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Ross Douthat
By Ross Douthat
Opinion Columnist
Nikki Haley lost the New Hampshire primary but found a cause: getting under Donald Trump’s not exactly rhinoceros-thick skin. The story of the Republican primary campaign in the days since Trump’s victory has been one where the victor acts like a sore loser and the likely loser loosens up, goads her stronger rival and finds a pool of small-dollar donors to keep her in the race.
Haley’s turn toward mockery and confrontation has created modest excitement in the disillusioned world of NeverTrump punditry. Maybe the remaining non-Trump Republican is giving up on being vice president or winning some future G.O.P. primary campaign. Maybe she’s ready to make Trump’s unfitness her exclusive theme. Maybe, as The Dispatch’s Nick Catoggio speculates, by needling and attacking and bringing out Trump’s worst behavior, she can even bring about the long-awaited Republican crackup that would finally defeat Trump on the scale that he deserves.
I don’t think this hope makes a lot of sense. The idea that there exists some form of elite Republican denunciation, combined with egregious Trumpian misbehavior, that could shatter the G.O.P. coalition and send him to a Barry Goldwater or George McGovern-style defeat, seemed plausible enough eight years ago. It’s what I expected and what Republicans deserved.
But I should have heeded the wisdom of Bill Munny in Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven”: “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Because since then we’ve seen all kinds of terrible behavior, coupled with attempted repudiations from all sorts of Republicans, including Trump’s own aides and cabinet appointees. And yet the rule has held: Ask people if they like Trump and majorities do not, but put Trump up against the current Democratic Party, and he becomes a viable candidate for president.
Maybe Haley is the right figure to change that. But she has nowhere near the pre-Trump fame of a Mitt Romney or the ideological credibility of a Liz Cheney. And based on what we saw from Chris Christie’s campaign, a pure repudiate-Trump candidacy is only likely to enhance Trump’s margins in the remaining primaries, emphasizing Haley’s hopelessness rather than her gumption.
Moreover, wouldn’t there be something a little bit strange, after two consecutive primary campaigns in which Republicans desperately competed for a chance to face off with Trump one-on-one, for the winner of that prize to immediately give up on winning any more supporters? Haley’s consolidation of gentry Republicans succeeded in boxing out Ron DeSantis’s attempt to build a larger non-Trump coalition. Is she really not even going to attempt to build a larger coalition of her own?
It’s not as if there won’t be time after the South Carolina primary for her to play the anti-Trump gadfly, if that’s her appointed destiny. For now she has four weeks to make a pitch to the conservative voters who made her governor twice over. Maybe she should try?
That wouldn’t mean leaving Trump alone; by all means, goad him into debating and call him a coward if he doesn’t. But it would mean trying to do what DeSantis was ineffectively attempting and make a pitch on issues, not just character — trying to address head-on the problems that have made it hard for the Republican Party’s donor-friendly candidates to win over its more disillusioned and downscale voters.
Such a message might sound something like this: I know you don’t trust Republican politicians on immigration. Or foreign policy. Or social and cultural issues. I get it. Our party let you down.
But Trump failed you too. The reason there’s a crisis on the border is because of Joe Biden, but also because Trump didn’t build the wall he promised or pass tough immigration laws when he had Republican majorities. The reason 2020 was so terrible is that Trump let our enemies get the better of him. He was kissing up to Beijing when Covid-19 escaped a Chinese lab. He let liberal bureaucrats run the public health response. He let the riots happen, he let the statues get torn down. He says the election was stolen, but he was president when the Democrats changed the election rules. He let it happen.
He says I’m the establishment candidate, but the establishment is lining up behind him — because they think he’ll let them run circles around him again. If you go with me, I’ll lay down a marker: If there isn’t a wall in four years, primary me, I’ll deserve it. If I send troops into harm’s way without a clear threat to America, primary me, I’ll deserve it. If there’s a crime wave while I’m president, primary me, I’ll deserve it.
But right now, I’m asking for your vote. You gave him a chance. It didn’t work out; that’s why we’re back here. Let me finish the job.
I don’t have any illusions that this message would be enough, in South Carolina or beyond. I just think that before Haley remakes herself as a candidate of anti-Trump catharsis, she should spend one short month trying to be a candidate who wins.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
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Ross Douthat has been an Opinion columnist for The Times since 2009. He is the author, most recently, of “The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery.” @DouthatNYT • Facebook
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A Radical Proposal for Nikki Haley: Try to Win More Votes
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27.01.2024
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Supported by
Ross Douthat
By Ross Douthat
Opinion Columnist
Nikki Haley lost the New Hampshire primary but found a cause: getting under Donald Trump’s not exactly rhinoceros-thick skin. The story of the Republican primary campaign in the days since Trump’s victory has been one where the victor acts like a sore loser and the likely loser loosens up, goads her stronger rival and finds a pool of small-dollar donors to keep her in the race.
Haley’s turn toward mockery and confrontation has created modest excitement in the disillusioned world of NeverTrump punditry. Maybe the remaining non-Trump Republican is giving up on being vice president or winning some future G.O.P. primary campaign. Maybe she’s ready to make Trump’s unfitness her exclusive theme. Maybe, as The Dispatch’s Nick Catoggio speculates, by needling and attacking and bringing out Trump’s worst behavior, she can even bring about the long-awaited Republican crackup that would finally defeat Trump on the scale that he deserves.
I don’t think this hope makes a lot of sense. The idea that there exists some form of elite Republican denunciation, combined with egregious Trumpian misbehavior, that could shatter the G.O.P. coalition and send him to a Barry Goldwater or George McGovern-style defeat, seemed plausible enough eight years ago. It’s what I expected and what Republicans deserved.
But I should have........
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