Despite the buzz and endorsements and right-wing donors pouring millions of dollars into her campaign, Republican candidate Nikki Haley would never become president of the United States.

Now she is

Real

will never become President of the United States and that’s about the only thing surprising about this twist

–

events are the reason.

Race and racism appear to be important issues, even for Republicans. Yeah, sort of. But let’s back up first.

By now you’ve probably heard about the extraordinarily simple question that Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, couldn’t answer Wednesday night at a campaign town hall event in New Hampshire.

What,” one man wondered, “was the cause of the American Civil War?

Haley, who was the first Indian-American woman to break barriers

in the nation

to serve as governor and the first in a White House cabinet

-level

role as UN ambassador, seemed truly confused. Well, don’t come up with an easy question, she told the man, whom she desperately dismissed as a democratic “plant” on Thursday.

She continued: I think the cause of the civil war was really how the government would function

,

the freedoms and what people could and could not do.

I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are, Haley added. And

We

I will always maintain that I believe that the purpose of government was to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. The government doesn’t have to tell you how to live. They don’t have to tell you what you can and can’t do. They don’t have to be part of your life.

Not this one

–

In a response that echoed segregationists’ excuses, the man, who declined to give his name to reporters, told Haley: “In the year 2023, I find it amazing that you answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery.’

Sorry, but that’s not surprising. Haley is not and never has been a party moderate, despite the growing number of independents and moderate Republicans who have told pollsters they think she is. Her history on race is mixed at best.

As Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement, “This is what Black South Carolinians have come to expect from Nikki Haley, and now the rest of the country is starting to see her for who she is.

This is the woman who, when she ran for governor in 2010, met with the leaders of Confederate heritage groups and told them that the Civil War was a battle between tradition and change, and that she supported the battle between tradition and change .

to have

a Southern one

H

story

M

on.

This is also the woman who, during her campaign for re

–

election

as governor

rejected calls in 2014 to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina State House. This was after it was revealed that she had offered to use her identity as a child of immigrants to somehow convince the NAACP that the Confederate flag “is not something racist.”

These days, of course, Haley likes to stand by her decision

the

removing the flag in 2015 after a white supremacist killed nine Black people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

in 2015.

She did so again Thursday during a town hall event in New Hampshire.

By the grace of God, we have done the right thing and slavery is no more, Haley said, according to the Washington Post. I say that as one

S

outsider. I say that as one

S

southern governor who removed the Confederate flag from the State House grounds.

“Yes, we know the Civil War was about slavery,” she added.

Not that Haley is convincing anyone, let alone Democrats. As Harrison said, I’m disgusted, but I’m not surprised.”

But what

is

surprising is the way even Republicans have stacked Haley.

In addition to social media posts from President Biden, it was about slavery and California

‘S

Democrat Ro Khanna Haley’s refusal to talk honestly about slavery or race in America is a sad betrayal of her own story. There have been reports from rival GOP presidential candidates and even random Republicans.

The answer is slavery, Rep. Byron Donalds, the black Republican from Florida who always shows up

D

to defend Blackness at its most pointless moments, posted on X. PERIOD.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also running for the Republican nomination but will also not become president, joked that

he thought

Haley

had made a mistake

the man who asked her about the Civil War “for a Super PAC donor.”

cap Super cq as written/sw

Meanwhile, Republican candidate Ron DeSantis called what Haley said an incomprehensible word salad and

said

that she had some problems with a piece of basic American history, because it is “not that difficult to identify and recognize the role that slavery played in the Civil War.”

Of course, most of this is just performative pandering, especially from DeSantis.

After all, he is the one who, as governor of Florida, banned books and classes on black history and championed a school curriculum that teaches how slaves developed skills that could, in some cases, be applied to their personal benefit. And now, in a new level of shamelessness, the super PAC supporting DeSantis is trolling Haley wearing T-shirts emblazoned with

:

What do you want me to say about slavery?

But hidden within this hypocritical Republican drivel seems to be a surprising and astonishing recognition that the culture wars of the

previous past

A few years, while so effective with far-right voters, have taken their toll on the American public as a whole. We are tired and fed up, especially in liberal California.

Being historically accurate about race and racism is not

Real

case for the Republicans. But

they seem to recognize that

they will never be elected to national office

in great numbers

again without at least pretending

do

.

Haley was never a serious alternative to the tired, white supremacist, autocratic ravings of former President Trump. And she showed us why in the worst way possible, inspiring a rare bit of bipartisan contempt.

Whether this is progress or not, I’m not entirely sure. But in the spirit of the holidays, I’ll take all the hope I can get.