21 Comments
May 28Liked by Stephen Robinson

Either she's dumb enough to think she can get the GOP nomination (despite being too servile to Trump for non-MAGAs, and too critical of Trump for MAGAs) or she's hoping to succeed Graham or Scott as Senator. I could see SC electing her--their two current Senators are shameless lickspittles so she'd fit right in.

I also like how Republicans know full well that Trump is completely unfit for the presidency, and so the only way they can justify to themselves why they'll support him is to buy into this absurd notion that Joe Biden is the scariest thing to ever inhabit the White House. Mr. "Republicans are my friends" and "we can negotiate something bipartisan", the guy who stands with NATO and Israel, who does everything by the book and won't even comment on the Special Counsel investigations lest it violate some norms, yeah HE'S just so horrible and scary that they have no choice but to support a wannabe Mussolini. But this is what they have to tell themselves, because otherwise they'd feel ridiculous.

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May 27Liked by Stephen Robinson

I maintain that the purpose of her continuing her campaign was to convince Republican voters who didn’t want to vote for Trump that the party _isn’t_ actually just Trumpists now, and that they could still vote R even if that meant voting for Trump. They wanted to believe that Republicans are more than Trump, and the existence of Haley gave them that excuse, especially if she held out long enough for them to watch more conservative news. Her saying she will vote for Trump, after rightfully pointing out his horrors, gives those Republicans cover.

Conservatives and Liberals are literally hearing different news at this point. It started with the weird Fox fixations like “Obama phones,” where you couldn’t understand what their buzzwords meant and they would ramble on and on in vaguely racist ways but talking about things you’d never heard of. And now, they refuse to believe that large cities aren’t burning hellholes even if they live in those cities! We see the mainstream press picking up their rambles because otherwise they get accused of being stupid and out of touch, but instead of kiboshing the nonsense, they seem to have veered to giving it credence.

“Secure the border” is the weirdest rallying point: there are, perhaps, some border issues, but they are mostly local ones at the border (how do we provide for refugees?) or in large urban centers (how do we combat organized gangs with headquarters in other countries?). The Republican issue really seems to be some deep racism coupled with the fact that their policies (anti-union, anti-worker laws, no healthcare, no minimum wage, decreasing access to college,) don’t benefit the lower and middle classes. “The Border” just insists the threat is brown people and not those R policies. But Republicans of all stripes will be really frustrated if you argue that with them, because they are fed a diet of “crisis at the border!!!” and if you deny that crisis or suggest other ways to fix it, they insist you are just misinformed or Pollyannaing.

They really believe there is a recession, that Biden is stomping people’s rights, that someone is out there killing newborns, because their news says so. Those are Big Real Important issues unlike your boring old “raising the minimum wage will help you.”

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author

I agree. It’s why I never believed Haley staying in the race actually benefitted Biden, as some Dems claimed.

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Remember, repubs think President Biden is worse than trump because this administration believes everyone deserves " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." If anyone they consider "undeserving" gets recognition or assistance it's considered a travesty. Funding the wealthy, punishing women, dragging the country back by taking away any hard-won progress. If an administration isn't doing those things they aren't on board.

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"“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that,” she said Wednesday. "

A lot of MAGA's appeal is based on vanity, a lot of the urge to fascism also stems from vanity.

The ranks of the MAGA cult are filled with people utterly convinced of their own specialness and the injustice of the rest of the world for not recognising that. If they see no obvious sign of their own specialness- say their car dealership isn't doing that well or they can't afford a new boat- they resort to the one thing that cannot be taken from them, their whiteness.

All of them are sure they are special, though. All of them are angry that other people who have actually proven they are special are treated that way, which is why they loathe and mistrust expertise, and all those others who are not treated as special are fighting to at least be treated as fully human.

