Nikki Haley did the most Nikki Haley thing by announcing her intention to vote for Donald Trump in the presidential election. She gave in to Trump and disappointed all the conservative Never Trumpers who voted for her.
But for those watching closely, this outcome was predictable given Haley's career over the past decade or so. A quick recap: In 2015, she criticized Trump's temperament, saying, “That's not who we are as Republicans. That's not what we do.” (Spoiler alert: That's who we are, and at least in the post-Trump Republican Party, that's what we are and what we do.)
In her 2016 State of the Union address, Governor Haley responded to then-President Barack Obama with a cryptic warning: “In times of uncertainty, it can be tempting to follow the temptation of the angriest voices.” About a month later, she said Trump embodies “everything a governor doesn't want in a president.”
A week of inexcusable hypocrisy from pro-Trump Republican leaders
Haley then admitted she would vote for Trump in 2016, but said she was “not a fan.” This ambiguous response was enough to support her appointment as UN ambassador. After Ms. Haley retired from her ambassadorship, she wrote a book praising Mr. Trump.
This optimism continued until the January 6th attack on the Capitol, when Haley declared, “We [Trump] Let us down… He walked a path he shouldn't have walked, so we shouldn't have followed him or listened to him. And we can't prevent something like that from happening again. ”
By October 2021, Haley changed her tune again, saying of Trump, “The Republican Party needs him. I don't want us to go back to the pre-President Trump days.”
Returning to the 2024 campaign, she said, “If President Trump runs, I won't run,'' and then changed her mind and ran against President Trump.
See the pattern? When it comes to Trump, Haley is conflicted, inconsistent, and unstable. It is unclear whether she is motivated by ambition or cowardice.
So why did some of us hold on to a glimmer of hope that this time would be different?
Haley's presidential campaign suggested she had grown into a “Never Trump” leader.
“Early in the campaign, Haley had pledged to support Trump as a candidate even if he was convicted, as if she were running for vice president,” AB Stoddard recalled.[b]Now that the campaign is over, she feels she no longer has an obligation to support him, holds him responsible for failing to stop the violence on January 6, and wonders whether she would comply if he were to return to office. said he did not know. Constitution. “
Haley's recent change in attitude toward Trump is perhaps her worst. Because Ms. Haley had become something of a symbol of the conservative resistance. She is drawing about 20% of the vote in the Republican primary, even though she withdrew from her race several months ago.
Michael Cohen is no hero
In this respect, she was a symbol of the Never Trump conservative movement's thirst for leadership. Haley could have been that leader. But she betrayed us.
It's one thing to be defeated; it's another to defect. What Haley did is more like surrender, which has the effect of discouraging and demoralizing the soldiers. But for many of us, this is deja vu all over again.
My biggest setback came when I naively believed Marco Rubio was the future of conservatism, but it wasn't Rubio's loss in the 2016 Republican primary that disillusioned me, it was his seamless transformation into MAGA Marco that truly crushed my spirit.
Former Sen. Ben Sasse is another up-and-coming conservative politician who has disappointed me. Sasse has a lot to recommend, but he certainly hasn't had the courage to stand up for his beliefs during the difficult Trump era.
Perhaps it’s because (like many NeverTrumpers) I had a “type” – a young, charismatic, conservative Polish woman giving inspiring speeches. Recognizing this essential weakness made me less susceptible to Nikki Haley’s charms than I might have otherwise been.
This is good news. Because if there's one thing we've learned (besides not trusting Nikki Haley), it's that there is no correlation between these superficial attributes and the attributes that really matter. That's it.
Having been disappointed before, my attitude towards Haley can best be described as cautiously optimistic.
Mitt Romney has a point about Trump's pardons
One strategy employed by avid sports fans desperate for self-preservation is to bet on their favorite teams. This acts as a kind of hedge: either your beloved team wins or you walk away with cash. To avoid having our hearts broken again, many of my “Never Trump” conservative compatriots employ a similar defense. As Mel Brooks advised, we “hope for the best” and “expect the worst.”
And in this respect, Nikki Haley is just the most disappointing Republican in a long series of disappointments.
I hope that one day we will have a decent centre-right leader with character and integrity. It doesn't matter how old or boring that leader is.
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