Why I have come to support Pelosi for Speaker
I really don't like Pelosi. I can say that I voted against her (twice) and I don't regret it.
But I've been forced to support her for Speaker because of who is opposing her now.
Third Way corporate Dems are the ones fighting her, and it is just one part of a nationwide campaign.
A trade group representing corporate political action committees plans to push back on growing skepticism of big business’s influence by bashing the less-regulated super PACs, courting friendly politicians and journalists, and even demanding higher campaign contribution limits.
...
It highlights potential “champions” in Senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House leaders Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).It also identifies a number of Capitol Hill journalists as targets for “education”: Kate Ackley and Cat Camilia of Roll Call; Scott Bland and Theo Meyer of Politico; Michelle Lee and Paul Kane of The Washington Post; Alex Burns and Carl Hulse of The New York Times; and Brody Mullins and Rebecca Ballhaus of The Wall Street Journal.
Note that Hoyer is at the center of this anti-Pelosi for Speaker group. It's not a coincidence.
The corporate world is starting to feel threatened by the growing progressive movement, and the fight over who would be Speaker has forced Pelosi (against her will?) to give progressives a real voice in policy.
One request to which Pelosi agreed was to give the Progressive Caucus proportional representation on what lawmakers call the “A committees”: the Appropriations, Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services and Intelligence committees.
Proportional representation would be an earth-shaking change for progressives.
The caucus expects around 20 more to join for the next Congress, meaning that it will comprise roughly 40 percent of the entire Democratic caucus.Yet on the committees that control most domestic policy, progressives are more scarce. Currently, CPC members hold 27 percent of the seats on the House Financial Services Committee, 28 percent on the Energy and Commerce Committee, 31 percent on Ways and Means, and 36 percent on Appropriations. On the Intelligence Committee, it’s even worse: Just one of the nine Democrats on the panel, Andre Carson of Indiana, is a CPC member.
This has the potential of bottom-line consequences for the 1%.
Perhaps even more disturbing for corporate power is popular opinion, which is shifting against them.
Researchers from the Progressive Change Institute analyzed how every winning Democratic candidate for the House campaigned in 2018 - including their campaign ads, websites, social media and many debate performances. The resulting data shows that 65 percent of the incoming House freshman class embraced some version of Medicare-for-all or expanding Social Security benefits. Almost 80 percent embraced lowering prescription drug costs by challenging Big Pharma. And 82 percent favored challenging corporate power in our political system by rejecting corporate PAC money, passing a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United or passing campaign finance reform such as public financing of elections.
Corporation and the wealthy aren't stupid. They can read the tea leaves.
They know how this could snowball into a real challenge against corporate power, especially if the House starts passing popular progressive policies.
To get out ahead of this, the corporate media is starting to manage expectation downward.
For instance, consider these headlines from media outlets targeted for “education”.
Across South, Democrats Who Speak Boldly Risk Alienating Rural White Voters
Comments
Those headlines are classic examples of
throwing sht at the wall and seeing what sticks. Speaking boldly will alienate rural white voters??? Um, don't they LOVE the boldly speaking orange Pres.?
Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin
payola pelosi and wall street upchuckie
are the face of the dims. There is no redemption and I can't see them working for people rather than oligarchs. Rethug vs dim? Coke vs Pepsi one corporate poison or another...and pelosi is the perfect speaker for the oligarchy. Guaranteed to prevent a dim take over in 2020.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
If we can get one Democrat . . .
out of a leadership position, let it be Hoyer. He makes Pelosi look like Ralph Nader!
You'll never get Steny out of leadership.
He'll be there till he decides to leave and join K street. Which will make him more powerful, not less.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
More DINOs
Another example
Here's how elections work in the UFFFSA
Only the top 10% actually see any kind of representation in this shithole. The Repigs represent the 1%, and the Dems represent the other 9%. Meanwhile, the other 90 percent who slave away for these fuckers aren't even represented. Hell, we're treated as though we don't even exist by the media.
Yet, every two years, we're expected to come out and vote for these idiots like some kind of ritual, and if we don't, we're purists, spoilers, racist/sexist and anything else the Pig Dems can pull out of their asses when they lose.
