This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated January 19, 2024
The transition into a new year kicked the 2024 election cycle into another gear. The lead-up to the Iowa Caucus January 15 intensified the focus on the Republican candidates for president. As most GOP candidates’ faded away and began to drop out, Nikki Haley saw a bump in her poll numbers, bringing her up to the level of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. However, they paled in comparison to Donanld Trump, who has hovered around 60 percent since the beginning of November.
As 2023 came to a close, Haley drew attention to herself for a response she made to a question about the Civil War during a campaign event. When asked, “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” Haley responded with a word salad that mentioned many things but not slavery.
After a long pause and beginning her reply with, “Well, don’t come with an easy question,” she offered that “the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run.” After then asking the questioner what he thinks the cause of the Civil War was, to which he replied that he wanted to know her thoughts, Haley added, “I think it always comes down to the role of government” and “we need to have capitalism,” ending with a comment about individuals “having freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way.”
The man who asked the question replied, “It is 2023 and it is astonishing that you answered that question without mentioning the word slavery,” to which Haley responded, “What do you want me to say about slavery?” before adding a quick “next question” to abruptly end the exchange.
It was an easy question. It is astonishing that someone can answer it, saying so much, without ever mentioning slavery. Haley instead twisted herself into a pretzel, using modern conservative buzz words and terms, seemingly to avoid acknowledging the basic fact that southern states illegally seceded from the country and initiated America’s deadliest war to preserve their right to own, torture, and torement human beings for their economic benefit.
Haley, who focuses her politics on how government is going to run, the role of government, the need to have capitalism, and not having government get in the way, conferred those philosophies on 1860s America, ignoring the clear root cause of the Civil War; a war that was ended by the first president of her party. The actual causes of the Civil War were how the South chose to practice capitalism, the role of government intervening in their perceived freedom to perpetuate slavery, and, simply, slavery, itself.
After a lot of blowback, Haley came back the following day with a clarification of her god-awful answer to what the Civil War was about, though her follow-up made it worse. She said, “Of course the Civil War was about slavery,” making it sound like it is so obvious that we do not have to say it. She continued, “But it was also more than that,” again mentioning it being about “the role of government.”
As someone who routinely rails against the role of government, it was difficult to understand if she was saying the government asserting their role in the Civil War was a good thing in that particular case. She did acknowledge that “the government had a role to play in that. By the grace of God, we did the right thing and slavery is no more.” However, even when she recognized slavery’s role in beginning the Civil War, it was in a passing manner. And she refers to it as a cause, rather than the cause. In fact, she focused on “the bigger issue with the Civil War,” again citing the role of government first.
A week later, Haley said that if elected president, she will pardon Trump because for her “It’s not about guilt or innocence,” which is an odd statement from someone looking to oversee our nation’s Justice Department. The following day, on the anniversary of the Capitol Insurrection, Trump said that with respect to President Lincoln and the Civil War, it “could’ve been negotiated” and then “we wouldn’t know who Lincoln was.”
A third of the states in the union seceded just because Lincoln was elected, even as he tried to appease them. Then they fired on U.S. soldiers and initiated a bloody war. Trump makes clear that he would have just maintained slavery.
It is shameful that top GOP candidates for president keep trying to minimize slavery. It is shameful that Trump has been echoing the words of Hitler, saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” It is shameful that, when confronted with that quote, Rep. Malliotakis dismisses it with, “I don’t think that’s what he is saying.”
