Any time a Republican woman is elevated — whether in the media or to a position of power within the party — those on the Left roll out the red carpet of sexism to denigrate her accomplishment.
This year, the “honor” goes to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was selected to give the Republican response to President Obama’s final State of the Union speech. As soon as Haley was announced, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz sprang into action, implying the successful governor was merely a token.
“It’s pretty clear that Nikki Haley is being chosen because the Republican Party has a diversity problem,” Wasserman Schultz said on a conference call Monday.
This attack also misses the main point about why Haley was likely selected. She has always been considered a possible vice presidential pick, and responding to the State of the Union is a great way to showcase her charisma and conservative record of governance. It angers the Left that so many of the Republican Party’s rising stars aren’t old white men.
Haley, who was born to Indian immigrants, has been seen as a GOP star since her election as governor. She is the first female and first minority governor of South Carolina (as well as the youngest governor in the country). She oversaw a drop in the Palmetto State’s jobless rates to record lows, enacted education reform and, more recently, signed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse after a mass shooting.
But none of her accomplishments seem to matter to Wasserman Schultz, because, as with everything in politics, all that matters is what diversity boxes one can check. And Wasserman Schultz has reduced Haley to her race and sex.
But this is nothing new for the Left when it comes to successful Republicans who don’t fit the “old, white man” narrative. Last year, when incoming Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, was selected to give the State of the Union response, the leftist group EMILY’s List called her “window dressing.” During Ernst’s election in 2014, Wasserman Schultz called her an “onion of crazy.”
It’s one thing to disagree with someone’s views on the issues. But the Left is using that disagreement to dismiss someone based on her sex and/or race. For a political party that claims to be tolerant, it sure seems to drop all fidelity to the word when a woman or minority Republican succeeds.
