With a glut of rhetorical nonsense, presidential candidate Nikki Haley demonstrated the folly of finding a decent Republican alternative to the former president.
During a town hall meeting, Haley was asked a ridiculously easy question, one that she could have answered in a fashion that would separate herself from the rest of the GOP field.
Instead, she obfuscated herself into oblivion.
The question: What was the cause of the Civil War?
Haley’s answer:
“I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are. And we will always stand by the fact that I think the government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesn't need to tell you how to live your life. They don't need to tell you what you can and can't do. They don't need to be a part of your life. They need to make sure that you have freedom.”
After receiving due criticism for giving such a lackluster non-answer, she tried to rebound by accusing the questioner of being a “Democratic plant” and saying:
“It was about the freedoms of every individual. It was about the role of the government. For 80 years, America had the decision and the moral question of whether slavery was a good thing and whether government economically, culturally, any other reasons, had a role to play in. By the grace of God, we did the right thing and slavery is no more. But the lessons of what the bigger issue with the Civil War is that let's not forget what came out of that, which is government's role, individual liberties, freedom for every single person, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything you want to be without anyone in government getting in our way.”
For now, we will move past her continued inability to answer the question, even though her second answer was no more truthful or logical than her previous response.
Instead, let’s focus on why this is such a disastrous campaign moment for Haley.
First, if the person who asked Haley such a ridiculously easy question to answer was indeed a Democratic plant, he was doing her a huge favor. He was making it easy for her to be candid by acknowledging the basis for America’s racial relations, something that Republican politicians find increasingly difficult to articulate.
Secondly, everyone in the audience could have been anti-GOP, but that doesn’t affect Haley’s ability to give a cogent answer to a simple question. Her answer didn’t require nuance or subtlety.
Just honesty.
Haley’s ramshackle response was her fault, and hers alone.
Despite her paltry attempt at clarification, Haley ought to know better.
She’s a Person of Color. Her birth name is Nimarata Nikki Haley. Her parents are Sikh immigrants from India.
She’s had to face plenty of personal prejudice.
Given her life experience, she ought to know better.
Not only that, but she was also the governor of South Carolina.
The same South Carolina that seceded from the Union.
The same South Carolina where the Battle of Fort Sumter was fought, which marked the beginning of the Civil War.
The same South Carolina where Dylann Roof killed nine people and wounded one person at Emanuel AME church in a racist mass shooting.
It’s not that she couldn’t answer the question.
She wouldn’t answer the question.
She only needed to say one word.
A powerful word.
A word that evokes man’s inhumanity to man.
A word that many in Haley’s party attempt to sidestep.
She didn’t need to say, “forced labor,” “unindentured servitude,” or use weaselly synonyms.
All she had to say was one word.
Slavery.
Accordingly, there’s one word that sums up Nikki Haley’s qualifications to hold the presidency or any public office in America.
Unqualified.