Former Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has been touted by the establishment of the Republican Party as the answer to their "Trump problem." Hitching their wagons to her after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis failed to gain traction, Haley has been touted as the one person who can turn back the clock for the GOP. And on Wednesday, she did just that—in the most destructive way possible to her campaign.
Haley was asked a basic question about the cause of the Civil War. Her response, steeped in "Lost Cause" revisionist garbage, was disqualifying.
"I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run," Haley said. "The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do."
She added, "I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are. And I will always stand by the fact that I think 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. We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic freedom. We need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way."
When challenged by the questioner on her refusal to utter the word "slavery," her response was a dismissive: "What do you want me to say about slavery?" She then moved on to the next question.
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Haley knows better. After a white supremacist murdered members of the Emanuel AME Church in 2015, she supported the removal of the Confederate flag from government grounds.
The fact that the same person who once said she was "proud" to lead the effort to remove the flag gave that answer about the Civil War shows a level of cynicism and disdain for her own voters that stands out, even in 2023.
Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley addresses the crowd during a campaign stop at the Nevada Fairgrounds community building on December 18, 2023 in Nevada, Iowa.SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
On the merits, her claim is false. Regardless of the decades of lies peddled by Confederate apologists, the evidence that the Civil War was primarily (if not exclusively) over slavery comes from the Confederates themselves.
In his infamous "Corner Stone" Speech, Alexander Stephens, the then-Vice President of the Confederacy, made this clear: "The new [Confederate] constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery as it exists among us—the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution." He added, "Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea [of American equality]; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition."
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The Confederate Constitution itself is littered with protections for slavery. Outlawing states from abolishing slavery, requiring slavery in any new states and territories that join the Confederacy, and requiring the return of escaped slaves to their "owners" are just a few of the "rights" for slaveowners that would've been enshrined in that country's Constitution had they won the war. The historical record is clear.
The only people who deny it are those who want to perpetuate it, those who can't accept the reality that they've been lied to for their entire lives, and those, like Haley, who cynically believe that it is what her audience wants to hear.
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No one should be more insulted than the Republican primary voters that Haley is courting. By making those stupid comments, she showed Republican voters how little she actually thinks of them. To be afraid to utter the word "slavery" concerning the Civil War suggests that she thinks that Republican voters are so bigoted that acknowledging reality would create a political backlash for her. In particular, the South Carolinians who twice elected Haley, herself a person of color, as governor should feel insulted at the low opinion that she apparently has for her own voters.
This is not new. Using cynical appeals to racism in order to gain power has been a tool of the Republican establishment since the fusionist movement created the modern Republican establishment in the 1960s. Yet the torrent of criticism that Haley has received, even from some on the Right, shows that times are changing.
As more minorities begin weighing their political options, this kind of behavior will be less and less acceptable. Politicians ignore constituencies that they don't have to cater to, but with nearly 20 percent of today's Republican primary vote now comprising of people of color, these cynical attempts to use race as a political weapon will eventually be more trouble than they are worth. When the internal pressure increases on Republican politicians to stop this foolishness, then things will change.
Haley is now backtracking, blaming a "Democratic plant" for the question and declaring that "of course" the Civil War was about slavery. It appears she has learned the valuable lesson that pre-Fusionist Republican Everett Dirksen taught a long time ago: "When [politicians] feel the heat, [they] see the light."
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