Nikki Haley's Rebuttal Way Out in Left Field

Following Obama’s disgusting State of the Union lecture, “conservative” South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was supposed to provide a principled alternative to Obama’s socialism, engaged in some lecturing of her own.

Haley asserts, “We get more done when we listen and find out where someone else is coming from, and try to find common ground." Find common ground? How are you supposed to find common ground when you disagree on fundamental principles?

If I held you up at gunpoint and said, “Give me your jewelry,” there would be no common ground. There would be no rational basis for replying, “I’ll give you my necklace, if you insist, but you can’t have my diamond ring.”

Yet that’s the sort of dichotomy we face between socialism and capitalism; between freedom and liberty; between individual rights and collective “rights” that the Democrats and progressives love to tout.

Republicans like Haley tell us to “go along to get along.” And then Republicans wonder why so many in their party have turned against them.

This issue is not only ideological and political. It’s also psychological. Put simply, people do not like to be lectured. After years of Obama and hapless Republican flailing in Congress, many Republicans and many independents yearn for a principled alternative. Yes, the Democrats and Obama are “principled” — if you want to call it that.

They are unyielding and unflinching in the advancement of their ideas and policies. After two terms of Obama, outright socialist Bernie Sanders barely has anything left to tax, regulate, nationalize or socialize.

You’d think that if nothing else, years of losing would have helped Republicans rediscover their principles. Instead, we get Nikki Haley — once heralded as the “new, principled blood” of the Republican Party — whining and lecturing to the same old tune. She used the aftermath of Obama’s wretched speech not to criticize him, but to lecture Republicans like Donald Trump for being too “angry.”

So how much anger is “too much” anger, Nikki Haley? Anger refers to an emotional response to injustice. If something is wrong and unjust, you really can’t have too much anger.

By the same token, if you’re rationally angry and you suppress or minimize the anger, you’ll end up letting significant others in your life walk all over you. You turn yourself into a victim. Haley reminds me of the preachy minister, teacher or relative who intones, Now, now. Don’t get too angry there, children. Stay seated.

"We've never in the history of this country passed any laws or done anything based on race or religion. Let's not start that now,” says Haley. Now wait a minute! Haley knows full well that Islam is not a religion in the same sense as other religions. Islam is a social-political ideology combined with force. It’s just as much a threat to national security as the Nazi and communist ideologies.

Does that mean we outlaw ideas? No. But it does mean we keep an eye on people who advocate and perpetuate these violent ideologies, including anything involving immigration. Haley knows all this. Yet she’s not a Democrat.

We already know how Democrats think. What’s Haley’s excuse? Like most of what passes for Republican leaders nowadays, Haley’s a member of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D., LCSW is a psychotherapist and author with a private practice in coastal Delaware. He is the author of “Bad Therapy, Good Therapy (and How to Tell the Difference).” For more of his reports, Go Here Now.