In State of the Union Rebuttal, Nikki Haley Takes on Trump

The South Carolina governor defended immigrants of every race and religion.

Was tonight's speech from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley a rebuttal to President Obama—or a rebuke of Donald Trump?

Tasked with giving the official GOP response to the State of the Union address, Haley started out with the president in her crosshairs. His record, she said, "has often fallen far short of his soaring words" on both the economic and national security fronts.

But it didn't take long for Haley to change her tone, acknowledging that Republicans too are responsible for the problems in Washington—and then turning to an issue in which the frontrunner for her own party's nomination, far more than the sitting president, seemed to be the target of her enmity.

"I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every day how blessed we were to live in this country," she said, launching into an extended defense of allowing even people who don't look like us to take up residence on our shores. 

Though she did not call out Trump by name, Haley urged the country to resist "the siren call of the angriest voices," a subtle reference to the real estate mogul's position that all Muslim immigrants and asylum seekers should be turned away indefinitely.

"No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country," she said, later adding lest there be any confusion that all "properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion" should be welcome.

A libertarian immigration agenda the speech was not. Haley made it clear she opposes opening up our borders, and she called for "stopping illegal immigration" and "not let[ting] in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined."

But compared to what we've been getting from the Republican frontrunner? I only wish more of the people actually running against him would be so bold.

Comments

[__Warren__]

Is the STFU finally over?

[josh]

it’s never over. it’s just sometimes they don’t gather together and get all dressed up.

[Sevo]

She’s got a tough row to hoe; the know-nothings are thick on the ground and offer solutions that sound cheap but will end up being very expensive.
Given recent history, it seems quite possible and perhaps likely that the next prez will be worse than Obo.

[__Warren__]

He/she’ll be a total bassoon.

[BigT]

Not a Trump-et?

[Homple]

The people running against Trump are not as bold as the Indo-Gyno-American Ms. Hailey because immigration politics is the primary cause of Trump’s double digit lead over the guy in second place, who is also a bit of an immigration sceptic.

Libertarian open borders feelz don’t swing any weight in the GOP primaries this year.

[Suicidy]

No one wants fucking open borders. It’s a pipe dream until there are vast changes in the way this country works, and the rest of the world.

[GamerFromJump]

Got Cyto on blacklist, do ya?

[Suicidy]

Wackadoo list, actually.

[CraigK]

Niki is misrepresenting The Donalds position, just like Obozo.

[Ken Shultz]

She’s got Tea Party cred, and she’s got credibility as a governor.

She adds southern support, and she’s got diversity cred.

Watch for her to keynote at the convention, like Bubba Clinton and Obama did.

That’s how they got to be serious candidates.

[EndTheGOP]

Nikki Haley just signed her own death warrant as a politician with higher aspirations because Trump supporters will NEVER get behind her now.

Stupid cunt.

[Suell]

I could see her getting the VP nod for the Elephants.

[Thomas O.]

Cruz/Haley would be a formidable ticket. A couple of Gen-X minorities vs. an old white hag would make for an interesting race.

[EndTheGOP]

A big evangelical like Cruz will NEVER win the presidency. The GOP War on Women, Gays and Drugs the last 50 years because of evangelicals have destroyed the party. Unless Trump manages to win the presidency, I doubt if we’ll ever see another republican president in our lifetime.

IT’S ALL OVER FOLKS! And the socialists won.

[Glide]

Ah yes. In the country that hasn’t gone more than two presidents between Republicans since the Whig party controlled things, surely being mean to gay people for ten years longer than the Democrats will be the thing that immediately plunges them into a hundred-year losing streak.

[contrarian]

They will have to adapt though. Given that their social positions are becoming increasingly untenable I’m hoping they morph into something libertarianish. Pipe dream, I know.

[EndTheGOP]

Glide — You want to talk ancient history while I’m trying to educate you on the world today.

The GOP hasn’t won the female vote since 1988.

They haven’t won the gay vote EVER.

And I can’t even remember the last century they won the youth vote.

And yes you can blame the pie-in-the-sky evangelicals for this hate movement.

I never said it would be one hundred years. Clean the shit out of your brain and eyes. and face reality because the majority of the country already has woken up and they aren’t buying the voodoo jesus thing anymore.

[Thisisalongname]

First, good job on dividing people into groups by irrelevant determinants.

Second, not winning a vote of one of those groups doesn’t mean they received no votes. The “women” vote is fairly divided and the gay vote (which I take to mean gay people) can’t amount to much as they make up less than 4% of the population.

[EndTheGOP]

This — You don’t think the female vote is a relevant determinate? Nor gays or the youth of the country, most of whom will grow old and remain democrats, wrong! Have you lost your mind? Of course these groups are relevant.

And you dismiss the 4% gay vote without even a mention of the gay’s supporters, which is over half the country.

And very convenient of you to not even address the youth vote.

