To the extent that the mainstream media is talking about Nikki Haley you’d think she’d just won an Oscar, an Emmy, and Wimbledon, all in the same week, when in reality she’s lost the first two GOP primaries decisively, a trend that’s expected to continue in future state contests.
I understand what they’re doing. While some reporting and analysis on Haley is legitimate, when you have hours of programing or columns of newsprint to fill you grab whatever comes along and milk it for all it’s worth.
But here’s the problem, while we see daily reports confirming the unfitness of insurrectionist Donald Trump to be elected dog catcher, let alone president, all this Haleymania is papering over the fact that a Haley presidency would be a disaster for this country.
Haley is just another Republican poised to push her party’s pro-rich, anti-poor-and-middle-class, anti-environment agenda. She may not destroy our democracy and rule of law, but don’t expect her to risk her political capital in defending it.
Here’s a gigantic red flag: The Koch network has endorsed Haley in her presidential bid.
If that name sounds familiar then you’re thinking of brothers Charles and David Koch. David has passed away, but Charles is still out there pushing for ways to lower his tax bill and to allow his fossil fuel empire to operate with as few regulations as possible.
The New York Times reported that this endorsement gives Haley “organization muscle and financial heft.” Her campaign will have access to a direct-mail operation, field workers to knock on doors, people making phone calls to prospective voters, and television advertisements.
In other words, they – along with her other big-money donors -- now own her.
Koch’s Americans for Prosperity Action has been among the country’s largest spenders on anti-Trump material this year, the Times reported. That’s a good thing, but don’t kid yourself, this is an attempt by rich donors to buy their way to favorable elected officials and judges. It’s about their prosperity, not yours or mine.
They want Republicans to win, and they’ve calculated they have the best chance of controlling the biggest prize – the White House – if Haley is the GOP nominee instead of Trump.
You can read the Times story here.
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So, what do Haley’s sugar daddies and mommies want? We can’t read minds, but we can get an idea of the Koch view of the world in a 2019 New Republic story on David Koch’s 1980 run for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket.
As you’ll see, they presented an anti-government message that still resonates on the Right today. Here’re some of the things the Libertarian Party platform called for:
*Repealing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs.
*Repealing all taxations and seeking amnesty for those convicted of tax “resistance.”
*Abolishing numerous federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of Land Management, the Federal Elections Commission, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Federal Trade Commission, and “all government agencies concerned with transportation.”
*Eliminating campaign finance and consumer protection laws, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, any regulations of the firearms industry (including tear gas), and government intervention in labor negotiations.
*Privatizing all schools (with an end to compulsory education laws), the railroad system, public roads and the national highway system, inland waterways, water distribution systems, public lands, and dam sites.
*Opposing federally mandated speed limits, occupational licensure, antitrust laws, labor laws protecting women and children, and all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits, production, and interest rates.
Back then, the main goal in all of this wasn’t winning so much as it was “a long-term effort to normalize” these ideas and “mainstream them into American politics,” the New Republic story said.
You can read the New Republic story here.
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I don’t know how far Haley would be willing to go with all this garbage. But she is a Republican, and look what the Republican Party wants to accomplish on behalf of their donors and themselves.
They call for “less government” and less regulations. They really want to gut the government so they can justify even further tax cuts for the rich and corporations, abandon poorer Americans and seniors, fuel our wealth gap, and establish deregulations at the behest of the likes of the fossil fuel and financial industries.
And all this privatization is just another way for the rich to own more and more. To give them more ways to make money.
The Kochs and their ilk are a cancer on this country. Republicans like Haley are happy to spread it in exchange for support from their network and other like-minded groups.
This is another example of the war of the rich against the rest of us. They disguise their undermining of America principals with words like “freedom” and “liberty.” Don’t buy the con.
One word in the New Republic story summed it up perfectly. There’s only one principle at work here.
Greed.
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Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writing on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. Also, please check out my video blog: The 3:13 on Politics.