Why Didn’t We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland, a Political Scenario for South Carolina Governor Martha Haley
The writer is from South Carolina and a professor of communication studies at Davidson College. His latest book is “Why Didn’t We Riot? A Black Man in Trumpland.” The opinions expressed in this commentary are of his own. View more opinion on CNN.
And though Haley’s embrace of Trumpism was undoubtedly a mistake, there were early indications from her time as governor that her priority was not always the people of South Carolina, but her own political aspirations.
The luncheon was being hosted in the aftermath of the scandal plaguing South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who had snuck out of the country to see his mistress but told his staff he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. After listening to Haley give a fairly routine stump speech, I asked Haley, if she won, would she resign as governor if she made as big a misstep as Sanford had.
As governor of South Carolina, she never messed up like Sanford, who also had strong presidential prospects before his escapades. But she messed up when she decided to embrace Donald Trump – rather than keeping him at arm’s length – providing further proof that even the most talented Republicans were willing to bend the knee to the former president.
Haley is the first woman to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination. She is one of several candidates with a tricky pattern in explaining to voters how they can vote for them if they run against Trump.
If he stumbles or is involved in too many legal battles, Haley should be considered a serious contender. After all, you don’t get elected twice as governor of Deep South, Bible Belt South Carolina as a woman with dark skin and a Sikh background by happenstance.
Health officials in her administration told me at the time that there were simply better options, but it was clear to close observers in the state it was primarily about political expedience – especially when Haley declared that she would not expand Medicaid on President Barack Obama’s watch.
About 40% of the state’s uninsured adults would have received health coverage under an expansion, as well as low-wage workers in retail and hospitality who are concentrated in Horry County, home to resort destination Myrtle Beach, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
A White House study said expansion could have saved hundreds of lives every year in the state. And a University of South Carolina study estimated the state could have seen an additional 44,000 jobs added by 2020 with the multibillion dollar federal investment from a Medicaid expansion.
The First Lady of the Confederate War: Defending the GOP in the Light of a Pro-Life Activist at the University of South Carolina
Indeed, Haley, a self-avowed “pro-life” advocate, stood in the way of life-saving Obamacare – exposing her hypocrisy on an issue that has come to define the modern-day Republican Party.
Her stance on taxes wasn’t much better. Haley adhered to the tax cuts today, tax cuts tomorrow, tax cuts forever boilerplate conservative talking point while in the governor’s mansion. Even though other Republicans said the cuts would be too steep she was still interested in cutting income taxes.
Her handling of the Confederate flag is viewed by many of her supporters as a sign of her sincere commitment to the people of South Carolina and especially the Black community.
After White supremacist Dylann Roof massacred innocent Black churchgoers at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015, Haley took the lead on the decision to take the Confederate battle flag off the South Carolina State House.
Haley got bipartisan respect for that decision. Former Democratic Governor Jim Hodges said that he spoke to Haley during that period, and believes she recognized the need to take down the flag, despite not having championed that cause before.
She took the post of United Nations Ambassador to the Trump administration less than a year later, and she was an example of how Trump had changed the party.
Her approach seemed to work. She had good standing among staunch Trump supporters but had not alienated those who considered themselves moderates and Never Trumpers when she left her position at the UN. As a voter in South Carolina who had just sworn off the Republican Party, I was even more interested in what she had accomplished.
She’ll be worth watching in the primary season because of her strategic decisions. But they are also an important reminder of where so many of the leaders of the Republican Party are today – comfortable with embracing leaders who traffic in bigotry and racism when it’s beneficial in an election cycle, but equally comfortable using race and gender to protect the GOP against barbs from Democrats and others about White supremacy and misogyny.
That is how Haley defended her state against the accusation that flying the flag of traitors who tried to establish a new country built on the premise of black enslavement was hurting its image. It’s a heads I win-tails you lose version of identity politics.
One clear theme of Nikki Haley’s presidential announcement is unity. Over and over, her Tuesday announcement video references bringing people together.
“We turned away from fear toward God and the values that still make our country the freest and greatest in the world,” she said, over video of herself and fellow leaders joining hands in the wake of that crime.
“For those who wish to show their respect for the flag on their private property. No one will stand in your way. She said that the statehouse was different after the shooting. “Today, we are here in an effort to unify our state without the use of ill will to say it’s time to change the flag from the Capitol grounds.”
“I think it’s safe to say it probably was not on her priority list in her second term of things that she was going to focus on,” he told NPR. She should get some credit for moving quickly as a result of the moment.
“The KKK came to South Carolina from out of state to protest on our statehouse grounds,” she told a crowd at a Rubio event. Last year in Charleston, we saw true hate in the eyes. I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK. That is not a part of our party. That is not who we want as president. We will not allow that in our country,” she added, to loud cheers.
Trump put racial resentment at the forefront of American politics, across issues from immigration to policing to education. Trump support has been linked to some racist beliefs.
But a 2019 interview with Glenn Beck, she drew heavy criticism for additionally saying that Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter, had imbued the flag with racist meaning.
“And where does Dylann Roof get it from?” she asks. “Where does he get this association, the Confederate flag, with white supremacy and racist ideology? It doesn’t appear in thin air. He did not steal anything.
All of this happened against a backdrop of a GOP arguing about whether Confederate monuments should stand in the South, not to mention Trump taking multiple positions on the Confederate flag — for example, he supported taking it down in South Carolina, and later was angry when NASCAR banned it at its events.
Why is the Republican Party Disgraceful? A Conversation with Doug Brannon about the 2015 South Carolina Charge to Remove the Confederate Flag
I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. Not white, not black. She says she was different. My mom always told me not to pay attention to the differences and instead to focus on the similarities.
Republicans who are disgusted with the GOP and want it to be unified by casting Democrats as the enemy won’t be unified by that. Doug Brannon is a former Republican lawmaker in South Carolina who led the 2015 charge to remove the Confederate flag.
Brannon explained that Mr. Trump gave people permission to say things they couldn’t say before. They were encouraged by the fact that he had a mouthpiece.
Brannon does not think there is a Republican party anymore and he does not know whether he will vote for a Republican or Democrat in four years.
Teresa Cosby points out that Haley is often mistaken for a moderate but if she were to run again, she would appeal to voters in a lot of red states, including South Carolina.
The fight is between the Republicans. She said that playing to the extreme-right ideology in states like Florida and Texas didn’t pay a penalty.
It’s going to get her points with people who want the Republican Party to return to normal. But how many of those groups are left in the Republican Party?” she asked.