-skeptical Independents to follow their true feelings and vote Orange), Nikki's capitulation was inevitable. For all her talk of the military and character, she is, in her core, a scared, petty politician whose blinding ambition eclipses any honor or dignity she might have once had. I'm still saying there's a 20% chance she will be Trump's VP pick.