Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley accepted the prestigious Patriot Award, the highest individual award presented by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, on Saturday and delivered a fiery speech — a full-throated, unabashed defense of America and American values.
Haley is rumored to be considering a presidential run in 2024. If so, she had an excellent warm-up on Saturday night.
“The rising generations don’t think America should survive. They don’t want to sacrifice anything for the land of the free, because they don’t think our freedom matters,” Haley told the gala.
“I wish the college students and Washington politicians would pay attention to what’s really happening. I wish they would recognize that evil is real across the world,” Haley further told the crowd, recalling the events she witnessed during her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
She heard plenty of hateful talk about America while at the U.N., yet she was shocked by the amount of hatred for the country coming from home. “I never expected to hear those same lies from my fellow Americans,” Haley said.
“They say our national ideals of liberty, equality, and the rule of law are nothing more than tools of oppression,” she said. “They even claim that living in America is a curse — not a blessing. But they couldn’t be more wrong.”
It’s sad to hear college students echoing the critiques of America uttered by our most implacable enemies in the last century. To hear them parrot the rhetoric of mass murderers and pathological liars is understandable since they’ve never been interested in thinking critically and have never been challenged to look past the propaganda and seek the truth.
The former South Carolina governor also issued a warning and said, “Make no mistake: Nothing, nothing makes our enemies happier than our national self-loathing.”
“When they see our college students shouting that America is racist … when they see rioters trying to burn our cities to the ground … the dictators of the world think their time has come,” she said. “They think freedom is retreating — and the tyrants are ready to rush into the breach.”
“Hatred of America” is the national pastime of many third-world countries. It plays well in the media back home and raises the standing of diplomats in Africa and elsewhere.
But when it comes time to dole out foreign aid, the loudest critics of America are usually the first in line.
“It pains me to say that we live in a time when national pride is fading fast. Now, I’m no stranger to people hating on the United States. I saw it every day at the U.N. Dictators and thugs loved to get in front of the camera and tell the world how bad America is,” she said. “It’s their favorite pastime, and as far as I can tell, it’s now the main purpose of the United Nations.”
“Proving the haters wrong and defending our country was the best part of the job. But I never expected to hear those same lies from my fellow Americans,” she said.
“America is the best nation in human history — and she deserves all of our love,” Haley said. “We have to get our patriotism back. We have to raise up the next generation to love our country, not hate it.”
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Yes, she’s running. And those sentiments she uttered will make a fine campaign commercial once she enters the race.
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