Former Governor of South Carolina and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley recently appeared on PBS’ “Firing Line with Margaret Hoover.”
During the interview, which last nearly half an hour, Hoover and Haley discussed multiple topics, including Haley’s time at the U.N., and the way in which the United States should deal with Iran and North Korea.
Near the end of the interview, Hoover asked Haley about how the Republican Party can captivate the next generation.
HOOVER: I’m gonna ask about the future of the Republican Party. You talk about your son from time to time, and I think about the millennial generation and how they think about politics. Where the Republican Party is now is not in a place where it’s speaking to the generation of your son – the values, the sensibilities. What is it going to take to motivate and capture the imagination of your son’s generation to the ideas that you espouse as a Republican?
Haley replied, first noting that she has great “hope” for younger generations, in part because they “know the power of their voice,” and “they’re gonna use it.”
“We have to make sure we get the right information in front of them so that they have the facts to do that,” Haley stated.
She continued:
But I think the Republican Party should always want to get better, and I think, in order for the Republican Party to get strong now, they have to go places that are uncomfortable to go. They have to talk to people they’ve never talked to before … I know that when I go to the Indian-American communities or the Jewish communities, in so many ways, they espouse Republican values, and they believe in Republican values – but because we’ve never shown up to them, because we’ve never gone and listened to them, there’s less [of a] likelihood that they come and join our party, and I think we need to start communicating differently.
We need to really put ourselves out there and explain why we believe what we believe. But more importantly, before we say that, we need to listen to what they care about and then put our values with what they care about.
Haley added that there is a “younger generation” of “strong” Republicans who understand this message, and that they need their voices amplified, which requires great support.
Hoover interjected: “With all due respect, to borrow a phrase, this doesn’t feel like what the leadership of this party is doing right now, what you just described.”
Haley replied, saying that this “should not be about one person,” but a host of people properly espousing these beliefs.
Hoover again interjected: “The bully pulpit of the presidency is the most important sort of speaker phone that we have, and that megaphone is not broadcasting the solution that you just outlined.”
To this, Haley offered a deft response and made a salient point about the difference between messaging and results, and how those can be effectively blended:
And I think we have to do that. I think if we take our voice and our way of doing things and match it with the results of this President, I think that’s how we bring the Republican Party back.
And you may not agree with his style, and I tell people that all the time. His style is not my style. But his results are my results. Those are the things we want. We want more people to have jobs; we want to see the economy continue to grow; we want to have a strong standing in the world as we move forward; we want to take on the next problems of the next generation and handle it with strength and with dignity and with grace. And so there is a way to come out of this where we can continue to have our values, but change the style and communication in the way we do that.