Photo Edit: Alexander J. Williams III/Pop Acta

The Republican Party’s newest presidential candidate, former South Carolina Gov. and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, introduced herself by showcasing her roots as a child of immigrants.
Haley’s family, originally from India, immigrated to the United States in 1969 and settled in a small, segregated town, Bamberg, South Carolina, where she was born three years later.
One can glean two reasons why Haley is spotlighting her background and presenting her candidacy as a successful minority woman.
First, one doesn’t need to be “woke” to recognize the value of an Asian American woman running for president with an agenda of less government and more freedom.
Second, showcasing her story and success qualifies her to say, as she does in her introduction video, “Take it from me, America is not a racist country.”
The strategy has opened her to attacks and criticism from the right and from the left.
Ann Coulter, who still seethes at Haley for taking down the Confederate flag which flew on South Carolina’s state Capitol grounds in Columbia, called her a “preposterous creature” and suggested she “go back to your own country and reconsider that history.”
But, of course, this is Haley’s “own country.” If it weren’t, she wouldn’t be able to run for president. But Coulter’s business is not facts but provoking an audience that buys her books.
More temperate advice came from The Wall Street Journal, which suggested Haley must do a better job distinguishing herself from other Republicans. No Republican, says the Journal, would disagree that “America is not a racist country.”
This is, of course, true. But I believe Haley is correct that it achieves particular resonance coming from an Indian American woman with a stellar resume of public service and achievement.
The left’s answer to Ann Coulter, Whoopi Goldberg, told her audience, regarding Haley, that “there are things about our country that are not perfect and to pretend that it is and to pretend that nothing happened is ridiculous.”
But, of course, Haley did not say that our country is “perfect” or that “nothing happened.”
Perfection is not what defines our country or any place or anything in this world. What defines and makes our country unique is freedom. This is Haley’s point when she says, “Even on our worst day we are blessed to live in America.”
It is here in our free country that Ann Coulter and Whoopi Goldberg get to speak their minds and not worry that they will disappear in the night, as they might in China or Iran.
More serious criticism comes from the left from Asian American author Wajahat Ali, who accuses Haley of brandishing the “model minority myth,” which he calls a tool of white supremacists. That is, per Ali, they use the success stories “of some Asian Americans” as “a cudgel against Black people” who are “told by GOP politicians to stop blaming racism for their problems.”
Haley has only showcased her own story. But the picture regarding the phenomenal business success stories of American immigrants is not a “cudgel” but powerful testimony to the opportunities for success and achievement in America.
According to a 2022 study by the National Foundation for American Policy, “more than half (319 of 582) of America’s start-up companies valued at $1 billion or more” were founded by immigrants. Nearly “two-thirds of (billion-dollar) companies were founded or co-founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.” And “almost 80%” of billion-dollar companies “have an immigrant founder or an immigrant in a key leadership role.”
These include immigrants from India, Israel, U.K., Canada, China, France, Germany, Russia, Iran, Nigeria and many others.
My organization, CURE, covered Haley’s rollout event in Charleston. The palpable energy and excitement at the rally could be a sign that this campaign will pick up steam as more candidates enter the field, each pitching their own persona. Welcome to election 2024.
Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

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1 year ago

Haley is NOT Eligible to be POTUS since she is NOT a Natural Born Citizen as both her parents were NOT US Citizens when she was born. Same for Harris and we have filed a lawsuit against her for the same reason

Stan Stanfield
1 year ago

Well caught, Suzanne.
“The Republican Party’s newest presidential candidate, former South Carolina Gov. and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, introduced herself by showcasing her roots as a child of immigrants.” Wonderful This country has, after all, been called ‘a nation of immigrants’. But we are also living under the rule of law – in this case, the U.S. Constitution. And under that rule of law, she is not eligible for that office (or that of VP either), for her parents not being U.S. citizens at the time of her birth.
One of the eligibility requirements for those two federal offices – and those two only; signifying their special nature in the eyes of the constitutional Framers (having to do with the fact that the occupant of the higher office, to which the VP might accede, becomes as well, then, the Commander in Chief of the nation’s military forces) – is that the person needs to be a ‘natural born’ citizen. What is a nbc? It is a person, quote, “born in the country, of parents who are citizens” thereof. The definition is from the definitive tome of the day of the Framers on such nation-building matters, E. de Vattel’s ‘The Law of Nations’. And that eligibility requirement for those two specific federal offices only STILL STANDS, absent a constitutional amendment to the contrary. The point of which is to make sure that the occupant of the office of POTUS has NO DUAL OR OTHERWISE CONFLICTING LOYALTIES OR ALLEGIANCES OR INFLUENCES. Has SOLE ALLEGIANCE to the U.S. And we either live by the rule of law. Or we will die by suicide.

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1 year ago

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Tom
1 year ago

Haley is a RINO and caved to the woke! She would rule America like she did as Governor of South Carolina! She has contradicted herself on many occasions! She is not an America first candidate! She is a candidate who sticks her finger in the air to calculate what her next move will be. She will never get my vote!

jerry1944
1 year ago

That is one person that would make me vote for bitme if the choise was between those to That would be the only rason i would not vote for Pres Trump if he chose her for VP