Commentary | The True Ideology of Washington Is Hypocrisy – By Greg Orman (Real Clear Politics) / Feb 22, 2024
South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary is in the books. As expected, Joe Biden received overwhelming support from the Palmetto State’s rank-and-file Democrats. Leaders of the state’s Democratic Party hope to be as consequential in the 2024 race as they were in 2020 when they delivered a decisive victory to a beleaguered and uninspired Biden campaign, spring-boarding him to the nomination.
This time around, their vehicle for relevance isn’t a full-throated endorsement from a Democratic icon like Rep. Jim Clyburn. Rather, it’s a demand by party leaders that their voters in South Carolina not support Nikki Haley in the upcoming Republican primary. South Carolina’s GOP primary is open to any voter of the state, not just registered Republicans. Theoretically, Democrats and independents could show up and support Haley. While this likely wouldn’t lead to a Haley victory, it might close the gap with Trump enough to add momentum to the Haley campaign. South Carolina’s Democratic leaders have a different goal in mind – to stop the Haley campaign in her home state, thereby ensuring the rematch with Donald Trump that the Biden campaign so desperately craves.
The unwillingness to support Haley in South Carolina is yet another in a long string of hypocritical actions by Democratic Party leaders since declaring Donald Trump to be an existential threat to our democracy. Consider that when making the pitch to Republican-leaning voters to support Biden, Democrats tell them that the fate of our democracy is more important than any policy disagreements those Republicans might have with the administration.
