Republicans Are Playing With Fire—Again
Nikki Haley and the party leaders trying to push her out of the GOP race are both too scared and consumed with hatred for Democrats to state the obvious
I expected to be writing for you this morning about the end of the Republican primary, and the beginning of a long, unpleasant rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
And to an extent I think I could have justified publishing a pre-written piece about that. Or at the very least it would have been a low-risk proposition. Nikki Haley lost in New Hampshire, her most competitive state, by 12 points. She’s on track to lose the next primary which is a) in her home state of South Carolina and b) not for another four weeks. Even Biden put his pundit hat on last night to declare, “it is now clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.”
In a normal environment, Haley would know it was over, and may have even conceded last night. Instead, she’s pledged to fight on, at least for another month.
Her problem now is that all the pathologies that have consumed her and the Republican Party are inhibiting her from explaining clearly and honestly why it’s not a normal environment, and why it’s perfectly rational for her to stick around. Those same pathologies are driving a sense of urgency within the party to run her out of the race quickly, instead of standing back a bit and seeing how things play out. And it’s pretty easy to see why they’re both making fateful mistakes.