In mid-February, at the height of the battle for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, former Ambassador Nikki Haley spoke to NBC News and made a seemingly compelling case for her candidacy.
“I know the American people will not vote for a convicted criminal,” the South Carolinian said. There was simply “no way” this could happen, Haley added.
Her point at the time, of course, was to present herself as a superior alternative to Donald Trump. Haley essentially told Republican Party primary voters that the former president may have limited, far-right appeal, but that the party had a responsibility to think about the general election — and Trump was simply too tarnished to be competitive on a national level. are.
At first glance, Haley’s argument seemed sensible. After all, the United States is a serious country. Americans live in the preeminent global superpower. Our nation is the indispensable nation – humanity’s last, best hope.
We may sometimes stumble and fall short of our highest ideals, but with Haley’s prediction in mind, Americans were not about to elect an idiot criminal to the highest office in the land. The White House is no place for a twice-deposed clown. A con artist who is labeled as a dangerous fascist by his own top employees. An erratic criminal operating on an authoritarian platform. A two-man guy who ran a fraudulent charity, a fraudulent ‘university’ and a company guilty of systemic fraud. A deceiver who knows nothing about governing and doesn’t care about it. A man who was accused of sexual misconduct by literally dozens of women – including one woman who, according to a jury of Trump’s colleagues, was sexually assaulted by the candidate. A corrupt politician who dismisses his own country as ‘evil’ and a ‘garbage bin’ and who condemns many of his fellow countrymen as ‘vermin’.
When Haley said in February that there was simply “no way” the American people would put such a person in the Oval Office, it rang true because it seemed to sum up common sense. Sure, politics in the United States often seems broken, but there are still some some basic rules apply. Even in 2024 they will be there some boundaries.
But therein lies the problem. These assumptions have been proven wrong – and they must be replaced.
There was a line in Kamala Harris’ speech at the Ellipse last week that stuck in my mind the moment she said it:
Donald Trump has spent ten years trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is. But America, I’m here tonight to say, that’s not who we are.
It’s a phrase we’ve heard quite a bit in recent years and is used invariably by those who like to see Americans in the best possible light. The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty had a memorable piece about this, published eleven months ago, on New Year’s Day 2024. After noting a number of prominent political voices who have pointed out political misdeeds and said they are “not who we are,” the columnist wrote:
“This is not who we are” can be an affirmation, a rebuke, an inoculation. What is worth questioning is whether these words are now, or ever were, the truth about Americans. An answer will come in November. No election in memory will have produced such a clear delineation of what American values really are.
“This is not who we are” is a type of argument rooted in the idea that when push comes to shove, the stakes are high and the United States has to make a very consequential decision, Americans can be counted on to do the right thing will choose over evil. .
It’s part of our national character, the pitch goes. It’s in our DNA. It is “who we are.”
Perhaps as Trump prepares to return to power, we are due for a reassessment? Maybe it’s time to grapple with what’s new in our political system?
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
