With Donald Trump's decisive victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary, the chance of anyone else winning the party's presidential nomination is getting slimmer. That depressing reality doesn't mean former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley should abandon her campaign to overtake Trump, something she vowed to continue.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation; it's not last in the nation,” Haley said, vowing to take her campaign to her home state's Republican primary on Feb. 24.
Haley is right to suggest that it's wrong for the nomination to be locked in because of the results of the first two races. Early concentration of the nomination process on both parties can effectively disenfranchise voters in states with later contests. An additional reason for Haley to persevere is the possibility, however remote, that Trump's constellation of legal difficulties (four criminal indictments) could lead to doubts among Republican voters in future races.
The uncomfortable reality, however, is that Trump's status as an indictee does not appear to have cooled the fervor for him among his supporters; The allegations may have even helped his campaign by allowing him to present himself as a victim. He has also benefited from the despicable deference he has received from leading figures in his party and from the reluctance of most of his former Republican rivals to treat him as the threat to democracy that he is.
Haley has recently been tougher on Trump, questioning his mental acuity and rejecting his claim that he won the 2020 election, but she was among the candidates who raised their hands when asked in a debate last August if they would support Trump if was nominated. if he had been convicted of a crime. She also plausibly suggests that she would be a stronger candidate in the general election against President Biden. That claim is backed up by the strong support she apparently received in New Hampshire from independent voters.
However, it seems that many Republican voters (and cowardly politicians who want to stay on their good side) are accustomed to the arguments against a Trump nomination. They remain married to the former president despite his two impeachments, despite his complicity in the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol and despite his threat to exact “retribution” on behalf of his supporters allegedly mistreated. (Trump later said, without a reassuring tone, that “I'm not going to have time to retaliate.”) This is alarming, even if one believes that Biden can successfully leverage concerns about Trump's behavior and temperament to achieve a victory in November.
Given the unpredictability of events, it is ominous that one of the two major parties would appoint a demagogue so manifestly unsuitable for the presidency. But that's where America is.
