The Greatest Political Gift
My politically conservative, life-long Republican mom and I had a conversation last night that I thought I’d share.
Craig: If you could receive a Christmas present in the form of a breakthrough in U.S. politics, what would that be?
Mom: Trump would announce that he’s not running, though I know this is impossible.
Craig: So whom would that leave?
Mom: DeSantis and Haley.
Craig: Well, DeSantis is trailing badly, and one has to assume that his right-wing policies don’t appeal even to the GOP, and would certainly not play well in the context of a general election.
Mom: What about Haley?
Craig: I have to admit that I admired her when she was a Democrat U.S. rep in Hawaii, but then she, perhaps along with her advisors, figured out that she could go further as a Republican. In the blink of an eye, she went from, to take an example, claiming that abortion was a woman’s right to demanding that it be banned. Maybe she had a personal epiphany on this and a dozen other hot-button subjects, but it seems more likely that she saw this as politically expedient.
I regard this is the same way as I would someone who told me that I could attain enormous power and wealth if were to write a book whose premise is that climate change is a hoax and that fossil fuels are the way of the future. Not going to happen.
What did Mom say?
That was the end of the conversation. She and I have had this discussion before; she knows that a) I don’t like Haley’s right-wing platform, and b) especially after flip-flopping from an essentially liberal one–on virtually every single issue.