Full disclosure: I don’t like Nikki Haley. Some of it is because I don’t like her political positions. However, a lot of it is visceral. Today, a meme and a ferocious video from a pro-DeSantis PAC went a long way to explaining my reaction to Nikki Haley.

Currently, the NeverTrumpers and GOP regulars view Nikki Haley as the new savior of the Republican party. She is the one, we are assured, who’s climbing so high in the polls that she can take down Trump and triumph over the Democrat machine in November 2024. I have my doubts. Just to give you a little perspective on that claim, according to the RCP rolling average for November 24, Haley is at 10.5, DeSantis is at 13.5…and Trump is at 59.8.

The mere fact that Trump’s opponents like Nikki is itself a very black mark against her. I could understand these people fighting against Trump in the 2016 primaries. We all want our preferred candidate to head the Republican ticket.

After Trump prevailed, though, that’s when everyone should have come together to join in the fight against Hillary. And when Trump won the presidency, everyone should have stood behind him on policy issues (building the border, the Abraham Accords, etc.) and against Democrat machinations (the Russia Hoax, the Ukraine Hoax, etc.).

Image: Nikki Haley (cropped and edited). YouTube screen grab.

Instead, the NeverTrumpers and GOP regulars sided with the Democrats all the way. What that tells you is that their problem isn’t with Trump. They are, instead, Democrats. At least Bill Kristol had the honesty to make it official. The rest are simply Fifth Columnists.

So, again, that the NeverTrumpers and GOPers like Nikki Haley makes me wary.

There’s also the fact that Haley, rather than siding with Ron DeSantis against Disney, the biggest institutional child groomer in America, announced that she wished she were still governor of South Carolina so that she could invite Disney to move to her state. Yes, it might be good for South Carolina’s economy, but it’s this lack of principles that has caused Americans to feel that Republicans don’t stand for anything…because Republicans like Nikki too often don’t.

I also agree with those who point out that Nikki was dead wrong to want to use the law to force people to identify themselves on social media. Yes, people hiding behind pseudonyms can be rude and awful. But we conservatives have learned that the Patriots in the lead-up to the American Revolution were correct: In the face of government tyranny, the best writers sometimes need the veil of secrecy to get their point across. Moreover, Nikki’s proposal is blatantly unconstitutional. You’d think she would have known better.

But honestly, what really gets my goat about Nikki is her emotional stridency (e.g., calling Vivek “scum” for rightly pointing out that her adult daughter used the same TikTok that Haley attacked Vivek for using in his campaign). That emotionalism pairs, in my mind, with Nikki’s constantly playing the woman card. Instead, she introduced her campaign with the woman card and hasn’t stopped.

Speaking as a bona fide woman (you can check my chromosomes), I absolutely hate the woman card. I hate it as a matter of principle, and I hate it in elections because…hmmm…it reminds me of someone. Someone really obnoxious. Someone like…Hillary Clinton.

Yes, Haley is Hillary. And I’m not the only one to notice. A few days ago, a meme came my way today making exactly that point:

(Creator unknown.)

And then there’s this savage video from a pro-DeSantis super PAC:

New Pro-DeSantis super PAC drops million dollar ad buy highlighting Nikki Haley’s love of Hillary Clinton. pic.twitter.com/QSYMDac9R3

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 21, 2023

Because I am not a closet Democrat, if Haley wins the Republican primary, I will vote for her without any qualms, whether she runs against Biden, Kamala, Michelle, RFK Jr., Gavin Newsom, or anyone else the Democrats dredge up. No matter what I think of her, she’s way better than a Democrat. Having said that, I’d much rather see a conservative rather than a squish who reminds me of Hillary heading the Republican ticket.