Replacing newly hired Internal Revenue Service agents with border patrol agents and setting term limits not just for elected officials but government bureaucrats, along with a call for national school choice policy, were among a number of proposals made by presidential candidate Nikki Haley that won a heavy round of applause at a town hall meeting she held in New Hampshire last night.
The 51-year-old former South Carolina governor, who pepped up the crowd before she spoke with her own “playlist of music,” struck obvious chords with the audience in also talking about a need to reign in spending American tax dollars on illegal immigrants, welfare, and special interests.
“Seven and a half million for horse racing in Arizona. Thirty million for an honors college in Vermont. Ten million for a courthouse in Colorado. Think about that. Is that how you want your money spent?” she asked the crowd.
In what is becoming a thematic narrative for other member of the GOP eyeing the White House to spotlight the mistakes of conservative lawmakers, Haley also placed blame on Republicans for not being a more unified, stronger party in stopping Democratic spending.
“You look at that $2.2 trillion COVID stimulus—that socialist bill that went out with no accountability,” she said.
To bolster what she characterized as a deterioration of America’s morale, Haley called for an end to what she called defeatism and self-loathing nationalism, in the context of criticizing the Biden administration for his weak responses to China’s spying on the United States and transparent support of Russian’s war against Ukraine while catering more to the needs of illegal immigrants than to poor and working-class U.S. citizens.
She also zeroed in on what she called Biden’s embarrassing debacle in Afghanistan when he ordered the evacuation of troops in 2021 from the enemy country, leaving behind billions of dollars’ worth in military tanks and other equipment for the Taliban to seize.
Time for a Change
Haley called for a need for a “new generational leader,” and echoed her campaign call for competency tests for politicians, inspired by an aging Congress and elderly president.“Have you seen D.C.?” she asked. “These are people making decisions about our national security and our economic stability.”
She also proposed setting a five-year limit for administration heads of government agencies.
Domestically, Haley also touched on a need to keep men out of women’s sports, to protect parents’ rights to raise their children based on their own beliefs and morals, and to establish a nationwide school choice policy across the United States so that parents can choose a school outside their district.
“When I was in school, we didn’t have sex ed until seventh grade. And even then, our parents had to sign a permission slip and my dad wouldn’t sign it. So I was the uncool kid in the classroom next door,” she said. “That’s not the role of school bureaucrats. They’re not supposed to talk to our kids about that. Parents are supposed to be able to handle that. I want schoolteachers to be teaching science and math and history and reading. All that other stuff is to be taught in the home and discussed in the home.”
That seemed to especially resonate with the audience as did Haley’s response to a question from an audience member who asked how she proposed beating former president Donald Trump.
Haley called it a good question, but laid claim that Trump loyalists currently account for only 25 percent of Republican voters, or what she called “Trump or no one else” supporters.
“It’s a hard 25 percent,” she said. But that means, she added, “there are 75 percent other Republicans that are looking for a place to be.”
Haley altogether avoided any politicking against Trump or anyone else in the growing pool of potential Republicans vying for the GOP nomination and instead focused on her underdog accomplishments, having been “laughed at” she said when she first entered the gubernatorial race in South Carolina
Haley pointed out that she started out with only a 3 percent showing in polls before going on to beat one of the state’s longest-serving legislators, a lieutenant governor, and an attorney general for the governorship, a post she held for eight years.
“In order to do, this it’s going to take a lot of courage, courage for me to run and courage from every single one of you to understand that you can’t complain about who you get in a general [election] if you don’t play in this primary,” she said.
The liberal media has been especially brutal to Haley, with The New York Times even assembling a jury of political pundits to assassinate her credibility as a candidate, leaving to speculation that maybe the mother of two and wife of a combat veteran does pose a threat to the Democrats.
In repeating what has become her campaign battle cry, Haley concluded, “To understand that if you want to see America back at her best, you need to send a badass Republican woman to the White House.”
People lined up in droves for a chance to shake Haley’s hand, with some even asking her to sign campaign signs they held up at times during the mini-rally at the Elks Lodge.
It was one of two back-to-back appearances she made this week in the purple state of New Hampshire, a battleground state that is proving its still recognized as the “first in the nation” primary state by drawing White House contenders like Haley to capture support from voters.
Haley vowed she would be making many more returns to New Hampshire.
