The Republican zombie apocalypse is coming for Nikki Haley.
Now that she is the lone candidate left operating as an alternative choice to former President Donald Trump within the GOP primaries, stress is mounting on her to drop out. Making the danger Haley is dealing with starkly clear, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — the queen of the MAGA zombie horde — declared a day earlier than the New Hampshire major that, if Haley retains operating, she must be “eradicated” from the celebration.
To keep away from such eradication, virtually all the opposite failed GOP candidates who had been within the race have endorsed Trump, together with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was unrelentingly belittled by Trump for practically a yr. DeSantis follows the instance set by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who, in 2016, competed with Trump and repeatedly insisted the fact TV star was unfit to be president — till they had been overwhelmed and selected to pledge their fealty to the Mar-a-Lago con man.
Becoming a member of DeSantis, Cruz and Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott has introduced he’s backing Trump, too, after his personal candidacy went nowhere. Many of the Republican members of Congress are additionally dashing to endorse the twice-impeached, a lot indicted ex-president, pinning their withered political souls to his restoration.
The coarse insults Trump has geared toward Haley have gotten progressively extra private and racist, however they aren’t any worse than the vile disparagement of Ted Cruz’s spouse and father that Trump engaged in eight years in the past. Cruz swallowed his delight and shed his dignity. Will Haley do the identical?
My guess is sure, she is going to. As soon as her marketing campaign flounders following an anticipated major loss in her dwelling state, South Carolina, she is going to need to protect her likelihood to run once more in 2028. She can not do this by following the examples of Liz Cheney and Chris Christie, who each instructed the reality about Trump and have turn out to be pariahs of their celebration. As a substitute, as a result of she has demonstrated a political ambition that’s rather more central to her persona than the onerous truths that she claims to inform (and by no means actually does), it’s a protected guess that she is going to capitulate, similar to the remainder of the GOP’s timorous souls.
Haley thought she might need success operating as a rational Republican, however she has come up towards one very onerous reality: Her celebration has deserted rationality and turn out to be a zombie cult solely in thrall to Trump.
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