For MAGA lose Trump win Haley
Good societies needs a right-thinking hard-hitting antidote vote
Replay her blistering UN speeches and be inspired.
I will never forget Haley’s admirable and articulate thunderings against the United Nations sanctioned axes of evil. With Trump the US would be stronger-dumber. With Haley it could be stronger-smarter. Now’s your chance. Kimberley Strassel shows how.
This is included on Social Science Files because our ultimate aim is a better society.
Nikki Haley Needs a Rationale
Republican voters are open to voting for someone other than Trump—but why her?
From the sound of a vituperative Donald Trump in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Nikki Haley is doing something right. From the look of those South Carolina polls, she isn’t doing nearly enough. Now is the moment to see if a Trump challenger can hit on a magic formula.
The notion that this contest is already over is absurd. Only 434,000 voters in two states have so far recorded a preference for a Republican nominee—about 1.4% of the 31 million who took part in the 2016 GOP presidential primaries. In the race to secure 1,215 delegates for the nomination, Mr. Trump leads Ms. Haley, 32 to 17. That Haley number is almost exactly what Mr. Trump had after the first two races in 2016, the year he won.
Math can hold a dubious place in politics, but time is also on this competition’s side. It’s a month before the South Carolina primary, and we’re in an anything-can-happen political era—buffeted by prosecutors, leaks, bizarre scandals, Supreme Court moments and elderly candidates. Ms. Haley needs only one thing to keep this a live fight—money—and she’s got plenty of it. Mr. Trump knows this, which explains his irate Truth Social threat to bar permanently “from the MAGA camp”—“from this moment forth”—anybody who “makes a ‘contribution’ to Birdbrain.”
Ms. Haley’s donor loyalty isn’t the only thing crawling under Mr. Trump’s skin. After months of rivals’ tiptoeing around the putative incumbent, Ms. Haley in the days leading to New Hampshire sharpened her criticism—raising concern about Mr. Trump’s age, lumping him in with Joe Biden, reminding Republicans of his record of losing elections. Attacking Mr. Trump can be risky, for fear of alienating voters already fed up with the left’s lawfare assault on the former president. But factual criticisms are digestible, even persuasive, and Ms. Haley’s emerging formula helped boost her to 43% of the Granite State vote—7 points higher than polls predicted.
Ms. Haley has money, she has a two-person race, and she has arguments for why Mr. Trump would be the wrong nominee. What’s missing is the case for why she’d be the right one. “Stand for America” and “Generational Change” aren’t going to set the masses alight, at least not to the degree she needs to start winning.
Campaign slogans can be overrated, but they can also capture a national desire. Liberals wield the shorthand “MAGA” as a term of scorn, but don’t forget its actual promise—make America great again. Mr. Trump still uses his catch phrase to great effect, animating his audiences with a promise of a “movement” that is “pro-border, pro-jobs, pro-freedom” and “100% pro-America.” This time around he doesn’t even have to bother with policy specifics; voters know what he did last time and simply expect a repeat.
Ms. Haley doesn’t have that luxury. She certainly has reform specifics—on taxes and education, healthcare and entitlements. But outside her in-person events, or the occasional debate minutes devoted to substance, few hear them. Most of her TV ads feature anodyne promises to “fix the economy,” “beat China” and “strengthen the cause of freedom”—promises that could as easily feature in a Biden ad.
Mostly she lacks an animating rationale for her candidacy, one that can be articulated in a few words, then illustrated and propelled by a handful of hard-charging policy priorities. MAGA resonates, but there are other ways to speak to today’s bipartisan American frustration. This column last week described the tens of millions of Americans who feel impotent against a ruling elite. And there’s no lack of recent prior examples of Republicans tapping into parts of that rage. Glenn Youngkin channeled parental anger over the education machine. Ron DeSantis tapped into voter disgust with corporate social engineering. Vivek Ramaswamy initially got traction with his calls for deep-state overhaul.
A fruitful and unifying kernel (a basis for that Haley rationale) rests in the simple word “freedom,” a word that is bigger even than MAGA, and has grown more powerful during three years of stifling Biden rule. Average Americans want to be free again—free from failing teachers and diversity mandates, from Facebook censorship and three-hour wash cycles, from IRS complexity, smash-and-grab robberies and unchecked illegal immigration. They want a candidate who promises to guarantee that freedom by going to war with spenders on both sides, tyrannical bureaucrats, ivory-tower institutions, and bad guys around the world.
That’s a movement that’s even bigger than MAGA, especially if it could be harnessed by someone who doesn’t have Mr. Trump’s baggage or alienating ways. It’d take some thought and prioritization—and require a reboot by Ms. Haley’s campaign. But what she needs most right now is to capture attention in a big way.
My thanks to the Wall Street Journal … and conservative Condorito
Dr Michael G. Heller