Nikki Haley, union-buster and 'gifted ideologue in moderate drag'
By BERRY CRAIG
AFT retiree
Politico's Sam Sutton reported that right-wing JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon wants Democrats to rally 'round Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primaries because “she offers a strong alternative to former President Donald Trump.”
Strong alternative? "Most of the leading candidates [including Haley] have already pledged to support Trump if he is the nominee, even before he has won a single primary vote," Robert Kagan wrote in The Washington Post. "Imagine their posture after he runs the table on Super Tuesday. Most of the candidates running against him will sprint toward him, competing for his favor. After Super Tuesday, there will be no surer and shorter path to the presidency for a Republican than to become the loyal running mate of a man who will be 82 in 2028."
Haley will likely lead the sprint because she and Trump differ only in style, not substance. Nowhere is that clearer than in how they talk about unions.
Trump and Haley are as anti-labor as politicians get. Trump was the most anti-labor president since Herbert Hoover. (See also "Donald Trump’s Catastrophic and Devastating Anti-Labor Track Record," an AFL-CIO press release.)
While Haley makes no bones about her deep hostility toward unions, Trump is still trying to con union members that he's on their side.
The AFL-CIO isn't buying the Trump hustle. The nation's largest labor federation endorsed Joe Biden again. The United Auto Workers, which has been in the news for winning an historic labor contract from the Big Three automakers, has yet to back Biden officially. But Shawn Fain, the union's president, has made it plain he's not a Trump fan.
Fain, who will be a featured speaker at the Kentucky State AFL-CIO's 35th biennial convention in Lexington next week, said in an emailed statement, “Every fiber of our union is being poured into fighting the billionaire class and an economy that enriches people like Donald Trump at the expense of workers. We can’t keep electing billionaires and millionaires that don’t have any understanding what it is like to live paycheck to paycheck and struggle to get by and expecting them to solve the problems of the working class.”
When she was governor of South Carolina, Haley flat said unions were unwelcome in the Palmetto State. "We discourage any companies that have unions from wanting to come to South Carolina because we don’t want to taint the water,” she declared. She also bragged, “You’ve heard me say many times I wear heels. It’s not for a fashion statement. It’s because we’re kicking them every day, and we’ll continue to kick them.”
Anyway, Sutton quoted Dimon's pitch: “If you’re a very liberal Democrat, I urge you to help Nikki Haley, too. Give them a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump.” To paraphrase an old Kentucky expression, "Put 'em both in a barrel and roll it down a hill and there'll be a union-buster on top every time it rolls over."
“Dimon has been talking up Haley in recent weeks as the former South Carolina governor has gained in the polls," Sutton explained. While she’s still trailing well behind Trump, she has won endorsements from an influential super PAC backed by the Koch network and has started to fundraise with Wall Street heavyweights.”
Super PAC backed by the Koch network? Wall Street heavyweights? Union-busters-R-Us.
Anyway, the online Cambridge Dictionary defines “alternative” as “something that is different from something else, especially from what is usual, and offering the possibility of choice.”
Haley is a Trump echo, not a choice.
While Trump is more MAGA than ever, even cranking up the Nazi-style rhetoric, true believer Haley is shelving the Trumpist venom and vitriol, at least for now. “The former governor is a right-wing extremist dressed up in moderate clothing,” wrote Charlotte Kilpatrick in The New Statesman.
She added: “Moderation would mean campaigning on a platform of conservative issues like lowering taxes or refusing to condone the overturning of a democratic election. Instead, Haley has jumped on the anti-woke bandwagon and built her recent political career on fighting the culture wars."
Likewise, Ana Marie Cox called out Haley in The New Republic. “Haley has little else but far-right positions and deeply conservative policies in her portfolio,” she wrote. ".....We’ve just become so accustomed to the blaring waaa-hooo-ga fascism of Trump and his imitators, I guess no one bothers to decode dog whistles anymore….Haley is a gifted ideologue clothed in moderate drag.”
No matter, a new media narrative seems to be emerging, one reflected in a headline in the liberal Guardian newspaper: "Nikki Haley’s unexpected rise from ‘scrappy’ underdog to Trump’s closest rival." But "Haley’s turn in the spotlight will inevitably invite more scrutiny," wrote The Guardian's Lauren Gambino.
This old reporter-turned-history-teacher-turned retiree fervently hopes that such scrutiny will include more stories like these about Haley's near-maniacal hatred for organized labor:
USA Today, Feb. 20, 2014: South Carolina: Union jobs aren't welcome here
FITSNews: Feb. 27, 2014: Kickin’ Nikki And The Unions
Reuters, April 2, 2015: South Carolina governor takes aim at union 'bullies' in Boeing labor vote
The Nation, Feb. 17, 2023: Nikki Haley’s Anti-Union Fanaticism Is Wild Even for a Republican
Mother Jones, Sept. 20, 2023: Nikki Haley and Tim Scott Are Here to Remind You Republicans Hate Unions
The Nation, Sept. 26, 2023: The UAW Strike Inspires Anti-Union Panic—and Lies—From GOP Presidential Contenders