Throw in the main stream media, unions, bureaucrats, academia, the culture, which consists of Hollywood, magazines, the music industry, radio, comedy clubs, the fashion industry, the fast-growing socialist crowd and what you have left over is the end of the GOP. RIP

[Hyperbolical (wadair)]

I thought it was one of the better rebuttal speeches I’ve heard throughout my forty years of voting in general elections. I’m so far impressed with Nikki Haley. Stephanie needs to stop finding Trump everywhere she looks.

[EndTheGOP]

Hyper — Well there’s you and Obama who think that was a good rebuttal speech.

I’m still in a near-state of shock. I can’t believe a republican would trash fellow republicans in a rebuttal of the State of the Union during a presidential election year on national television. What a stupid cunt. Her political career is over, as it should be.

Republicans eating their own. Their end is near.

[David Emami]

“A libertarian immigration agenda the speech was not.”

If you mean “an agenda most libertarians would support”, you’re probably right. If you mean “an agenda determined by libertarian principles”, there is no such thing. If you’re anarchist libertarian, there is no nation-state to have a border to have a policy *about*. If you’re a minarchist and therefore in favor of some kind of nation-state, libertarian principles don’t lead to specific policies on immigration any more than they do on the voting age or how long prison sentences should be. There are different positions a principled libertarian can take on immigration, as opposed to, say, drug prohibition or censorship or denial of jury trial, where the only libertarian answer is “no, the government can’t do that.”

[ace_m82]

To be fair to the An-Caps, individual property does have borders, and I highly doubt any of them think they should be “open”…

But yes, it’s kind of meaningless to them to ask about “open borders” as they’ll just say “abolish government” or “kill the dragon” and then “whatever happens next is far superior”.

[contrarian]

There is with immigrants whose culture is incompatible with natural rights and a limited govt that respects them. Unfortunately, as we have seen time and time again, the constitution does not immunize us againt mobocracy.

[David Emami]

I actually lean pretty strongly in your direction on policy, but I don’t think libertarian principles dictate that position any more than they dictate the wide open borders policy Ms. Slade favors. Once you start talking about the results of a policy, you’ve left the realm of principles and entered that of judgement calls and personal preferences as to risk/benefit. Compare this with the libertarian free speech position, which is determined by an individual’s right to say whatever he damn well pleases, not on what the results of that speech might be, even though most if not all libertarians would say that freer speech produces vastly better societal results.

The thing about cultural compatibility is, that problem would go away (maybe completely) if other government interference in society was done away with. If people are free not to sell to, rent to, or hire people they don’t like, and there are no government benefits and services waiting for you if no one wants to deal with you, an immigrant who disagrees with “don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff” won’t last very long.

[BigT]

“A libertarian immigration agenda the speech was not. Haley made it clear she opposes opening up our borders, and she called for “stopping illegal immigration” and “not let[ting] in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined.”

You new here, Stephanie? I’ve detected a slight difference of opinion on this issue among libertarians.

[Old Man With Candy]

Florida Woman.

[Swiss Servator]

Cytotoxic and John in the Octagon!

[EndTheGOP]

BigT — Sounds like Haley agrees with Trump. Which makes her public trashing of him even more stupid. Silly cunt. Her political days are numbered.

[ant1sthenes]

“No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country”

So, no welfare cases or islamists. Sounds good to me.

[Suicidy]

Yep. We should be importing people of means, and those with needed talents. not every indigent carrying diseases we already eradicated here, and a religion that is compatible with everyone else.

[Azathoth!!]

It’s like you heard what you wanted to hear.

Support for immigrants is widespread.

As is support for policies that discourage and impede illegal immigration.

Legal and illegal immigration are not the same thing and will never be–no matter how often they are deliberately conflated.

[Nativist, Racist & Xenophobe]

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[gphx]

Why don’t we ship all the new immigrants directly to the homes of people who support open borders?

[DontLoseYourHead]

She should know better. There are LEGAL immigrants, like her family members, and there are ILLEGAL immigrants. LEGAL immigrants went through the process as established by the law. ILLEGAL immigrants did not. The rule of law in a democracy is a founding principle. You can’t pick and choose for your convenience. If you don’t like the law, there is a process to change it. Otherwise, you’re simply blowing hot air at best or are a threat to our nation at worst.

[Ron]

The problem is there are lots of people making the siren call about unrestricted uncontrolled immigration and when she diminishes them she only shows that the political class in general does not care about what a large portion of average Americans on both sides of the political fence care about.

[Richard Rider]

Good news! Two of the suicide attacks around the world in 2015 were NOT by carried out by Muslims! Granted, 450 suicide attacks WERE carried out by Muslims, but correlation does not prove causation.

As the politicians keep telling us, such Islamic attacks have nothing to do with the Religion of Peace.

Good to know.

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[maspaidi]

“I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every day how blessed we were to live in this country,” she said … i like it