On the eve of the American Civil War, a journalist in Charleston wrote, "South Carolina was too small for a Republic and too large to be an insane asylum." The state that compelled Thomas Jefferson to remove all references condemning slavery in the Declaration of Independence was also the first to secede from the American Union in 1860. It also fired the first shot in 1861 to inaugurate the American Civil War. South Carolina was undoubtedly a brutal slave state, and after Emancipation, an egregious segregationist state even by southern standards. It had a similar record with regard to women's rights. While the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified nationally in 1920, South Carolina ratified it only in 1969.
The same South Carolina is now poised to elect Nikki Randhawa Haley (R), an Indian-American woman with supposedly questionable Christian credentials, as its next governor.
Having secured the nomination of the Republican Party in the runoff June 22, Haley, barring some dramatic scandal or misstep, is expected to beat her Democratic opponent, State Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D-SC), in the November election. That makes for some real history.
To the amazement of much of the national audience (including the surprised and delighted liberal cable networks like MSNBC), Haley has overcome the odds that conventionally could have gone against her political ascendancy in South Carolina – gender, race and religion. The gender factor was possibly neutralized by the scandal that ended Gov. Mark Sanford's career (R-SC) and made a laughing stock of the state. The vicious accusations by two of her antagonists, of them having "inappropriate" sexual relations with Haley, may have also helped generate sympathy for the candidate, who is a married mother of two young children. Solid support from Jenny Sanford, the ex-wife of the disgraced governor, and a high-profile endorsement from the new feminist of the Republican Party, Sarah Palin, took the edge off the male-domination of the state's electoral process. (One of the understated factors in Haley's triumph has been the support of her mentor, Gov. Sanford, and his well-oiled political machinery.)
But the religious card that her opponents played could have impacted Haley's chances were it not for the fact that religion arguably plays much less of a role in the state's politics than is often assumed. Thank God for that. South Carolina, which is nearly 92 percent Christian, seems to have accepted her claim to have converted to Christianity, although Haley's Sikh upbringing has been at the front and center of her opponents' campaign. Republican State Sen. Jake Knotts – who incidentally referred to her as a "rag-head"– even went to the ludicrous extent of asking if Haley "believes in Jesus Christ as her lord and savior and that he died on the cross for her sins."
Interestingly, race seems to have been the less toxic problem that Haley had to overcome in the campaign, underscoring the fact that people of Indian origin are not subjected to the same racial prejudice as African Americans. This was proven once before in the neighboring southern state, Louisiana, which elected Indian-American Bobby Jindal (R-LA) as governor. The fact that the Republican Party, in two conservative southern states, has opted for candidates of Indian origin, when African-American candidates have not won a statewide election since the Reconstruction, raises an interesting question: Are Indian-American candidates a handy foil for the GOP straining to demonstrate its diversity credentials?
It could be true, even if that does not take anything away in terms of the eligibility, credentials or charisma of either Jindal or Haley to be elected to high office. In fact, there is every possibility that Indian Americans may be benefiting to several white-collar sectors in terms of opportunities and employment at the cost of African Americans, thanks to managements that are conscious of diversity on the books for legal purposes, where applicable, and public relations, in general. Obviously, in the emerging matrix of politically correct diversity practices, blacks are at the bottom of the colored heap.
If that is indeed the case, it is rather ironic, considering that Indians and other Asians are direct beneficiaries of the black-led Civil Rights Movement that also fought for opening up immigration to non-Europeans. As Indian Americans rise in the political ranks and become contenders for even higher offices – as Jindal and Haley are being projected – one can only hope they will remember the shoulders on which they stood to come this far. But for now, one must pay a deserving tribute to the state that has taken a historic step in its political evolution by calling it Sweet Carolina.
