Snake in the City

“The most hated woman in the South,” she’s been called.

Since I am a South Carolinian, Ms. Randhawa has been on my radar for many years. She rode into office on the Tea Party wave, after securing what was, at the time, the highly coveted Sarah Palin endorsement.

After the Charleston murders by Dylann Roof in 2015, people across the nation seemingly turned on the citizens of SC as a whole, as though we were all guilty for the actions of the killer. Somehow the focal point quickly became the Confederate flag on our statehouse grounds. The flag had been moved from the capital dome to the statehouse grounds years before after a long-fought compromise that was meant to be permanent. There was no real connection from the memorial on the statehouse grounds to the murders, other than an old photo of Roof with a Confederate flag. The outcry about the memorial flag was a reflexive hate reaction for those who vilify Southerners as a group.

A gifted states-person who cared about the people of South Carolina could have used the opportunity to both unify the people of SC and defend us to the nation. Haley had no interest in doing either. She used the event as an opportunity to please her GOPe superiors and get flattering media coverage in the eyes of the larger (South-hating) nation. The GOPe, still pretending to be conservative by imitating whatever the Democrats did 20 years ago, were thrilled to have a photogenic, brown, female face to parade around to demonstrate how diverse and progressive the party had become. Haley was rewarded with magazine covers and plum speaking spots.

Shortly after the massacre, Ann Coulter wrote a post about the good people of South Carolina “…whose families carved this country out of the wilderness, who have family Bibles going back ten generations…who fought in every war since the revolution…the nicest, hardest working, most sincere and down to earth people in the world…”

That heartfelt defense was written by a Yankee pundit. Our own governor, by contrast, chose the path of “healing” through facilitating the cultural genocide of her constituents. It is difficult to overstate how treacherous one must be to betray the trust of her fellow citizens in such a way.

Haley has also been dogged by more rumors of extra-marital affairs than any female politician of which I am aware, both before and during her term as governor. One may begin to surmise that loyalty is not her “thing.” (However, it does seem fitting that one of the most prominent females in the Cuckservative party is someone who has *literally* cuckolded her husband.)

She also lacks gravitas. Haley’s social media posts regularly featured hokey inspirational memes, song lyrics, Netflix recommendations, and other things that would be fine if it they were being posted by your Aunt Betty rather than the state’s highest office holder.

It was surprising, after her vocal criticism of Trump, that he appointed her to be the UN Ambassador. It might have been because her successor, Henry McMaster, endorsed Trump ahead of the first-in-the-South Republican primary. We will probably never know for sure. Whatever the reason, she is there now.  I know I speak for many of my fellow South Carolinians when I say, “New York can have her.”

However, I will caution her fans to remember this. You knew she was a snake before you let her in.