Gov. Haley Infuriates Culture Warriors All-Round

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South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley delivered the GOP response to President Obama’s final State of the Union address Wednesday night. While Donald Trump and the trumpians took offense at her call for “welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion. Just like we have for centuries,” it was her other remarks on religion that riled up social conservatives and won her few friends among LGBT progressives.

Haley said of the GOP, “We would respect differences in modern families, but we would also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our democracy.”

For many of a libertarian-leaning disposition, and among a wide swath of political moderates, those remarks seem like common sense. But the response from other quarters was blistering. “Even the terminology ‘modern families’ evokes the ABC sitcom featuring a homosexual couple raising a child,” huffed Lifesite.com, while religious far right radio host Bryan Fischer ripped Haley for embracing “sodomy-based marriage and the entire homosexual agenda,” Right-Wing Watch relates.

But LGBT progressives aren’t likely to be won over. Right-Wing Watch, for instance, has complained that “framing opposition to LGBT equality, abortion and contraception as religious liberty issues is a core strategy of right-wing culture.”

Gay Republicans welcomed Haley’s remarks. “I was far more impressed by Gov. Nikki Haley and her call to ‘respect differences in modern families’ while at the same time balancing that respect with a concern for religious liberty—a position Log Cabin Republicans has long advocated,” said national Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory Angelo, quoted by PrideSource.com. “It was refreshing to see a Republican explicitly acknowledge that on a major national stage,” he added.

It’s not easy to defend religious liberty for private individuals, however, when religious conservatives insist on making the issue about government civil servants. As was widely reported, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis attended the State of the Union address as a guest of Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan. Davis spent a few nights behind bars for refusing to let anyone in the Rowan County clerk’s office issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing her Christian beliefs.

As I’ve noted before, government officials are responsible for following the law of the land, even when doing so is at odds with their own religious beliefs. They are public servants, not private, self-employed service providers.

The religious right remains committed to government discrimination against gay people in general, and married same-sex couples in particular. The progressive left remains committed to using government to force independent business owners with faith-based objections to provide services to same-sex weddings, as no religious dissent against government coercion of the citizenry is tolerable. Authoritarians of left and right feed off each other in a symbiotic relationship that keeps the culture war roiling.

17 Comments for “Gov. Haley Infuriates Culture Warriors All-Round”

  1. posted by Kosh III on

    ” The progressive left remains committed to using government to force independent business owners with faith-based objections to provide services to same-sex weddings”
    No. A business open to the public cannot discriminate; did we learn nothing from the Dr King and the civil rights movement of the past?

    • posted by JohnInCA on

      I think we’ve learned that if Libertarians were at all persuasive the “Free Market” would have solved everything.

      This perspective necessarily ignores that Libertarians have never been very persuasive and as such all the “what-ifs” that follow from that hypothetical are fantasy.

  2. posted by Tom Scharbach on

    Haley said of the GOP, “We would respect differences in modern families, but we would also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our democracy.”

    When the leading candidates from both the “conservative Christian” and “Establishment” wings of the party (Cruz and Rubio, respectively) are both clamoring to reverse Obergefell and roll back the progress we’ve made during the Obama administration, any whisper of moderation in the Republican Party is a good sign.

    However, I am not naive.

    For all the uproar from Bryan Fischer and his ilk (who treat any hint of movement away from the Cruz/Rubio rubric as an act of political treason), I recognize that Governor Haley was code-speaking to those “committed to government discrimination against gay people in general, and married same-sex couples in particular” when she juxtaposed “modern families” (meaning “LGBT families”) and “religious liberty” (meaning “sanctioned special discrimination against gays and lesbians”), signalling that the Republican Party will not abandon its support of special discrimination against gays and lesbians, and gays and lesbians alone, in this election cycle.

    The two were juxtaposed — as opposed to treated independently — for to send a political message. A message sent and duly noted.

    Hopeful homocons are making much of Governor Haley’s phrase “would respect the differences in modern families”, suggesting that it echoes the AUF’s “Platform Reform” language “… commit our Party to respect for all families and fairness and freedom for all Americans …”

    Maybe so, but I would quietly remind those finding hope in the similarity that rubber has to meet the road in order for the “respect” to mean anything. All indications are that no rubber will meet the road. AUF’s founder and largest funder, Paul Singer, recently endorsed Rubio and is financially supporting him. The Republican “Establishment”, supposedly “moderate” on LGBT issues, is also rallying around Rubio.