We need long-term mass work stoppage, vote stoppage, etc., because nothing else is working.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
I agree
But until that happens it doesn't hurt to make it difficult on them.
Apathy is the ally of the 1%
Putting Nancy in as Speaker
is going to make it difficult for them?
Awesome. I never knew it was so easy.
Things must have been real difficult for them from Jan 2007-Jan 2011.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I happen to think
that progressives getting proportional representation on these committees could be a big deal.
You are free to disagree, but you don't know what the future holds.
Two things.
First, I'm alienated enough from Dems now that I regard their leadership battles pretty much on a par with the Republicans' leadership battles. No one asks me to weigh in on the Repub side, and I view that as reason enough not to weigh in on the Dem side, either.
On (this is the second thing) the aspect of sticking it to the corporate interests -- something you wisely suspect could appeal to me -- how much do we really think they detest Nancy? Sure, they push forward an idea of a challenge, but would they really be perturbed if instead of getting a puppet who'd give them sprinkles on their daily ice cream sundae they only get a leader who gives them a daily ice cream sundae? Isn't this as much for show as for substance? Don't those corporate bigwigs only want to test how much they can squeeze out of Americans? Hereabouts we profess that the parties are pretty much interchangeable, both in the pockets of the oligarchy; do we suddenly believe that Nancy is so far apart from those parties' views that she'd be an enemy of TPTB? I confess I'm not seeing that.
No, I'm not saying that
I'm saying that Nancy is part of the wing of the oligarchy that works against the working class by making minor concessions and watered-down policies.
The Third Way anti-Pelosi group feels threatened because the political environment is shifting against them, so they've decided that the centrist, Pelosi-way is no longer enough. ALL hope for fairness must be crushed in its infancy.
It's the thinking of fascists.
How does this differ,
,
From voting for Hillary because of who opposed her?
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
It doesn't
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
how does this differ?
It is this: Pelosi's no genuine, committed progressive; but her corporatist opponents may as well be Donald Trump himself, from what I understand.
On the other hand, Hillary Clinton is Donald Trump after a sex change operation.
So the difference is not voting for Donald Trump or someone that may as well be him.
Not a distinctive difference in my humble opinion; but there's my stab at your question.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Our voting metric
Has now been reduced to whose opponent is more like Donald Trump?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
voting metrics
Yeppers.
And does that suck?
Veritably.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Anything else is a litmus test.
Love, the Purity Pirate
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@thanatokephaloides Than: Pelosi is
Than: Pelosi is the one who took impeachment off the table for George W. Bush. She will do the same for Trump. And she is subordinate to the Clintons, who run her party. It doesn't matter that that subordination doesn't have an official bureaucratic form.
So she's someone who will obey Hillary and Bill without question. That makes her (by your excellent logic) someone who will obey Trump without question, since Trump=Hillary and Hillary=Trump.
The fact that Trump wants her to win shows that he understands this.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
It differs in an important way
No one is asking you to vote on this, so moral outrage is not needed.
The term you are referring to is "LOTE Voting".
This is a power struggle, not an election.
In what way
Are political essays on this blog not meant to be part of a persuasive information effort?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
There are all sorts of motivations for writing here
I sometimes write just to clarify something in my mind.
Sometimes I write in order to get feedback.
And even if this essay was meant to pursued you of something, nothing is being asked of you. No one is going to vote-shame you for disagreeing with this essay.
Communication at its most basic level
Is an act of persuasion.
Therefore, the distinction you are making between "asking" vs "persuading" seems irrelevant if your response to disagreement is to call us out on our supposed "moral outrage"
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
You can choose to be defensive
You can choose to react in any way you want. It's your right.
And I can choose to move on to other things.
Me thinks you doth protest too much
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Since I believe fascism is corporatism
with a police state attached to it, which all the Congressmen and Congresswomen, with at most 10 or 15 exceptions, support, the only logical conclusion is that they are all fascists.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The Republicans are probably right that Bernie can't beat Trump
Now.
He's been seen kissing Hill's ass repeatedly. The point of making him do that was to lessen the faith he got from indies, Republican crossovers, and others not loyal to the Democratic party.
At the same time that his support is weakened, the Dems will not refrain from doing the same crap to him they did before.
