Nikki Haley is Dangerous, both for Coulter and the Left
On Thursday, Ann Coulter ‘84 viciously attacked Nikki Haley, the recently-announced, fledgling candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, former governor of South Carolina, and former ambassador to the UN.
Conservative commentator Coulter, who is an alumna of both Cornell and the Cornell Review, has furnished a reputation as an abrasive agitator. In November, she spoke at Cornell before being shut down by student activists. At the time, this very publication defended her right to be heard.
Now, Coulter is under fire for her remarks on the “Mark Simone Show,” which included a rather contemptible rant against Haley’s Indian background.
“Her candidacy did remind me that I need to immigrate to India so I can demand they start taking down parts of their history. What’s with the worshiping of the cows? They’re all starving over there, they’re worshiping cows. Do you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?
Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants, and has used her background to speak authoritatively on racial issues in the U.S. She has repeatedly said that America is not a racist country, including during her campaign launch, “Every day, we’re told America is flawed, rotten and full of hate. Joe [Biden] and Kamala [Harris] even say America is racist. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Coulter, in an apparent attack on Haley’s role in removing the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina statehouse, then said:
“Hey, why don’t you go back to your own country and reconsider that history? I am descended from Union soldiers. It’s my history, this is my country, lady. I’m not an American Indian and I don’t like them taking down all the monuments.”
This was the most-reported quote of the night, with numerous national headlines reporting that Coulter told Haley to “go back to your own country.” While the coverage is perhaps slightly overblown, the remark is both disgustingly bigoted and misguided.
In case it needs to be said, Haley is American. This is Haley’s “own country.” Further, hardly one for stripping down American history, Haley has predicated her campaign on fighting those who would, saying she would stand up to bullies like “the socialist left [who] sees an opportunity to rewrite history.”
Coulter is not Haley’s only critic, however. Immediately following her candidacy announcement, the New York Times released a pair of articles attempting to discredit her. A guest essay by former Republican campaign consultant Stuart Stevens labeled her a flip flopper who “threw it all away.” Separately, a panel of Times columnists debated her announcement, overwhelmingly concluding she has no chance with today’s GOP party of Trump and dismissing her as a sellout. The lone exception was columnist Bret Stephens, who warned that “nobody should underestimate her appeal.”
Others also expressed immediate disdain for Haley. Whoopi Goldberg, host of the talk-show The View said:
“So Nikki, you know, since you have been asleep all this time, and you just woke up, you’re just finding out that there are things about our country that are not perfect, and for us to pretend that it is and that nothing happened is ridiculous. So you’re not saying anything new.”
In the Wall Street Journal, columnist Peggy Noonan criticized Haley’s campaign announcement as “creepily stuck in the past.” Though an attractive candidate, Noonan argued, she seemed unauthentic and “tired.”
So what’s the catch? The truth is that everyone sees what Haley can be. Haley is young, intelligent and charismatic. She has had a thus far successful career in governance and in foreign affairs, which is becoming increasingly important as conflicts ripen abroad. Her handling of Trump and the Confederate flag issue show that she is broadly reasonable, and will allow her to appeal convincingly to the center of the country. She has the added advantage of being a minority woman, rendering the inevitable leftist identity attacks dead on arrival.
If nominated, Haley would likely win the general election convincingly. She has the makings of a broadly unifying president, and one that can move us past the fraught political division of the Trump-Biden era.
This makes her a threat. To Coulter, she’s the antithesis of the vehemently anti-immigrant strain that Trump’s candidacy brought to the forefront of American politics. As the proud daughter of immigrants, Haley would likely lead the Republican Party to reject the blindly anti-immigrant fervor in favor of increased border security coupled with an expanded legal immigration system.
To the writers and at the Times and the hosts of The View, Haley is the doom of leftist identity politics. In recent years, Republicans have progressively stolen away more and more minority voters from the Democrats. They continued with steady gains, particularly among Hispanics, in the 2022 midterm elections. A Haley presidential run might permanently destroy the Democrats’ monopoly on minority voters. At any rate, it would be impossible for President Biden and leftist media to convincingly paint Haley as a racist. That’s why a Haley candidacy needs to be extinguished quickly.
Lastly, there is the possibility that Haley might revert to the pre-Trump Republican status quo. To a large mass of conservatives, going back to the Romney era would be worse than continuing on with Trump. At least Trump knew how to fight. Noonan is unconvinced that Haley has that same spunk.
However, these conservatives underestimate Haley. She’s managed to be wildly successful without exploiting her “victimhood status” as a minority. She navigated all sorts of attacks during the Trump administration and managed to leave with her reputation intact. And choosing to announce her candidacy this early was brave. Currently, Haley is alone in the field against the monolith that is Trump. We all saw how Trump behaved toward his opponents during the 2016 presidential run. Standing up to him is no timid act.
There is plenty of time before the election rush kicks in. Time for Haley to expand on and refine her message. Undoubtedly, other Republicans will toss their names in the ring. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ms. Haley’s candidacy starts a wave of similar announcements. But Haley had the courage to be first. That counts for something.