    Rubio is (and long has been) committed to hard-core opposition to equality, and if Rubio is elected, the hopeful homocons may well find out that “respect” doesn’t amount to much when President Rubio makes good on his promises rescind Executive Orders protecting LGBTs and nominate Alito/Scalia clones to replace one or more of Justices Breyer, Ginsburg and Kennedy.

    I wonder if “respect” isn’t an empty word, given the realities.

    • posted by Jorge on

      …I recognize that Governor Haley was code-speaking…

      Today’s internet headline is talking about how her speech socked Donald Trump. So I read the article, now that was speaking in code. “No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.” Wait, what? What about illegal immigrants? Well, she still said some lines about the importance of securing the border and other blah-blah-blahey stuff.

      If people want to look at Gov. Haley to try to figure out whether to be “hopeful” about her (either personally or in generalizing to the Republican party as a whole), her criticizing the Republican frontrunner without criticizing him by name is a good starting baseline. (Come to think of it, Marco Rubio’s position on illegal immigration is an interesting barometer, too. And unlike Gov. Haley, he is running for president.)

      A word of warning, though, she’s from South Carolina. I just came back from vacation there. I believe there is a long-running strain of right-moderation in its political establishment that is 1) more typical of the state than the country as a whole, and 2) historically accommodating to the decisions of the majority. Gov Haley alone cannot convince the rest of the country to adopt her brand of conservatism. There will come a time when the issues Haley talks about are decided opposite her favor. Should she recognize that, she is likely to withdraw from them unless something else changes.

  3. posted by Houndentenor on

    I notice that Stephen is ignoring dozens of anti-gay bills proposed at the state level across the country. As for Nicki Haley, watching the in fighting is enjoyable and here I am out of popcorn again!

  4. posted by Houndentenor on

    It looks like Haley has smartly positioned herself as less regressive on gay rights than the current party. She’s young and this will serve her well in 2024 or later when the younger more libertarian conservatives are the norm and even the Evangelicals are not so dogmatic on the social issues. It was a smart move. She’s going to have to suffer the hate from the social conservatives for now but it could pay off in the future. Overall, a smart move. And honestly someone had to do this and there aren’t many in the current party willing to stick their necks out enough to even moderate the rabidly anti-gay tone of the current Republican party base.

  5. posted by JohnInCA on

    Hey, I’ll believe that the GOP is interested in “religious liberty” when they do anything to demonstrate it. Passing laws and demagoging on the right of bakers to reject gay customers? That isn’t an interest in religious liberty, that just a special interest.

    If they were *really* interested in religious liberty, it would be pretty simple. “Any individual or business may opt out of this non-discrimination law by stating a religious objection. A religious objection may be a burden your religion places upon you, or an objection to a person’s religion”.

    Or, to put it in other words…

    If it’s so important that a baker have the right to kick me the curb while shouting about how his God hates fags, then I damn well better be able to throw him to the curb while shouting about how his God hates fags. If it doesn’t do that, then you aren’t talking about any “religious liberty” that I want a part of.

    That said, I’d be much happier if we both have to smile and serve the other and no one gets thrown to the curb. But I’m a wicked statist like that.

  6. posted by Jorge on

    Authoritarians of left and right feed off each other in a symbiotic relationship that keeps the culture war roiling.

    Then, once everything’s been turned to scorched earth, it becomes a race to see which side claims the middle ground first and most convincingly.

    • posted by Doug on

      Unless all news, video and print, is burned along with the scorched earth it will and is readily apparent who has a better claim on the middle ground.

    • posted by Tom Scharbach on

      Then, once everything’s been turned to scorched earth, it becomes a race to see which side claims the middle ground first and most convincingly.

      I doubt that we will see “scorched earth” and the “middle ground” is reasonably aligned with “equal means equal” at this point, if consistent polling trends are to be believed.

  7. posted by tom jefferson 3rd on

    If the proposed religious freedom bills were written honestly and as part of a larger support for LGBT rights, it would be goo for everyone involved.

    Yet, the people writing these bills are not being honest and often have zero interest in LGBT rights.

    • posted by Tom Scharbach on

      Almost all of the so-called “religious freedom” bills have been introduced in states that don’t cover gays and lesbians in public accommodations or other non-discrimination laws. That pretty much tells the story.

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