WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin is furious at the RNC appearances of former UN Ambassador and Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), and for good reason. But, in this summary, I think she’s missed a bet:
Again, Scott was not forced to appear. Nevertheless, he came to praise a president who tries to scare White suburbanites with the prospect of Blacks moving into their neighborhoods; does not say the name Breonna Taylor or comment on the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.; refers to majority-Black nations as “shithole countries,” calls Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”; encourages China to build detention camps for Uighurs; and betrayed his country by seeking to extort an ally in a war against Russia. What does it say about Scott that he would defend an overt racist and admirer of dictators? It says he either is blinded by the right-wing propaganda machine or, just like Trump, is willing to look Americans in the eye and lie. This, too, is unworthy of praise.
Or both Haley and Scott are ambitious. It’s no great surprise, as reaching the offices that they have requires a fair amount of ambition. But it’s worth noting that neither could switch parties, as the Democrats would have nothing to do with them. And the recently announced conservative alternatives are, at the moment, nebulous. I suspect both calculated that the current GOP is more likely to survive, and if they want to advance further, it’s their best bet.
Decency and morals be damned.
