Nancy Pelosi will go down in history as one of the most formidable political leaders in the history of the United States. In my estimation, she is an American hero. And just as Hillary Clinton was light years ahead of Donald Trump, in terms of qualification, Nancy Pelosi is epically more qualified in her current position as House Democratic Leader than any individual in the United States Congress. This includes the current challenger to her post, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio.
It should be pointed out that over the years, much like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi has become an object of demonization by Republicans. Why? Well, because she is extremely effective, and they see her as a threat, as this McClatchy article from 2010 spells out:
In the last 21 months, she's muscled through bills that overhauled the nation's health care system, provided $814 billion in economic stimulus, revamped the financial regulatory system and attempted to restrain global warming.
These hard-fought policies benefited working people in great numbers across this nation, therefore, I am stymied by Congressman Ryan and other members of the Democratic Party who have used the election of Donald Trump to claim that the Democratic Party under Pelosi has not addressed the concerns of White working-class people.
This was Bernie Sanders’ statement a few days following the presidential election:
"I think that there needs to be a profound change in the way the Democratic Party does business," Sanders said. "It is not good enough to have a liberal elite. I come from the white working class, and I am deeply humiliated that the Democratic Party cannot talk to where I came from."
As MSNBC Joy Reid has pointed out this morning, Sanders is from Brooklyn, which went overwhelmingly for Hillary. Tim Ryan has said that he “loves” Nancy Pelosi, so I would like to be accurate in stating his reason for challenging this esteemed lady through his own words. Here he is this week, stating his case on MSNBC’s the Rachel Maddow show.
Rachel Maddow: Do you have a strong opinion about the Democratic Party doing things wrong as a party that you want to see them do things differently?
Tim Ryan: There is no question, I think we need—technologically, I think we need an upgrade. I think we’ve got to speak to the working class people, the blue collar people. We’ve got this beautiful tapestry of the Democratic Party and we’ve got to energize this base. It’s not about one segment; it’s about all of us. If you look back to the progress we’ve made as a party and as a country. You know, worker rights, and Civil Rights. You know, the forty-hour work week, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security—go through the whole list. That was when we were all together—like we hung together as a party. Black, White, Latino, middle class, poor—we were all together. And that’s how we made progress, so whoever is the head of the DNC, and I believe who’s ever the head of our caucus, needs to represent and understand that, and I think Nancy Pelosi does, but we need to represent the entire party and these working class people rely on us. We need a strong Democratic Party in the United States and, right now, we are reeling.
Bold emphasis by diarist.
It should be pointed out that the congressman is glaringly inaccurate in some of his representations. Specifically, as it relates to Civil Rights and whether or not the Democratic Party remained cohesive after it committed itself to the Civil Rights movement and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to Bill Moyers, President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s press secretary, after passing his landmark Civil Rights legislation, LBJ is reported to have said:
"I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come."
Johnson would become the last Democratic presidential candidate to win the White male vote in this country.
What has been noteworthy over the past fifty years is the striking tendency of the overwhelming number of White working-class voters to support the Republican Party. Is this because the Democratic Party has failed to offer a populist message? The facts do not support such a contention.
The Democratic Party has long been criticized for its support of labor unions and worker rights, yet this subset of White voters have overwhelmingly supported the Republican Party. As a group that largely comprised the voting block known as “Reagan Democrats”, they pledged fealty to Ronald Reagan, who ran a presidential campaign that demonized African Americans, and, as President, broke the back of the Air Traffic Controllers Union.
Union and Republicans:
The disdain Republicans show for labor unions is one of the most telling signs of their utter subservience to corporate interests.
They want corporations to have complete control over their workforce; they want them to have the ability to exploit workers for more hours, while paying them less and granting them fewer benefits, allowing executives to reap the gains of increased productivity without paying the costs.
Populist enough? No? Then tell me Messrs. Ryan and Sanders, why are Republicans supported by your target voters?
Are these voters supporting Republicans because the Democratic Party is the Party of the rich? No. A poll from this past February made it clear that most Americans know who the Republicans support:
A large majority of Americans (62 percent) say the Republican Party favors the rich, while barely more than one in four (26 percent) say the GOP favors the middle class. Those numbers are just as bad or worse among groups that some GOP strategists think the party needs to improve among, such as Hispanics (62-24), women (62-25), and younger voters (67-24).
Populist enough? No?
Perhaps White working-class voters who are seeking a populist message are supporting Republicans because they will protect valuable working class programs like Medicare:
One way you can identify politicians' sincere convictions is by looking at the things they do even when they know they're unpopular. There are few better examples than the half-century-long quest by Republicans to destroy Medicare.