Meanwhile, some of the conservatives believe Trump when he says Bernie doesn't know how to pay for his programs.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
One thing Bernie knows
is his MMT, knows how
Gov't Spending is paid for.
That "how are you going to PAY for it, Bernie??" is still a question among Dems, Libs and progressives is frustrating at best.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I want to show them a pie chart of the U.S. gov budget
Or maybe beat them over the head with one.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Those dangling carrots of progress
I'm surprised more of us don't suffer PTSD from that gun they keep putting to our heads.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Maybe not PTSD
but it smells to me like they want us to have Stockholm syndrome.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
2 thoughts
First, what if a progressive throws a hat into the ring? The progressives are "40%" of the Democrats. If a third wayer runs against Pelosi in a 3 way raxe won't 40% win?
Second, bring it on assholes! Forcing us to chose between a quisling 3rd wayer and a vichy in Pelosi may look like a winning strategy in 2019, but it'll lead to a quicker end for the Democratic Party in the 2020s. It'll hurt like hell, but the quicker we win the better.
On to Biden since 1973
That changes everything
But until it happens...
The one person who
announced that she was running for speaker has now bowed out (I don't know her politics, though).
She bowed out within about 2 weeks after announcing (if I recall the timeline correctly).
dfarrah
In sense if whether
one finds which of Ebola or bubonic plague to be the better alternative.
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
Was scanning Twitter and saw clip of Pelosi in '87 at Gay Rights
parade. Must be part of a desperate campaign to rehabilitate her "we're Capitalists" personae.
Interestingly I heard a really good interview on Malachy McCourt's show on WBAI this week in which he was speaking with an author who had just written a book on FDR and Al Smith. He made the point that FDR was not the transformative man of his time that he would become when he was running for state assembly in 1910. Then he was an aristocratic and sort of conservative politician from a quiet, rural part of Upstate NY. By the time he's in the White House in 1933 he's a completely different man, and fatefully ready for the challenge.
Point was, the author contends, that people and politicians can change their views for the better.
Unfortunately, Pelosi seems to be the reverse of that.
It's a ruse. Setting her up to look better, when compared with these
ThirdTurd Way douchebags. Thom Hartmann, who I rarely watch anymore, was on this too. Where's the rest of the "Progressive" Caucus? When will these folks grow some backbone and start taking over as they've claimed?Pretty much my only interest in electoral politics, is, "are you taking corporate money or not?" Otherwise electoral politics is still a joke, an auction house to the highest bidder. Bernie's example should be the clarion call going forward.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
By 1932 FDR had been forced into minority status
and to view the world as minorities see it. His money provided some security, but he was far more vulnerable and dependent on others than he once had been - and he knew it.
That made him more willing to listen to arguments on why the "little people" should be treated better. (Didn't make him perfect - there were some minorities he wouldn't/couldn't afford to listen to - but he'd come a long way from 1910.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Why do you care whether Nancy or Steny
is Speaker?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I'm sure the Speaker's job is totally different
than the President's Job or any other leader of the 3 branches. She's not supposed to lead the people. She's supposed to lead a bunch of ungovernable politicians who are being cajoled and bribed by all kinds of interests. Much worse than herding cats. Totally different skill set involved and I imagine the job requires a lot of experience and skill in compromise and it's not that important to have to explain it to the people since everybody in Congress is elected by a very small part of the population. Nancy Pelosi is probably a lot more skilled at it than other people, especially Paul Ryan.
Beware the bullshit factories.
This is what I suspect
about Pelosi. I used to joke about a certain high level official in my local government who seemed to be able to keep his job when others in his position had very short lived careers. I said that his greatest skill was the ability to count where the votes would be when he made his recommendation to those voting.
I suspect Pelosi's greatest skill outside fund raising is whipping the votes.
I do not support her, but as gjohnsit said, she is appearing to be better than the alternative before the Democratic caucus right now. IMHO, the real problem is not Pelosi, but is with the feckless members of the Progressive Caucus who could have a lot more power if they were willing to risk wielding it.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
feckless members
Dingdingdingdingding!! Give that lady a Marijuana!
(I live in Colorado; I can say that!)
