Nikki Haley had a presidential campaign that rocketed up to #2 in the power rankings. HAD being the keyword here. Then she "Leroy Jenkins'd" it away with her nanny state view of social media.

Haley told Fox News if elected president, anonymous accounts on social media would be banned. You know, in the name of national security. Keep those two words in the back of your noggin.

"When you do that, all of a sudden, people have to stand by what they say. And it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots, and the Chinese bots."

The nanny statism continued, "Then you're going to get some civility when people learn their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family members are going to see it. It's going to help our kids."

This would be the point where a candidate's campaign clarified what the candidate meant to say. Instead, Haley went on the Ruthless Podcast, hosted by one of the most popular anonymous account on the right, Comfortably Smug, and doubled down.

At Tuesday's White House press briefing, Karine Jean Pierre echoed a similar sentiment: "We all know that America's enemies use anonymous bots to spread anti-American lies and sow chaos and division within our borders. [The president] believes social media companies need to do a better job of verifying users so we can crack down on Chinese, Iranian, and Russian bots. That's common sense.

Kidding. That was Nikki Haley's campaign confirming to Byron York this was indeed the former ambassador's official policy proposal.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one of Haley's chief rivals in the GOP presidential primary, called Haley's proposal to ban anonymous speech online, similar to what China recently did, dangerous and unconstitutional.

Haley's other rival in the primary, former President Donald Trump, has not spoken out as of yet. An old tweet of his has resurfaced that may provide insight into the former president's thoughts on the matter.

There is an entire multiverse of reasons why Haley's proposal is terrifying. I'll narrow it down to two. The first is that there's already BIPARTISAN SUPPORT for what she's suggesting. In March, the "RESTRICT Act" was proposed. It was basically a Patriot Act for the Internet. It gives the government the authority to go after anyone they deem a national security threat. That could mean actual terrorists. Or it could mean the sad incel in the basement who excels in the art of meme-making. Either way, the government would have access to anything you own that connects to the internet because of Haley's four favorite words: "a national security threat."

The other is that when we say, "Pay Attention, America" in reference to overseas social media policies, Nikki Haley has not. A government that can control your ability to speak out anonymously isn't that far from a government that can arrest you for saying "wrong" things on the Internet. In the UK, they already arrest people for social media posts at a more alarming rate than in RUSSIA.

I'll throw out a bonus thing that you should find terrifying. We said in the title that Nikki Haley destroyed her social media campaign, but we can't guarantee that's so. There are way too many Republicans who would agree with her on anonymous accounts, they could get behind this.

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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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