Medicare is popular because it gives seniors something they crave: security. Every American over 65 knows that they can get Medicare, it will be accepted by almost every health care provider, their premiums will be modest, and it won't be taken away. On the policy level, the program is expensive, but that's because providing health care for the elderly is expensive.
Paul Ryan and his fellow Republicans are determined to get rid of Medicare, yet they were given the reins of power in this pivotal election by this reliable voting group. Where is the populist message here?
They support the Republican Party even though their chosen Party is committed to taking healthcare from tens of millions of people. I have noted this before in a past post, but the Kentucky gubernatorial election of Matt Bevin in 2015 provides some clarity on the Affordable Care Act and the issue of whether Democrats have failed to reach out with programs that benefit these voters. According to the the Lexington Herald-Leader:
The 66 percent of Owsley County that gets health coverage through Medicaid now must reconcile itself with the 70 percent that voted for Republican Governor-elect Matt Bevin, who pledged to cut the state's Medicaid program and close the state-run Kynect health insurance exchange.
Owsley County Judge-Executive Cale Turner, a Democrat, said the election results didn't surprise him. His constituents wanted to express their opposition to Democratic President Barack Obama and what they perceive as "the liberal agenda" on social issues, Turner said.
"To be honest with you, a lot of folks in Owsley County went to the polls and voted against gay marriage and abortion, and as a result, I'm afraid they voted away their health insurance," Turner said. "Which was their right to do, I guess. But it's sad. Many people here signed up with Kynect, and it's helped them, it's been an absolute blessing."
The community's largest-circulation newspaper, the Three Forks Tradition in Beattyville, did not say much about Kynect ahead of the election. Instead, its editorials roasted Obama and Hillary Clinton, gay marriage, Islam, "liberal race peddlers," "liberal media," black criminals and "the radical Black Lives Matter movement
To Congressman Ryan and Senator Sanders who have taken to criticizing Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic Party for losing this election based on somehow not being sufficiently populist Let me first point out that Hillary Clinton has won the popular vote in this past election, overwhelmingly. But, beyond that, let’s look at the narrative that Donald Trump employed to win over the subset of voters you have been criticising Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi for not winning. The following are some of Trump’s winning “populist” promises:
Trump has promised to overturn Roe V. Wade and make it a criminal offense for women to have agency over their own bodies, promised to defund Planned Parenthood, promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act and take away healthcare from tens of millions of people, promised to cut taxes on the wealthy, which would starve the nation of funds for essential services and drive the economy into perhaps another great recession, promised to promote “Right to Work” states and weaken unions, promised to remove twelve or eleven million people from this country, and promised to weaken regulations on Wall Street.
Are these items populist enough?
Well, Trump has also promised to ban Muslims from entering the country, he has promised to be vague on raising the minimum wage (one day being against it—the next day being for it), however the Republican Party has always been against it. He has promised to institute the racially biased policing known as “Stop and Frisk”, and promised to eliminate the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iranian Nuclear Agreement.
These along with ending trade deals, which Trump has taken advantage of to the hilt, for his own benefit, and creating jobs, after he has hurt the nation by cutting taxes on the wealthy, are the seductive points of argument Donald J. Trump has employed to win over these voters who have historically and overwhelmingly shunned Democrats.
Here are just a few of the policies that Nancy Pelosi has actually put in place to better the lives of Americans over the past almost eight years, after she and President Obama inherited an economy and a nation broken, due to the same Republican policies these voters in question have supported for decades:
Working in partnership with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi led House passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in early 2009 to create and save millions of American jobs, provide relief for American families, and provided tax cuts to 95 percent of working Americans. Speaker Pelosi also led the Congress in passing strong Wall Street reforms to rein in big banks and protect consumers as well as the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which expands educational opportunities and reforms the financial aid system to save billions of taxpayers’ dollars.
Populist enough for you?
Additional, she has passed key legislation like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to restore the ability of women and all workers to access our judicial system to fight pay discrimination; legislation to provide health care for 11 million American children; national service legislation; and hate crimes legislation. In late 2010, Pelosi led the Congress in passing child nutrition and food safety legislation as well as repealing the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.
Tim Ryan and Bernie Sanders’ current wing of the Democratic Party would like us to believe that Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, who also ran a campaign based on the same policy ideals and initiatives, were not sufficiently populace to win over voters who were persuaded by Donald Trump’s destructive and divisive rhetoric.
If these voters are satisfied in backing the Republican Party, they certainly have the right to pursue the Party and candidates they believe in. Still, it is false and disingenuous for Ryan and Sanders to point to the overwhelming allegiance of these voters with the Republican Party as some inability of people like Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to put forth a populist agenda.
With all due respect Congressman Ryan, your campaign is ridiculous.