Nikki Haley Is Only Getting Votes Because She’s Not Trump

The frustrating thing about Nikki Haley is that she isn’t willing to own the loose coalition of pro-democracy Never Trumpers, moderates, and Dems showing up to vote for her. She is an unwilling avatar of a movement she doesn’t like. Let me explain.

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) February 28, 2024

How WEIRD is it that she is being boosted by a coalition she steels herself to ignore. Since when do candidates go to do much effort to ignore their actual base, or even show disdain for it. It’s so strange. But that’s Haley.

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) February 28, 2024

Excuse typos as I struggled to write and rewrite these tweets to fit the word limit. I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS. 😜

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) February 28, 2024

I agree with the analysis here, but I think Haley is only attacking Trump because it keeps her (barely) in the running. Trump is grossly incompetent and unfit for office; but that’s about all the difference there is between her and Trump.

Being the leader of a “pro-democracy coalition that has yet to be organized and recognized for long-lasting change” is chimerical anyway. That’s like running in a platform of Mom, America, and apple pie. What king-lasting change is it looking for, except “Not Donald Trump!”?

Haley has stumbled across a coalition she doesn’t want. It reminds me of the people who tried to build a third-party around Ross Perot, for people who didn’t like the two major parties but wanted a real political party that reflected their ideas.

It died with Perot’s failure to win. Mostly because they all had different ideas about what a political party should really be.

I don’t like Haley, but she’s not that naive.