Nikki Haley and the Shining City on a Hill

Ronald Reagan would vote for Nikki Haley over Donald Trump

The Iowa Caucuses are on Monday, four days from now, and its down to a two person races Nikki Haley versus Donald Trump.  Yes, Ron De Santis has not formally conceded yet, and he may even place second in Iowa, but his campaign is all washed up.  He invested a year and much more than $100 million on winning in Iowa, and he is going to lose big time to Trump.  He. will be lucky if he even places second.  And, after investing his whole campaign on winning Iowa, he has nowhere else to go.  De Santis is in a distant third place in New Hampshire and South Carolina.  The real question now is whether Haley can pull off an upset with strong finishes in New Hampshire and South Carolina.  With Chris Christie out of the race, my bet is that Haley will win an upset in New Hampshire just as 44 years ago Ronald Reagan won New Hampshire after George H.W. Bush won Iowa.

So, as a die hard Reaganite, I have to ask who would Ronald Reagan support in 2024 if he were still alive?  Reagan's view was that the United States was a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world -- a shining city on a hill, which was an example to every other country on earth.  Nikki Haley believes because she, like me, is the child of immigrants.  Our families came to the United States because it stood for freedom and democracy.  I thank God every day that I am an American and not an Italian, and I bet Nikki Haley thanks God every day that she is an American and not a citizen of India, a country which is backsliding into dictatorship.

Ronald Reagan would be thrilled that Nikki Haley wants to see freedom and democracy triumph in Ukraine.  Reagan worked hard to win the freedom for Central and Eastern Europe that Donald Trump wants to throw away.  Ronald Reagan would be repulsed by Trump's affection for dictators like Vladimir Putin who through Deutsche Bank bailed Trump out of many a business bankruptcy while offering him a Trump Hotel in Moscow.

I am going to quote below three paragraphs of Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address to the American people, which vividly show Nikki Haley's and Ronald Reagan's vision of America not isolated from the world but as the LEADER of the free world:

"And that's about all I have to say tonight, except for one thing. The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the ``shining city upon a hill.'' The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home."