Governor Nikki Haley has been a disappointment to many citizens who worked hard for her election. She is the most recent in a series of South Carolina Governors who have been able to trick voters into supporting a mythical candidate who was much different from the real person.
Haley replaced Gov. Mark Sanford who was one of our better governors, but had a problem keeping his zipper zipped.
David Beasley was a young Democrat who became a “Christian” and won the Governor’s office as a Christian Republican. Beasley had a great personality but lost a bid for a second term by trying to please both his old liberal friends and his new Conservative supporters. Governor Beasley, like Haley, was considered ideal as a vice presidential candidate. He announced that he favored removal of the Confederate battle flag from the capitol dome. This pleased the liberal media and enhanced his national political potential. He lost credibility when in an effort to calm his Conservative Christian political base, Governor Beasley announced that God woke him up in the middle of the night and told him to take the flag down. Beasley instantly became a one-term governor and South Carolina suffered through 4-years of a Democrat Governor.
South Carolinians loved Strom Thurmond. It was only after his death at age 100 plus that it was discovered that the Segregationist Democrat turned Republican South Carolina Governor and Senator, who married two young women, both Miss South Carolinas had also fathered a child by a black woman.
There were governors of both parties that failed to reach expectations, however Governor Haley has probably been the most blatant.
While she was running for Governor, Dr. David Woodard, a political science professor from Clemson who had taught both Haley and her Democrat opponent, informed the Greenville County Republican Women’s Club that Haley was more liberal than the Democrat. The Times Examiner published the statement verbatim and sent an advanced copy as a courtesy to candidate Haley. She responded by removing the Times Examiner from her mailing list and refused to provide the newspaper any information until a friend and contributor to her campaign interceded on our behalf. That should have been an indication that the professor knew what he was talking about.
Tea Party people all over the nation supported Haley and she abandoned them in her first term. After election to a second and final term, Gov. Haley stopped pretending. She had obviously “turned left” and was seeking a national office.
The “birds of a feather” from the RNC to the NAACP were positioned to use the Confederate battle flag to propel Haley to national prominence. The senseless murders in Charleston were the trigger that set all those sympathetic to Southern Heritage into motion. The legislature, panicked by Haley and the liberal media, quickly passed legislation to remove the flag from the Soldiers monument to be displayed in the museum. (It is not displayed and may never be.).
Gov. Haley has agreed to accept Muslim immigrants while claiming to oppose it. She has signaled that she will veto the bill sponsored by Sen. Lee Bright that would prevent men who want to be women from using women’s rest rooms.
She appears to be getting her direction from the RNC Chairman. She supported the establishment candidates until they all bombed. Then she apparently became part of the “stop Trump” movement.
Some otherwise good state senators have opponents and may be replaced by more liberal opponents because they followed the lead of Gov. Haley on the flag and other issues. That is not a problem for Gov. Haley unless Trump or Cruz become President. Should that happen, she might want to join Gov. Beasley and Rep. Inglis at Harvard.
We were foolish to expect Governor Haley to know anything about South Carolina History or to care about its preservation. After all, her heritage is in India where they have the Caste system. We should have expected her to be more loyal to the state that has provided a first generation American an opportunity to be their chief executive.
