Yesterday, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley attended a town hall in New Hampshire. A citizen asked her a very simple question. “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” Gosh, even as the Confederate states seceded, they rattled their sabres and said “we’re going to war over slavery!” They were quite proud of the fact. But, “slavery” was the word Nikki avoided in her answer.

In classic Republican fashion, rather than confront the issue head on, Nikki went back to the evasion playbook. On radio show “he Pulse of NH”, Nikki agreed that “Of course the Civil War was about slavery. We know that. That’s the easy part of it.” Nikki, Nikki explained, was taking a “larger view”. Not from 30,000 feet but from a whole other solar system in a whole other galaxy.

Nikki Haley – Ignoramus Or Fraud?

Nikki Haley was the governor of South Carolina – home to Fort Sumter – where the first shots of the Civil War landed. They were fired by Confederate forces at Union forces.

Over slavery.

And yet, Nikki couldn’t mention that word. To his infinite credit, the citizen who asked Nikki about slavery, stood up to Nikki better than most of the press could.

After Nikki’s bullshit response, the citizen remarked how surprised he was that in 2023 a candidate for POTUS would answer that question the way Nikki did.

“In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word slavery.”

Nikki tries to punt again.

“What do you want me to say about slavery?” she asks.

The citizen finishes dissecting Nikki.

“You’ve answered my question, thank you.”

Nikki hesitates as awkwardness washes over Nikki like a tidal wave.

But, to Nikki, it’s not the answer forming in her head that’s awkward, it’s the question itself. It’s put Nikki on the head of a pin and pointed out the fatal flaw of her existence. She’s a woman of color aspiring to walk point for a party dedicated to racism – and limiting the rights of people like her. Even more ironically, that party used to be “the Party Of Lincoln”.

The D’s And the R’s Swap Places

It’s not anymore. By a long shot. In point of fact, the pro-slavery Democratic Party of the 1850’s and 1860’s and the anti-slavery Republican Party of the same period swapped places. It happened sometime in the early 20th century as progressives like Teddy Roosevelt went independent instead of running as a Republican in 1912.

Greed and racism replaced human decency in the Republican mindset.

Nikki Haley knows goddamned well that America’s argument over slavery started our Civil War. She knows goddamned well, too, that her political party would bring slavery back today if it could. They don’t call it “slavery” any more – that’s a broken brand! Today, they call it “no minimum wage” or “child labor” or they hire undocumented immigrants and pay them nothing while threatening to turn them in.

That is slavery by other means but the intent is the exact same: to steal another person’s work product. To force them to work for free.

Both sides don’t oppose minimum wages. Only one side does that. One side doesn’t want to bring back child labor. One side does that. Both sides don’t want to abolish unions. Just one side thinks that way.

Today, Nikki Haley tried to walk back her terrible answer to a simple question.

For the record, Donald Trump didn’t cow Nikki into being racism’s lackey. Nikki embraced lackey-ism all by herself. “When Haley ran for governor of South Carolina in 2010, she addressed the Civil War during a private meeting with two leaders of Confederate heritage groups by [calling it] a fight between “tradition” and “change.”

We’ll assume “tradition” was code for “slavery” and “change” was code for human decency. So, in a nutshell, Nikki Haley is now and always has been pro-slavery. You simply have to be if you stand with slavers over people who find slavery abhorrent.

“Deny Slavery” is officially Number 245,991 in our ever-expanding list of “THINGS BOTH SIDES DON’T DO”.

And never did.