Nikki Haley’s 'preposterous' appeal to 'nostalgia' is cynical and 'simplistic': journalist

27 June 2023

Nikki Haley's supporters have been exalting the former South Carolina governor as a voice of reason in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, arguing that she would be more electable than former President Donald Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Haley has prioritized culture-war themes, and like DeSantis, she uses the term "woke" to attack any Democratic policy she dislikes.

Haley is also trying to appeal to nostalgia. On June 24, the presidential candidate tweeted, "Do you remember when you were growing up, do you remember how simple life was, how easy it felt? It was about faith, family, and country. We can have that again, but to do that, we must vote Joe Biden out."

Liberal Washington Post opinion writer Paul Waldman slams her tweet as cynical and intellectually bankrupt, arguing that promoting nostalgia is much easier than tackling complex issues.

"The Swiss doctor who coined the term 'nostalgia' in 1688 saw it as a disease," Waldman explains. "Today, it's a powerful psychological, cultural and political force, the last especially for conservatives distressed by social change. But what makes Haley's appeal so striking is its explicit evocation of the simplicity and ease of the world 'when you were growing up,' and her preposterous claim that the president can bring you back to that innocent time."

The columnist continues, "On social media, Haley was quickly attacked, especially by women, LGBTQ+ folks and people of color, who noted that the past was not so rosy for them. She didn’t specify precisely when this golden age occurred beyond whenever you were growing up. If you're 80, that time was the 1940s and '50s; if, like Haley, you're 51, it was the '70s and '80s."

One of the people who lambasted Haley's tweet was The Nation's Joan Walsh. Now 64, Walsh tweeted, "Yeah, cray-cray: I remember the murders of Medgar Evers, the four little girls, JFK, Malcolm X, Dr King, the Orangeburg massacre, Bobby Kennedy, the Kent State Four, and the thousands who died in the Vietnam War."

Waldman emphasizes that nostgalia is nothing new on the right. Trump used it with his pledge to "make America great again" in 2016, and the Archie Bunker character used it on Norman Lear's 1970s sitcom "All in the Family."

"One can't help thinking of Archie Bunker and his wife, Edith, singing 'Those Were the Days,' the theme song to the sitcom 'All In the Family,'" Waldman recalls. "It premiered in 1971 — another time of angry politics and rapid social change — and the lyrics express Archie's dismay at the upheaval of the time as they pine for Herbert Hoover and talk about how 'guys like us, we had it made,' and 'you knew who you were then,' because 'girls were girls and men were men.'"

Waldman adds, "Richard M. Nixon was reelected the next year, but that didn't stop the changes that made Archie Bunker so angry. And neither Nikki Haley nor any other Republican can make you young again or make the world into something no more complicated than what you thought it was when you were a child. There's nothing more childish than believing they can."

Paul Waldman's full Washington Post opinion column is available at this link (subscription required).

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