Haley's appeal here is another sign of this need. Trump and the rest of MAGA don't give a fuck what Haley wants or needs. They were never going to reach out or modify their positions to gain their support. On some level Haley already knows this, but she needs to feel like she's important, she needs to feel like she took a stand and was persuasively engaged so that she would, through reason and a direct appeal, change her mind and support Trump, but that didn't happen and never would have happened.

The right loves to cite Nineteen Eighty-Four, but it seems a lot of them have never read it. It's not clear from their citations that they even know who the protagonists are, but there's no way in their understanding of it that they themselves would show even the level of resistance Winston and Julia do. There's no "do it to Julia!" moment for them- O'Brien wouldn't even need to tell them Room 101 existed. All he'd need to do is say "The Party admires your courage" and they'd immediately love Big Brother.

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"Biden refuses to help them win. He gives them just enough to survive, while Russian missiles and tanks grind their country to dust.” The WHAT with this BS? Biden was working those phones and allies the minute Russia started the war. The ONLY delay was Republican led, courtesy of the man she's now supporting. Yes, Nikki, parse it all you want, your vote is your endorsement.

She must need a lot of physical therapy for all those twists she has to make.

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"So many (mostly white) Democrats supported her campaign to become the less psychotic but still terrible Republican nominee." They did? I genuinely don't recall seeing any Democrats actively supporting Haley, unless you count saying that she's not as bad as Trump. Yes, she was on SNL because Lorne Michaels has zero actual principles, but other than that, was Democrats stumping for Haley a big thing that I missed?

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What was the point of her campaign? To lay the groundwork for being Trump's successor. "Haley has alienated the people who supported her “Not Trump” campaign, and she’s permanently pissed off MAGA for daring to run a “Not Trump” campaign in the first place." If you think Republicans won't vote for her after Trump rides off into the sunset you're wrong. Both camps. They don't care.

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May 24·edited May 24Liked by Stephen Robinson

Admittedly it’s pure speculation on my part but I am positive Trump’s people pulled Nikki aside and mansplained to her either she endorses the Donald or she has no future in the Republican Party. They’ll make sure of that.

The way in which this change of mind played out was a bit weird. She literally just told her donors this month at a retreat to “vote their conscience”. For her to say she’ll vote for him but not in a full throated hand holding endorsement kind of way is very telling.

Not to make excuses for her but I believe she was coerced into it.

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Maybe they sicced Noem on her family pets.

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May 24Liked by Stephen Robinson

“Putin-related natural causes” Yet another amazing bon mot SER.

Nikki wants her ambassador job back. She’s probably going to be very surprised when Trump acts like Trump and screws her over because she hurt his fee fees.

She’s deserves that. Completely!

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If she endorsed Biden over Trump, she'd be up for UN ambassador again or even secretary of state in a second Biden administration. Of course, she imagines that she'll actually have a future in the GOP.

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Yup. Proof that these people don’t even know the long game of their own careers.

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Or which way the wind has completely blown their party away.

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May 24Liked by Stephen Robinson

The metallic *crrreeeeaaaaaakkkkkkkk* you just heard was weathervane Haley re-aligning with the political winds.

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Who didn't see this coming...

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May 24Liked by Stephen Robinson

I don't even know what this quisling windsock's point was except for maybe kayfabe? She was really just completely fake and absolutely undercut everything she claimed about President Klan Robe. And of course she's happy to cosign the ethnic cleansing that comes with supporting him.

Maybe she can get to have a sad bent knee dinner with President Klan Robe just like Mittens did.

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May 24Liked by Stephen Robinson

In for her shame pic calling Trump donors.

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Wonder if she'll manage to get that sad blobfish expression too?

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May 24Liked by Stephen Robinson

Some are saying that she didn't use the words "endorse" or "endorsing" in the speech where she said that she's voting for trump in November, so she hasn't actually endorsed him. False! If you vote for someone and say so publicly, you have endorsed them, so, yes, she's endorsed trump. I didn't watch the video, so it's possible that she did use those words, but I have no desire to listen to her anymore. As for her endorsement, it's no surprise to me, except that it took her so long to do it.

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100%!!

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