--- title: Ian Bremmer on Charleston, the Election and the Confederate Flag description: Nikki Haley's call to remove the flag from the South Carolina statehouse takes the issue off the table for the 2016 election canonical: https://time.com/3931214/republican-presidential-hopefuls-got-bailed-out-on-the-confederate-flag/ author: Ian Bremmer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-23T14:43:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:08:39.986Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Nikki Haley Helped Save the GOP Presidential Candidates og:description: They should have had to decide on the Confederate flag og:url: https://time.com/3931214/republican-presidential-hopefuls-got-bailed-out-on-the-confederate-flag/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfac24eb205fd3849/698857ec428a9eac3fccdd93/confederate-flag-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Nikki Haley Lindsey Graham confederate flag og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Nikki Haley Helped Save the GOP Presidential Candidates twitter:description: They should have had to decide on the Confederate flag twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfac24eb205fd3849/698857ec428a9eac3fccdd93/confederate-flag-south-carolina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republican Presidential Hopefuls Got Bailed Out on the Confederate Flag > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=f61d6232-ffdc-49e0-84c3-df1b78fc3cd4&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Bremmer: What Does America Stand For? [Watch (HLS stream): Bremmer: What Does America Stand For?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LslU7mTn.m3u8) (3:55)  _Published 2015-05-03. As the world's only superpower, Bremmer argues that the United States must look towards the next stage of China's rise_  by [Ian Bremmer](https://time.com/author/ian-bremmer/)  ## Ian Bremmer Jun 23, 2015 2:43 PM UTC As the world's only superpower, Bremmer argues that the United States must look towards the next stage of China's rise  by [Ian Bremmer](https://time.com/author/ian-bremmer/)  ## Ian Bremmer Jun 23, 2015 2:43 PM UTC South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley yesterday called for her state’s legislature to finally remove the Confederate flag from Capitol grounds. In my mind, this was as close to a gimme as they come. The only problem with Haley’s call is that it gives presidential candidates an easy out from answering tough questions they’ve been flubbing for the last five days. Prior to Haley’s announcement, Jeb Bush claimed that the Confederate flag issue was best left to the leaders of South Carolina to figure out. Ted Cruz said that the last thing South Carolina needed was “people from outside the state coming in and dictating how they should resolve it.” Marco Rubio wanted the state to “make the right choice for the people of South Carolina.” And so on and so on. They were buying themselves time in the hope that local politicians would bail them out. Mission accomplished. The fact that these candidates were equivocating on this issue at all speaks to politics over leadership, particularly on an issue as damaging as the Confederate flag flying on top of government buildings in 2015\. I understand why they were trying so hard not to say anything substantive—a 2014 Winthrop University poll found that 61 percent of South Carolina residents believed the confederate flag should still fly on state house grounds. 73 percent of whites polled said it should stay, and a downright shocking 27 percent of black respondents agree. But this is a level of nuance that the American people, and the residents of South Carolina, are allowed to have. Candidates running for president don’t get the same latitude. And with Haley’s announcement, they were given an easy out. They should have long ago ignored what the polls were saying and told us directly whether they believed the flag should continue to fly and why. Now they’ll never have to, claiming they were vindicated in allowing the state of South Carolina to make the “right” decision for themselves. These candidates should have acknowledged outright that the Confederate flag is a clear symbol of racism and hatred, the same type of racism that claimed the lives of those 9 people in the church. _Bremmer is a foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large at TIME. He is the president of Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy, and a Global Research Professor at New York University. His most recent book is_ Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World ## Transcript [00:00] The biggest question that both Americans have as well [00:04] as our allies around the world, are what we stand for. [00:09] There's a lack of foreign policy strategy. You know, we [00:12] had a, a world where geopolitics were both very [00:17] stable but very dangerous. We're now entering a To a [00:20] world that is both unstable and dangerous. [00:24] And it's at this precise time that Americans are saying, [00:29] yeah, we're the super power, but we don't necessarily [00:30] know what we want to do with it. What do we stand [00:33] for? Who are we in the world? There are three foreign [00:36] policy choices This is that I believe that Americans [00:39] have. And they're very, very different. The [00:43] first, I would call indispensable America. And [00:46] indispensable America means that, you know, we don't [00:50] necessarily want to be the world's Policemen, but the [00:53] fact is no one else is gonna do it, no one else wants to, [00:56] no one else is remotely capable, and if there is a [01:00] power vacuum, that's going to hurt everyone, including [01:03] us. We have to still be in charge in Sort of building [01:07] and supporting international institutions. We have to [01:10] still be the vanguard for promoting values that matter [01:14] to us. A second choice, a very different choice, is [01:19] moneyball America. This idea that the United States, [01:22] we're still the richest country in the world. But the idea [01:26] that we're gonna promote democracy everywhere [01:28] There's a lot of pushback from that. What we're gonna [01:31] do is really spend the money, spend our resources, in [01:34] the places that really matter the most for us. The third [01:38] choice, a very different choice, independent America. [01:42] In independent America says we are still [01:46] the world's only super power and our values are [01:50] important. But those values are not important in telling [01:53] everyone else what to do and how to be. The values [01:57] are important in actually living by them ourselves and [02:00] actually leading the world by example. Independent [02:03] America means that if other countries in the world have [02:06] big problems, other countries in the world are going to [02:08] have to fix them. America's not there to send its troops [02:12] all over the world. America's not there to tell them how [02:14] they have to act. There's been a lot of hypocrisy on [02:17] that front. But America is going to be a sterling [02:19] example so that people will have something to look to [02:21] and say, we'd like to change our system ourselves. [02:24] Because that seems to work a little bit better than our [02:27] system does. These are three radically different [02:31] perspectives. On what the world's only super power [02:34] can do with that super power. To shape the world in a [02:38] way that will be not only more We can do stuff for [02:41] Americans today. But also give's us th e best chance of [02:44] having a bright future. It needs to start from the [02:47] leadership. They need an American leader that tells [02:50] them this is what we're gonna do. It's been so much [02:53] easier for China, they're so much smaller. And yet they [02:56] have the ability to actually say here's the policy. We're [02:59] We're gonna build, we're gonna build our own concept [03:01] of a Marshall Plan. Pumping, you know, hundreds of [03:04] billions of dollars into countries over land, over sea, in [03:08] the region, to get them to be more aligned with [03:11] Chinese interests. Americans did that once. We did it [03:14] with the Marshall Plan. Money that a lot of Americans, [03:17] I'm sure, would have rather spent At home, but it was [03:19] the best money we could of spent because long term, [03:23] that money helped to create a world order that was [03:26] more aligned with the american national interest. Is [03:29] there anyone in America with With influence today that [03:33] is even remotely suggesting that that's something the [03:35] United States should do. Of course there isn't. It can't [03:37] just be drift. You cannot drift in the geopolitical [03:41] environment that we are presently in. It's too [03:44] dangerous for everyone else. It's too dangerous for [03:46] ourself. 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