“[Pelosi’s] experience offers an irony & a warning: For women politicians to succeed, they must defeat & outmaneuver men. Yet the better at it they are, the more detested they become.” https://t.co/zaH30LGksc
— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) March 16, 2018
I suspect that in some cases that bashing Dem leaders—esp when they’re women or minorities—has a modest benefit for GOP turnout. I suspect it costs the Dem zero votes. And if not Pelosi they’d demonize someone else https://t.co/w7LOMIU1ZH
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 16, 2018
The hiccup in all these stories about whether Pelosi is toxic and will destroy the Dem Party’s chances is this: GOP groups just spent $10m making that case in an R+11 district and… it didn’t work.
— Sam Stein (@samstein) March 15, 2018
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*This* bullshit, again. Jonathan Chait, at NYMag, “Nancy Pelosi Is Good at Her Job and She Should Keep It”
… Would a different Democratic leader prove less of a liability? Probably for a while, yes. Republicans have spent years building up Pelosi as a hate figure, and a newer and less familiar Democratic leader would take longer for Republicans to promote as a target of fear and loathing. It’s also possible that a Democrat who was either from a less famously progressive locale than San Francisco, or not female, would be less threatening to some socially conservative voters. (The latter point is the most fraught: Do Democrats really want to let irrational fear of powerful women dictate their choice of leaders?) It is true, though, that deposing Pelosi would have at least a temporary messaging benefit in some tough districts this fall.
But the cost of throwing Pelosi over the side would be high. She has been an extraordinarily effective caucus leader. When Democrats last held the majority, she shepherded into law the most aggressive spate of liberal reforms since the Great Society: an $800 billion fiscal stimulus, health-care reform, Dodd-Frank….
Pelosi’s Democratic critics include both the left and right flanks of the party (which is itself a sign that she occupies its center). Attacks on her leadership try to simultaneously attack her as too moderate and too liberal, in an attempt to cobble together both irreconcilable strands. In part to cover up the incoherence of the criticism, the complaint is often expressed in vague generational terms. She is too old, and ought to give way to the new generation. (Whether this new generation will be more moderate or more liberal is a question that can be filled in as one desires.)
Yet there is zero sign Pelosi’s age has impeded her work. She has not lost her persuasive talents: Pelosi effectively rallied the party to unanimously oppose the Trump tax cuts. If some Democrats had supported the measure, Republicans could have touted its bipartisan nature, which would in turn help reduce its unpopularity. Instead the health care and tax cuts have been a millstone around Republican necks. (Republicans initially tried attacking Conor Lamb for opposing the tax cuts, but abandoned that message, a telling concession in a heavily Republican district.) Last month, Pelosi delivered an eight-hour speech defending the Dreamers, standing the entire time, in heels, without a break, a feat of stamina I could not have matched at any point in my life. It may have been a stunt to display her vitality, but it was a convincing one.
Replacing Pelosi as leader would create the ephemeral benefit of forcing Republicans to rotate in a new cast of villains to star in their attack ads — MS-13? hippies? antifa? — until they could build up the name-ID for her successor. It would bring the significant downside of firing an elected official who is extremely good at her extremely important job.
Serious question for the people who say she needs to go: who do you think would be as good (or nearly as good) at the job? https://t.co/Pc8m9QZP25
— Tom Hilton (@TVHilton) March 16, 2018
Who would be as good as Pelosi at enforcing discipline and keeping the party together? Who would be as good at getting bills to the floor & passed?
— Tom Hilton (@TVHilton) March 16, 2018
Probably 15 House Dems would answer “me.” Prob none who if Pelosi resigned tomorrow would have more than 5 votes confirmed by next Friday. https://t.co/eOJEN9Wxg3
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 16, 2018
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Nancy Pelosi, WarhorsePost + Comments (184)