House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is showing the way forward to a more progressive House Democratic leadership, meeting with Congressional Progressive Caucus members and committing to elevate progressives to spots on key House committees. On top of that, the vast majority of Congressional Black Caucus members said they were backing Pelosi for speaker, even after Rep. Marcia Fudge, a former CBC chair, floated a possible bid. But after years of Republican attacks building on lots of ingrained misogyny, she’s facing a handful of centrist white men who think that the best way to move themselves up is by taking down a successful woman.
Rep. Seth Moulton seems to believe that taking a leading role in that effort is the best way to advance his mammoth ambitions. But mostly, Moulton is showing that he’s just another white dude who thinks power should rest with his kind—and that he’s not very bright. Take this:
Pssst, Seth, Nancy Pelosi became the House Democratic leader in 2003, when Democrats were in, yes, the minority, with 205 seats. Democrats gained the majority in the 2006 elections, under Pelosi’s leadership, and have now regained the majority despite massive Republican gerrymandering after 2010 under, yes, Pelosi’s leadership. Moulton seems to want us to believe that Pelosi’s leadership only began when she became speaker, but it’s not like she vaulted over some man at the moment Democrats got the majority and stole the speaker’s gavel from him. So, Seth, to be perfectly clear, as of January, Democrats will have more seats than when Pelosi became the party’s House leader.
Pelosi should be the speaker—while she works to elevate younger people and people of color and more women and progressives to take her place (and Steny Hoyer’s) in just a few years—and people like Seth Moulton and Tim Ryan should be held in contempt for trying to drag the Democratic Party backward.
