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Thursday, January 14, 2016

Nikki Haley and the Republican Civil War

By this time Nikki Haley's State of the Union "rebuttal" is all over the news.  You can read the whole thing or watch the video below.  A rousing call to arms it is not.  It does not inspire one to go out and vote Republican.  In fact it's theme was not to talk about Obama and the Democrats but about "good" Republicans and "bad" Republicans.  

It points out the fact that there is a not-so-civil war going on for the Republican Party and her comments were shots fired in that war. She chose her side, which is a shame because this election is not going to be a slam dunk for Republicans. This was an opportunity to draw a sharp distinction between Republicans and Democrats even as the country turns against Obama. Instead, she chose, unwisely in my opinion, to fight the populist wing of her own party. That shows poor judgement. It also highlights the disdain that the Republican establishment has for the "country class" and the fear it has of losing control of the narrative.

This election marks a critical tipping point in the history of our country. We are either going to try to recover our former respect for individual freedom and self-reliance, or we are going toward the kind of soft socialism characteristic of Europe. The kind of culture that leaves them helpless in the face of invasion from the third world. Cultural suicide is fairly painless for a long time.

An analogy can be drawn between the "radicalism" of Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin some 250 years ago, versus the desire of so many good British subjects in His Majesty's American Colonies to apply to King and Parliament for better understanding and compromise. The radicals won in part of North America but another part, named Canada, took the gentler approach. The rest is history.


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