MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Is Nikki Haley set for a presidential run in 2024? Slams GoP bugbear trifecta of socialism, Biden and 'woke left'

The Republican quoted the lines from a piece on Stand for America that came at a rare time when President Trump found himself aligned with socialist leaders Bernie Sanders and AOC over stimulus checks

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley on Monday, December 28, sparked off a controversy by saying “socialism went mainstream” in the US in the year 2020 and slammed the Democratic Party saying the “dangerous ideology” is set to become the blue party’s “default economic policy”. She said the “terrifying trend” poses a threat to the future of every person who lives in the US. 

Haley, who is considered as a top GOP leader who could run for the White House in 2024, came up with a bombastic tweet saying: “The dangerous ideology, which has failed everywhere it has been tried and ruined countless lives, is on its way to becoming the default economic policy of the Democratic Party. This terrifying trend threatens the future of every American.”

The lines were picked from a December 28 essay (2020 In Review: Socialism Rising) on Stand for America — an advocacy group Haley founded in 2016 to promote policies to strengthen the US' economy, culture and national security. Taking a dig at socialist leaders in the Democratic Party like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the piece read: “The rise of socialism has been a long time coming."

"Four years ago, the Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) nearly became the left’s presidential candidate. Fast forward to 2020 and he almost did it again while socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are exerting tremendous pressure on leftist language and policy. In states like New York and in Congress, the ranks of far-left legislators are growing. The socialist left is more powerful than at any point in recent memory.”

The tweet of the former South Carolina governor, however, came at a time when outgoing President Donald Trump found his position aligned with the progressive voices of the Democratic Party — including Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Squad on the issue of raising the amount in stimulus checks for common Americans.

Even Trump, with whom Haley has sympathized often, found himself on the same page as Sanders on the question of raising relief payments from $600 to $2,000 for the common people although the Vermont senator criticized the president for not clearing the bill quickly.

Trump’s flirtation with the idea of vetoing the massive spending and Covid-19 stimulus package if the check amount was not raised left both the GOP and Dems stunned. But the latter welcomed his stance and accused the Republicans of not cooperating with him.

Trump, however, signed the bill on Sunday, December 27, and the next day, the House passed a new bill that raised the stimulus checks to $2,000. It though faced an uncertain fate in the Senate as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked immediate voting on the checks. 

Jennifer Rubin pointed out in an opinion piece in The Washington Post that Haley made no mention of the Trump-backed effort to raise the stimulus check amount. She wrote in her column that “socialism apparently does not extend to giving out $2,000 checks to Americans or extending loans to airlines, as Trump has advocated.”
 
The piece from which Haley picked her Twitter lines also slammed the Dems’ government health plan and the Green New Deal saying: “The Democrat Party now demands a government health plan that would destroy private health care, an energy plan like the “Green New Deal” that would use the power of government to remake virtually the entire economy, greater government power over job creators and workers through heavy-handed mandates, and massive tax hikes that would bring the economy to a crawl. Add to that doubling down on debt-fueled spending by calling to “cancel” student debt, rent, and mortgage payments — the list goes on.”

It also gave links to articles (by the Wall Street Journal) and tweets (by Squad member Ayana Pressley) to back her attacks against the Dems’ plans on health care, energy and canceling student debt, mortgage payments, etc. 

The piece said: “Put it all together, and what do you get? The left’s agenda is based on the belief that government knows best. That’s the essence of socialism and the opposite of American ideals.” 

Haley takes dig at Biden

Haley also attacked President-elect Joe Biden in a tweet in which she linked another piece written for Stand for America on Tuesday, December 29, titled ‘2020 In Review: The Woke Wave’. She said: “With Biden as Pres, we should all be worried about the woke left. They will stifle free speech in the name of “freedom” & enact discriminatory policies in pursuit of “equality” & do it with a vision that has no resemblance to the America we know & love.”

Haley served as the ambassador to the UN between January 2017 and December 2018.