The Pelosi Problem

Train Wreck by Nancy Ohanian

I don’t know about you, but I have a Pelosi problem. It is time for her to GO— before she saddles Congress with PAYGO, in fact. Her time is UP. Go, go, go… away. Pelosi and Hoyer— who’s much worse— are living in another era and are totally and utterly out of touch with where the Democratic Party is and where it’s going. As Norman Solomon wrote this week, “Progressives should recognize the long-standing House Democratic leader as a symptom of a calcified party hierarchy that has worn out its grassroots welcome and is beginning to lose its grip. Increasingly at odds with the Democratic Party’s mobilized base, that grip has held on with gobs of money from centralized, deep-pocket sources— endlessly reinforcing continual deference to corporate power and an ongoing embrace of massively profitable militarism.”

We’ve got to get rid of her. The problem, of course, is that all the likely alternatives are way worse. The rebellion against her is being led by the New Dems and Blue Dogs, the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. (A note, especially, a bunch of anonymous commenters who run their mouths without knowing anything: neither the Blue Dogs nor the New Dems are an adjective or a description of a class off people. They are actually organized congressional groups. They elect officers, pay dues, have rules, meetings, etc. Someone applies, proves they are conservatives and amenable to corruption by taking a test and— if they pass— they become members. Members of Congress have applied and been rejected for not being either conservative or corruptible enough.) With that out of the way, the leaders of the anti-Pelosi movement in Congress right now don’t want to off her for the same reasons you do. They want to offer her because they think she’s too progressive.

If Barbara Lee or Ted Lieu were running for Speaker— I’ve been begging Lieu and discussing it with Lee— there would be no dilemma for progressives. Bye-bye, Nancy, don’t let the door hit you on your way back to San Francisco. But, Seth Moulton, Kathleen Rice, Marcia Fudge and Tim Ryan are not Ted Lieu or Barbara Lee. Do you want to see the end of the Democratic Party— and I know there are DWT readers who do— then pray for one of these New Dems or Blue Dogs, or Hoyer, to take over from Pelosi.

Long Island New Dem Kathleen Rice-- one of the worst of the worst

“Pelosi,” wrote Solomon, “has earned a reputation as an excellent manager, and she has certainly managed to keep herself in power atop Democrats in the House. She’s a deft expert on how Congress works, but she seems out of touch-- intentionally or not-- with the millions of grassroots progressives who are fed up with her kind of leadership. Those progressives should not reconcile with Pelosi, any more than they should demonize her. The best course will involve strategic confrontations-- nonviolent, emphatic, civilly disobedient-- mobilizing the power of protest as well as electoral activism within Democratic primaries. Such well-planned actions as the Nov. 13 ‘Green New Deal’ sit-in at Pelosi’s Capitol office serve many valuable purposes. (Along the way, they help undermine the absurd right-wing Fox News trope that portrays her as some kind of leftist.) Insistently advocating for strong progressive programs and calling Pelosi out on her actual positions despite nice-sounding rhetoric can effectively widen the range of public debate. Over time, the process creates more space and momentum for a resurgent left.”

There is much to counter at the top of the party. Pelosi still refuses to support single-payer enhanced “Medicare for all.” As on many other issues, she-- and others, such as the more corporate-friendly House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer-- are clinging to timeworn, Wall Street-friendly positions against powerful political winds generated by years of grassroots activism.

Increasingly, such leadership is isolated from the party it claims to lead. Yet the progressive base is having more and more impact. As a Vox headline proclaimed, more than a year ago, “The stunning Democratic shift on single-payer: In 2008, no leading Democratic presidential candidate backed single-payer. In 2020, all of them might.” The Medicare for All Caucus now lists 76 House members.

Any progressive should emphatically reject Pelosi’s current embrace of a “pay-go” rule that would straitjacket spending for new social programs by requiring offset tax hikes or budget cuts. Her position is even more outrageous in view of her fervent support for astronomical military spending. Like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (who was just re-elected to his post), Pelosi went out of her way last winter to proclaim avid support for President Trump’s major increase in the already-bloated Pentagon budget, boasting: “In our negotiations, congressional Democrats have been fighting for increases in funding for defense.”

Whether our concerns involve militarism, social equity, economic justice, civil liberties, climate change or the overarching necessity of a Green New Deal, the Democratic Party must change from the bottom up. That means progressives across the country should run candidates from precinct levels upward and maintain pressure on all elected officials, including the congressional Democrats with progressive records.

Newly elected House members will raise the total membership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to about 90. A dozen caucus members are in line to chair House committees in the new Congress; another 30 are set to chair subcommittees. The Progressive Caucus is now co-chaired by Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, two of the strongest progressive lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The contrasts between their advocacy and the meanderings of the caucus’s more tepid members are sometimes striking.

Just a brief note here. The number of New Dems who have infiltrated the CPC has increased dramatically since Pocan replaced Keith Ellison as co-chair. Make what you want out off that but a New Dem take-over of the CPC would be catastrophic for any kind of inside-outside strategy that progressives might hope to employ. I look very much forward to Pramila Jayapal ascending to co-chair status, since I suspect she’ll be much stronger in drawing the line between progressives and New Dems who want to use the CPC good name for their own careerism back home. “During the Obama years,” continued Solomon, “by deferring to top-tier party leaders, many in the Progressive Caucus showed themselves to be unreliable advocates for progressive causes when push came to shove-- during the 2009 health care debate, for example. Yet the left-leaning tendencies in the caucus can now be strengthened and reinforced-- if constituent pressure is insistent. When necessary, that insistence should include credible threats of launching primary challenges.”