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I am done with LOTE. The Dems are worthless. The GOP is toxic.
I have watched this Harlem Globetrotters (GOP)/Washington Generals(Dems) routine for 25 years, and I am no longer taken in by it.
No matter who is elected in the duopoly, the important policies never change. Instead we get bullshit propaganda campaigns about topics of marginal impact.
I refuse to waste my mental energy on the corrupt politics inside a totally corrupt and completely phony (party of the workers - LOL) gang of timeserving hacks.
Pelosi looks like the plastic surgery lady in the movie Brazil; talks like someone with cerebral palsy, and is completely out of touch. And she should be in charge of failing/rolling over for the next two years? What a sick joke.
Meanwhile Alexandra OC (phony sellout - Brooklyn) has no problem with her, just like she had no problem with John McCain.
To paraphrase John Welch, "At long last, sir, do you have no sense of insight?" It is all a scripted farce.
Amen /nt
AO-C explained her
reason for supporting
Pelosi is much the same as gjohnsit's.
Essentially the more progressive candidate of the bunch, sad as that is.
As for McCain... much ado from The Left about nuthin'.
Uproar over a tweet ffs. She's a sellout!!
smh
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
You just refuse to see AOC for what she is
You have some kind of investment in the mirage of a "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" genuine leftie somehow "beating the machine". Every time I bring up old or new facts about what a phony sellout AOC is, there you are to defend her.
She went to BU ($49k/yr tuition). She clerked for Teddy Kennedy. The bartender thing is a pile of PR. You know, like Obama was a community organizer who happened to be the editor of the Harvard Law Review.
I am done with the Democratic Party. It cannot be salvaged. You are wasting your time defending AOC and the entire party.
Response of the Year
Nailed it.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
It ain't just AO-C.
Eight or 9 of the 35
new blue Rep-elects are of the Bernie persuasion.
Add another 11 or 12 in 2020 and you got yourself a Berner caucus.
And, until somebody has a plan to take down the Dim party and replace with something different, something more progressive, then they're whistling Dixie, holding their hand on their ass.
I don't see it. Don't see that Ever happening. But go ahead, bash the newly elected.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
@Wink
The Berner caucus would be basically the same as the Progressive Caucus was in the old days, when it was still kind of progressive.
Good guys, but never could get anything done.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Doesn't matter what AOC is--
(though I agree with you). Matters what she does. If she supports the old guard, it doesn't matter if she's the nicest socialist you'd ever want to meet. A politician lives in her actions, not her character. The two are not necessarily connected in the way that most Americans seem to believe they are.
The farcical thing here is trying to spin stasis (Pelosi remaining leader of the caucus) as change, nay, improvement--at least in the sense that having her in that seat rather than Steny will obstruct the bad guys. This game that folks are playing is getting stretched pretty thin, when Steny Hoyer vs Nancy Pelosi for Speaker is portrayed as an important race between the "more progressive" candidate vs the less progressive one.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Perhaps you still don't get where I'm coming from...
even after I said I'm done with LOTE. Let me reference something that was posted today, by a far better writer than I:
Pelosi?!!%#?
I wouldn't support her for dogcatcher. She's a part of the system that we need to overthrow. Arguing that we need to support this or that overlord because they are a little nicer than the other more horrible one they are pushing on us is essentially moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic. No, I am only interested in politicians who will support real progressive policies, or who can be pressured into doing so.
We face a fundamental problem in this country: there is no mass labor party. In the UK, they actually do have one--and it was co-opted for awhile by Tony Blair and company. But now, Jeremy Corbyn, an actual democratic socialist, is the actual party leader, and despite the entire establishment media throwing s__t at him day after day, the Labour party keeps growing, and Corbyn remains popular. He might even end up as prime minister. Now, try and imagine a similar thing happening with the Democrats. Keep trying. I'll wait....
The Democrats have never supported socialism or anything like it. They are not about to now. If we want a labor party, we will have to grow it outside the two wings of the business party. Worrying about which member of the business party is speaker is a distraction from more important things.
The problem isn't Pelosi.
as much as she sucketh.
The problem is no one with any chops will challenge her.
Wherefore art thou Barbara Lee??
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.