Dem
51
GOP
49
Ronald Reagan was a huge supporter of free markets, untrammeled trade, and limited government. That far outlasted the Gipper, continuing to dominate Republican politics until Donald Trump came along arguing for managed trade, tariffs, and using big government to achieve political goals. Reaganism clearly does not dominate Republican thinking now, but is it completely dead and buried along with St. Ronnie? Nikki Haley wants to find out.
Her candidacy is a weird mix of Reaganism with a light Trump sauce over it. She knows she can't oppose Trump directly, but maybe she can try to sell Reaganism, call it Trumpism, and hope the base is too stupid to see these two philosophies are contradictory. You can't favor both free trade and using tariffs to block trade at the same time.
Consequently, she is not a perfect test of Reaganism vs. Trumpism, but it is the best we have at the moment. All the other potential Republican presidential candidates are very Trumpy. In fact, Ron DeSantis is trying to be Trumpier than Trump. Haley's candidacy might give a clue as to whether Reaganism might make a comeback after Trump has eaten has last Big Mac.
Among other things, Haley is singing praise for some of Reagan's greatest hits, such as "Russia is evil," big tax cuts are crucial for a healthy economy (at least for rich people), and government is too big and powerful. That is a different message than it is necessary to use the full power of big government to batter woke corporations into submission. She also wants to link immigration to inflation. After all, both words begin with the letter "i." And more immigrants mean more people buying eggs, thus driving up the price. Or something.
Foreign policy is the area where Haley differs from Trump the most and it is her policy strength as a result of her time as ambassador to the United Nations. We can easily imagine a debate in which the moderator asks each candidate to summarize his or her foreign policy in two words (because the base doesn't have a very long attention span, certainly not for foreign policy). Haley goes first and says: "Putin bad." Then Trump says: "Putin good." DeSantis then goes off topic and says: "Woke bad."
Of course, if Haley wants to get a lot of votes so DeSantis might pick her as his running mate, she has to embrace the culture wars. Her attempts to say that women, minorities, and immigrants should just shut up and let the straight white Christian men run the show might be amusing, but she won't be able to opt out. As a result, her Reaganistic views may not come to dominate her positions. But as a litmus test, she is all be have. (V)