House Speakership: The Siren Song of Congressional Power

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Article #48: Politics

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What does it mean to be a leader?

In today’s political climate, being bold and taking a stance, at the least within your party, from the angle of the majority of Americans is pivotal to elevation to congressional leadership.

We’re just playing.  Money.  That’s what it takes.  Money, and loads of it.

The New York Times® reported that current minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says she has the votes to become Speaker of the House again; the third position in line to the U.S. Presidency.

The question is, why?

Why is it that a Congressional member whose constituents are screaming for Medicare for All, a universally-loved policy championed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the most popular Senator in the United States, believes that she’s the future of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives, but does not support Medicare for All?

Why is it that this Congressional ‘leader’ believes that she can lead the party to victories after losing a historic amount of seats nationwide over the past 20 years as both minority leader and Speaker of the House?

Why is it that this $100M politician believes that she should be the next Speaker of the House when all she seems to be promising her party and the country are more platitudes and cliches?

You don’t have to go too far to find the answer, and, just like her stance on healthcare that is not the majority stance in the country, the answer is both two fold and absolutely politically and policy tone deaf.

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1.) She can raise the most money.

If you were in Congress and someone asked you what makes you a great legislator, would your answer be something dealing with direct policy or raising money from those who have essentially used their money to indirectly purchase undue influence within the government?

Now, raising the most money itself is not necessarily bad.  The problem Nancy Pelosi has is that she raises the money from the sources for which the majority of her party’s base has an absolute, vehement disdain.

Think about it: If your husband or wife loathed your neighbor, would you ask them for money and, when you got back, expect your husband or wife to smile at you and say thank you?  Of course not.  Yet, somehow, Nancy Pelosi believes this method is her path to Democratic ‘family unity’?

No, she doesn’t.

She knows she’s toxic to the party nationally.

She knows that there are calls from all over the country for her to step aside and allow a House member who is more in line with the wants and needs of the majority of the American people to take over the leadership.

She knows all of this too well.  She just doesn’t care.  Why not?  It’s simple, and brings us to the second part of the answer to why she believes she should again hold the U.S. House Speaker position.

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2.) It’s ‘her Preeeeeeecious.‘

Do you remember Gollum from the epic movie series Lord of the Rings®?  Gollum’s sole purpose in life became acquiring the Ring of Power.  No matter what that quest did to him, his body, his mind, or his family and friends, his taste for that ring – for that power – consumed and ultimately destroyed him.

Sound familiar?

The Democratic Party currently has two out-of-the-closet Gollums: Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.

Now, for you Social Justice Warriors, let us be clear.  We’re referring to these two politicians as Gollum due to, and only due to, their seeming complete and utter infatuation with two high-powered political positions:

The President of the United States and the United States Speaker of the House of Representatives.

This has nothing to do with their gender, features, clothes, or any other trivial focal point.  And yes, this had to be said due to the utterly-absurd current political climate.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled political discourse.

Hillary Clinton is potentially eyeing a run again for U.S. President for a 3rd time, even though she still supports the things that the majority of the country hates and Gallup has her latest approval rating at an abysmal 36%.

TRANSLATION: She just can’t give up ‘her Preeeeeeecious’ Presidency, even though she probably now has virtually no chance of being elected to the U.S. Presidency at any time by U.S. citizens.

On the other hand, Nancy Pelosi, when “Asked if she had the 218 votes necessary to win the Speakership, she said emphatically, “Yes.’”, says the New York Times®.  However…

…there have been growing calls for her to step aside for years now and an even stronger call since the U.S. House of Representatives now has incoming freshmen Congresspersons who are much more in line with the will of the Democratic base than Pelosi.

Even longtime Congresswoman Marsha Fudge (D-OH) is said to be considering a run for House Speaker, but Pelosi’s response to that:

“Come on in, the water’s warm.“ 

TRANSLATION: Pelosi simply doesn’t want to give up ‘her Preeeeeeecious’ Speakership, even if it means potentially setting the Democratic Party ablaze.

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On a related note, the Times also stated something rather peculiar about Minority Leader Pelosi.

“Ms. Pelosi is an exceptionally skilled politician, and many Democrats say she remains the odds-on favorite to return to the post in January.”

An exceptionally skilled politician?  Based on what metric?

Under her ‘leadership,’ the Democratic Party has lost over 1,000 seats in state legislatures.  Yes, although she’s technically at the federal level, she represents not a state, but a district, which is closer to the people than even state politics.

Also, she’s one of the most recognized Democratic Party Representatives in the country and does cluelessly claim to know what the Democratic Party’s base wants.

That metric?

Well what about the fact that the country doesn’t like her.  She has a mindbogglingly-low 26% approval rating from Gallup’s June Congressional Leaders poll, but the people and entities that the country hates love her, so it doesn’t seem to matter.

Why not?

Because, historically, this means that her policy agenda will lean less toward ‘We The People’ and more toward ‘Them The Corporations.’

But wait, isn’t she vying to once again be the Leader of the legislative body known as ‘The People’s House’?  Therein lies the all-to0-familiar Pelosi irony.

You mean that metric?

Or is it that the Democratic National Committee’s fundraising is way down because of historic political losses in the House of Representatives where she’s been the leader for well over a decade?

Or was it the leadership’s supposed solution to this funding problem: Start taking money from the fossil fuel industry again; something that is toxic to both earth’s environment and the Democratic Party’s political environment?

Or is the metric of her ‘exceptional skills’ as a politician or her being a “master legislator” based on her being great at perpetuating the cycle of a vicious system that is set up to bolster the Establishment and status quo while simultaneously and perpetually hurting working-class and middle-class families?

You mean those metrics?

As you can see, with the exception of the dried-up DNC funding, all of what was just listed is absolutely horrendous.  That is, unless you’re thinking from an Establishment mindset.

If that’s your frame of reference – the seeming metric to which the New York Times® was referring – then yes.  Nancy Pelosi is an exceptionally-skilled politician and remains the odds-on favorite to become the United States of America’s next Speaker of the House.

God help democracy, because the Washington D.C. Establishment machine sure isn’t going to.