What Impeachment?

The House GOP dabbles in alternate history.

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Rep. Elise Stefanik with other House Republicans at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on September 29, 2022. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Nikki Haley has caused scarcely a ripple as a presidential candidate, rising from 3.3 percent in primary polling at the start of this year to 3.6 percent today. But last weekend, for one shining moment, she made a splash.

She became the main character on Twitter for a day.

As of Tuesday afternoon this item had 32 million views and counting, most of them unfavorable judging from the tenor of replies she received.

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  1. Mathias

    Concerning Nikki Haley's invocation of childhood nostalgia, you certainly hit the nail on the head about how our youthful days always seem simpler because they were simple... for us.

    However – it does appear that there were some times which were felt to be better times by adults too. My parents lived through the '60s and '70s, so they had several decades to compare, and they would reminisce about the '80s as a time of hope and optimism. They surely wouldn't deny that materially things were not as nice as they are today; yet they felt better about life while living through the '80s than they did about any other decade.

    Why is that? In my opinion, it's not solely (or even primarily) material wealth or success or comfort or even medical care that makes people feel good about the world they live in. What the '80s had going for it, so far as I can tell from this distance, was:
    1) a sense of togetherness in the face of a common threat. The Cold War had been going on for a long while, but in the '80s the general impression was 'now we're gonna go win this thing and stop the Soviets.' (Rational or irrational, the national feeling did exist.) This then created:
    2) a sense of direction toward a future goal. If people know that they are going somewhere, even if it's an uphill climb, they are more disposed to bear their hardships patiently and remain optimistic. (An uphill climb just means that their trajectory is upward and the best is yet to come.)

    Now, none of this had to be supported by any objective realities in the state of the nation's power, wealth or life expectancy. It was all in people's heads. But it was no less real for all that. Many Americans looked at the world with a less jaundiced and cynical eye in those days. That outlook made the '80s a better place to live in.

    Why is all this important? Because it highlights the problem with the modern right. Instead of looking toward a brighter future and acknowledging that burdens have to be borne along the way, they foresee only doom in the future, so they look backwards and long for olden days which were supposedly better for them. In reality, the only thing that was substantially different in those days was their outlook and attitude. That made all the difference. It actually made those days better. So we can have those days again, but only if we revise our attitudes... which the modern right makes impossible from the outset by their grievance-laden nostalgia.

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  2. Vaddeman

    'The Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, weaponized a perfect phone call with Ukraine to interfere with the 2020 election.'

    If this quote is accurate, the statement says the phone call interfered with the election.

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      Kizedek

      It also says there were so many perfect phone calls he can’t keep them all straight.

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    Normb1442

    "I do remember how simple life was and how easy it felt back then. That’s because I was a child."

    God bless you, Nick, for saying what I've always believed about politicians who talk about how great things used to be. When a politician, ANY politician, says this, run, do not walk, to the polls to vote against them. They are asking you to believe they can restore you to the life you had as a child, and nobody can do that.

    The MAGA slogan is a prime example for this. In and of itself, it is an infantilization of the electorate.

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    Will I Am

    Spot. On. And why I voted for fewer Republicans in the 2022 election than ever before. The Keystone Kops weren’t this goofy.

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  5. Emma

    Nikki is just trying to suck up to folks upset about the comments she made about the confederate flag.

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  6. Tommaj60

    Clown car party
    They/it will find a way to lose to tired, insensate, ol’Joe and his clown car party.

    What was it Liz Cheney said recently? “[Each] elects idiots.”

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  7. Rune485

    I was around for the 80’s, Eeyore, and I’d take that governance during “less than ideal” times over anything we’ve had since 2008, thanks.

    Times are *always “less than ideal”.

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  8. Deleted Comment

    This comment has been deleted

  9. Johnnyberge

    I realize this sounds ridiculous, but it seems there is almost something ‘supernatural’ in the hold that Trump has over his base and most Republicans in Congress. Nothing, no matter how bad, seems to penetrate it.

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      Kizedek

      To the degree that (evangelical) Trump supporters feel that the rest of us are "deceived" by the MSM and the Deep-State, Socialist, Communist, Globalist World Order –– deceived into believing lies about Trump and supporting the "deranged" "witch hunt" and "persecution" of Trump (and thus his followers, too) because we are evil thugs or sheep or whatever –– to that degree, yes, there is something supernatural about it.

      The hold over Trump's base is as strong as the base themselves claim to be clear-eyed about Trump and believe the rest of us to be deceived and to be guilty of "hating America" (Trump). They have "given themselves over to a lie" because they have "itching ears" and just want to hear what they want to hear; and pride is involved.

      In all that, there IS something supernatural. No amount of persuasion will work. The antidote is for the person so held to come to a point of epiphany, confession, remorse, humility, repentance, and contrition. "The hold that Trump has over his base and most Republicans in Congress" is akin to a "possession" and it needs to be "exorcised".

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      Paul

      Cowardice does not mean the same thing as supernatural.

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  10. Franklin Webber

    We have always been at war with Eastasia, and there was never an impeachment.

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    1. 632.8

      Direct from the Ministry of Truth Social.

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About Nick Catoggio

Nick Catoggio is a staff writer at The Dispatch and is based in Texas. Prior to joining the company in 2022, he spent 16 years gradually alienating a populist readership at Hot Air. When Nick isn’t busy writing a daily newsletter on politics, he’s … probably planning the next day’s newsletter.
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