Well, I'm not supporting Haley.

I can't say I disagree with this article... The Republican Debate is a Fake. "The great GOP establishment hope, that Trump’s legal problems might torpedo his campaign, was a mirage. If anything, the four indictments helped him in the primary."

Donald Trump with what might as well be his primary opposition. (Douglas Gorenstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images.

Folks, what the debates are about... without Trump... is the "Art of Shiny Object Politics."

The establishment... the same establishment that wanted Perez over Kent... is desperately trying to find someone else who'll "stick". This week's flavor is Haley.

Nikki Haley

Haley lost me when, as governor of South Carolina, she and Tim Scott had a melt down over the Confederate flag as a result of that scumbag who shot up a church.

Her decision was pure politics. There was zero altruism involved. She saw an opportunity to utilize earned media to raise her profile and took it... like any good little leftist.

Now, some reading this might be pissed. I get that: the Confederate flag has been consigned to the bin of history that has been leftist-labeled (as so much of our society has become "leftist labeled") as a/the symbol of slavery and the entire Civil War has been generalized as a "war to free the slaves." However, if one actually is concerned about symbols of slavery and racism, the democrat-control Ku Klux Klan hood might be a better place to start.

The Civil War was no such thing. Freeing the slaves was, at best, a secondary byproduct.

The basis for the Civil War was a combination of two primary factors: the 10th Amendment (Generally based on "states rights") and a snippet of the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

"...it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it..."

The Right.

Alter.

Abolish it.

A sober view of the Confederacy and the Confederate Army shows the vast majority of the Confederate military were not slave owners. The vast majority had never BEEN slave owners. The men fighting for the South would never even have hoped to own another human being.

Had slavery been one of the major motivations for the Union in the Civil War, then Lincoln would have said so from the start. (The same Lincoln frequently vilified by the left in modern times.)

The issue then, at base, was state's rights. For example, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was essentially a question of the legality within state's borders based on the 10th Amendment. But Lincoln himself had views that were in conflict with the equality of Blacks:

"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermingling with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior. I am as much as any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

At the time of his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states, including South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln primarily directed his address to White Southerners, attempting to draw them back into the Union. As a Republican, Lincoln adamantly opposed the expansion of slavery, yet, in his speech, he attempted to reassure Southerners that he had no intention of interfering with slavery where it already existed. To that end, Lincoln specifically referenced the Constitution’s Fugitive Slave Clause (Article IV, Section II, Clause III) that guaranteed enslavers the right to repossess enslaved individuals who escaped to other states."

To that end, the Civil War, then, was not about slavery, per se'.

The goal, then, of the Emancipation Proclamation was not specifically to free slaves, but to cause economic devastation to the Confederacy as a tactic.

Haley, for her part, eagerly grasped the opportunity provided by the low-life who murdered those men and women in the church.

America, generally, applauded. And while they clapped, I wondered (and still do wonder):

What would she have done if it had, instead, been the American flag on his jacket? Would she have stepped up and banned the American flag on/in government buildings in South Carolina? Would she have sounded even more leftist by giving speeches of outrage over OUR flag?

What if it had been a Dallas Cowboy's patch? Or a Chevy patch? or a "Drink Milk!" patch?

What then?

Would she have banned those symbols/products on state property?

To me, the symbolism is no different. It is reminiscent of leftist efforts to change the name of military posts since the names that have served us for far beyond my life span are somehow stained by their history.

Those being cancelled were Confederate officers. They opposed the Union. I get that. The likely opposed the abolishment of slavery. But what they opposed MOST was a Federal government which they feared was going to force a Federal position on an entire country in violation of the 10th Amendment.

Much like Roe v. Wade.

And they were willing to fight against it, as the Declaration and the Constitution instructed them to.

No. I am not and never will be a supporter of any form of slavery. What I am is a supporter of the Constitution, even when some people don't like it or the parts that they oppose... like, for an example, the left's opposition to the parts of the 1st Amendment that allow us to oppose them... or the Right's response to my essays on covid restriction.

And that same 1st Amendment is SUPPOSED to protect speech that others find "offensive."

Including the use of the Confederate Battle Flag.

As a result, I will not support Haley or any other political opportunist. regardless of party label.

Which brings us back to the dog and pony show of the GOP debates.

Trump, wisely, is not interested in being a piñata for a bunch of pretenders. And the American people have figured that out:

Everyone has to do what they have to do, and that includes me.