In November, voters are going to have to make a decision. A terrible, awful, no-good decision.
Voters on the right — libertarians and conservatives especially — will likely be faced with a worst-case scenario: Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
Sure, the dumpster fire that is the 2016 election cycle could suddenly, miraculously extinguish itself. Ted Cruz and John Kasich might win enough delegates to result in a contested convention, and an electable White Horse candidate could ride out of the ether.
But, like it or not, the most probable scenario involves center-right voters walking out of the polling station with a deep sense of self-loathing.
Gary Johnson, the former governor of Nevada who’s been gaining steam in the libertarian primaries, could be a fitting choice for some, but likely not for conservatives or moderates.
There is, however, an option that won’t leave you sobbing into your “Reagan/Bush ’84” sweatshirt on Inauguration Day: Write in Nikki Haley.
The South Carolina governor is the antithesis of Hillary and Trump: a sharp, articulate and experienced leader with just the right balance of political savvy and likability. As far as I know, she’s not being investigated by the FBI. She’s not being sued for fraud. She hasn’t left a trail of failed businesses and failed marriages in her wake, and she doesn’t, publicly at least, believe the U.S. should commit war crimes or provide taxpayer-funded abortions.
While Donald Trump is the living, breathing representation of every negative characteristic the Left tries to stick to the Right, Haley represents the best side of the party. Trump was born into privilege, and his sense of entitlement is so pervasive that he cries fraud when he loses state elections. Haley is a first-generation American whose family worked their way up from nothing. Haley is the embodiment of the American Dream.
The Trump campaign has made a mess of the party, exacerbating fractures to suit his political needs, while Haley brought her state together during the potentially divisive aftermath of the Charleston church shooting. If the Republican Party has a future after Donald Trump, Nikki Haley is it.
While it’s difficult to recall Clinton’s major accomplishments in her 30 years in politics, Haley will likely leave her state better than she found it. South Carolina’s unemployment rate spiked to 11.7% in 2008, the highest it had been since 1982. The rate had just started to decline in 2010 when Haley was elected governor, running on jobs and the economy. In 2016, unemployment is the lowest it’s been since before the 2008 recession at 5.5%. Between 2013 and 2014, South Carolina had the sharpest drop in unemployment rates of any state at 2.4 percentage points.
Perhaps most refreshing: Haley seems to see her gender as irrelevant; Clinton uses hers as a manipulation tool.
Of course, writing in Haley isn’t the only option for voters depressed by their choices in November. If you’re not going to vote for any of the nominees, you could forfeit your “I voted” selfie and spend Election Day at home with the lights off and the curtains drawn, purging your Twitter feed. But why not make a statement with your constitutionally protected right to vote? Your voice should be heard, especially if it doesn’t align with the majorities in either party. Dissent is American.
Truthfully, writing in Haley’s name won’t affect the outcome of the election at all. It will have roughly the same effect on the election as writing in Megyn Kelly, or tearing up your ballot and making a paper mache Trump bust.
But it might feel good, deep in your soul, to cast a vote that says: “If the Republican party bursts into flames and devours itself after this election, I believe there are GOP leaders who will pull it out of the ashes.” It might feel good to symbolically support someone who, as a right-wing, pro-life, pro-gun, GOP establishment leader, likely enrages both candidates and some of their supporters.
Haley is the leader America deserves when we’re not electing political flip-floppers and reality TV show hosts to be our presidential nominees. Will Nikki Haley be our next president? No. But she could be your well-chosen, spite-filled write in: the candidate who wasn’t, but should have been, in the race.
Brooke A. Rogers is a contributor to Heat Street.
