Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will step aside after leading the Democrats for nearly 20 years.
On January 6 2021, Donald Trump wanted to join the angry mob he sent to attack the US Capitol. When Pelosi was told of his plans, her retort was blunt: “I’m gonna punch him out. I’m gonna go to jail. And I’m gonna be happy.” Unlike most of her Republican colleagues, Pelosi has never been afraid to stand up to Trump.
The January 6 Committee aired fresh video footage that revealed the actions undertaken by congressional leaders during the insurrection. Pelosi was centre stage through it all, as she sought police and National Guard assistance to repel the assault and coordinated logistics to complete the electoral college count that would confirm the elections of President Biden and Vice President Harris.
This was a rarely seen close-up of Pelosi in command. Despite being the most powerful woman in US history, most Americans know little about her. Foreigners know even less. Hillary Clinton would top most lists of influential female leaders. Michelle Obama is more widely recognised; Kamala Harris too. Ruth Bader Ginsburg became an icon during her lifetime.
Compared to them, Pelosi can be considered a quiet achiever. Part of this has to do with a lack of understanding of how the US government functions. Presidents hog the limelight and represent America to the world. They take the credit and cop the blame for everything that happens on their watch, whether it’s their doing or not. Supreme Court justices, with their lifetime tenure and opaque deliberations, deliver final judgment on the laws of the land.
Congress, the first branch of government as specified in Article One of the US Constitution, is the engine room. It’s Congress that keeps the wheels of state turning. Congress is where the deals are done and the sausage is made. Presidents might run operations day-to-day, but Congress sets the budgets and writes the rules.
Pelosi’s title as House speaker contributes to this misunderstanding. Speakers in a Westminster system serve as neutral arbiters to uphold parliamentary order. Their role is procedural rather than legislative, other than in exceptional circumstances.
However, as leader of the majority party in the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, Pelosi would be akin to a prime minister in Australia. This better captures the essence of her role, albeit without executive authority due to the United States’ distinctive separation of powers.
Viewed through this lens, Pelosi’s stature becomes clearer. Elected to Congress 35 years ago, in 2003 she became the first and to date only woman to lead a major party. Four years later she was elevated to the speakership, again the first woman in that post. For 20 years she has led the Democratic House caucus, now approaching eight years as speaker across two separate terms.
When this 117th Congress concludes on January 3 2023, she will be the fifth-longest holder of that office out of its 54 occupants. In reaching this milestone Pelosi will overtake her initial predecessor Dennis Hastert, who remains the longest-serving Republican speaker in US history.
(As a side note, Hastert was later imprisoned in 2016 on charges related to child sex offences, becoming the highest-ranking US official ever incarcerated and demonstrating that prominent politicians can be brought to justice without civil war breaking out.)
Pelosi’s two decades as party leader matches the stint of Republican Joe Martin, and is surpassed only by legendary Democrat Sam Rayburn, who died in office after 21 years at the helm. For context, the federal Australian Labor Party has had seven leaders during Pelosi’s time in charge of House Democrats, while the Liberal Party has had six. Sir Robert Menzies is the only Australian to have led a national political party for a longer period than Pelosi.
Her longevity is no accident. She is an astute legislator with a knack for negotiating, and a prodigious fundraiser. She counts numbers with the best of them, an essential skill when wrangling a razor-thin majority and staving off challengers.
Pelosi’s impact on American life has been profound. Her major accomplishments include:
Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: economic rescue packages that saved the US banking, housing, and automobile industries, and helped prevent a global depression. Three US economists including then-Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke were awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Economics for their research that contributed to this landmark intervention. A majority of House Republicans supported the initial stimulus; fewer than half the second leg. All opposed the subsequent investments.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009: this law superseded a Supreme Court ruling that restricted wage discrimination claims based on age, religion, national origin, race, sex, or disability. All but three House Republicans rejected it.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: known colloquially as Obamacare, this bill ushered the most significant expansion of medical insurance since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Pelosi was the chief architect of the legislation, with Barack Obama hailing her as “one of the best speakers the House of Representatives has ever had” when he signed it. Every House Republican voted against it.
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Dodd-Frank passed in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown that brought global markets to the brink of collapse. It created new oversight agencies to regulate the financial system and strengthen consumer protections. Only three House Republicans supported the motion.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010: overturned the political compromise implemented by Bill Clinton to permit LGBTQIA+ military personnel to serve openly in the armed forces. One hundred and sixty House Republicans voted to stop it.
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: an emergency response to spur economic recovery and deliver extensive public financial and health assistance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Every House Republican rebuffed the measures.
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: a US$550 billion program to fund transportation and utility upgrades nationwide. Just eight House Republicans signed on.
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: the first gun safety proposals enacted by Congress since 1994. The law, while modest, signalled a turning point in the public debate about firearms regulation and the Second Amendment. 193 House Republicans spurned the bill.
CHIPS and Science Act: a US$280 billion package to boost science and technology research and domestic semiconductor chip manufacturing. One hundred and eighty seven House Republicans voted against it.
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022: an omnibus bill that included the largest commitments towards clean energy and climate change mitigation in US history, as well as initiatives to reduce prescription drug prices, extend health care subsidies, and impose a 15% minimum corporate tax rate on companies with annual revenues exceeding US$1 billion. The act was unanimously opposed by House Republicans.
Pelosi’s efforts don’t stop there. She has steered numerous bills through the House that would have addressed women’s rights and civil liberties, voting rights, wages and workers’ rights, gun safety, climate change, education, and immigration, only to see them blocked by Senate Republicans.
She rallied opposition to resist George W Bush’s plan to privatise social security and supervised both Trump impeachments. She outmanoeuvred Republicans’ efforts to stymie the January 6 Committee’s investigation, which enabled the comprehensive public exposure of Trump’s attempted coup. She has been a staunch advocate for human rights and democracy around the world, and she has campaigned for equality and opportunity at home.
What she achieved, along with the DNC, was nobbling Bernie Sanders, America’s last hope to avoid fascism. She also made insider trading cool again.
Another basic piece of Democratic stenography from this reporter. If you want a true read on the state of US politics read Chris Hedges. It’s appalling and Pelosi is awful. Hedges and John Ralston Saul refer to the corporate takeover of US politics. Voting for either side gets you perpetual war and poverty for the bottom half of society. Fancy sending billions to Ukraine whilst people sleep in the streets. Their whole political system has been corrupted by corporate money and Pelosi is in it up to her neck!
Plus one for Chris Hedges.
Is there a third party to vote for?
There always have been – plus many states have a ‘write in’ option on their ballots, MAD magazine had a continuing strip for most of the 60s featuring surprise candidates.
Gus Hall was a four time Prez candidate for the Communist party, lately the Greens have run and many BernieBros urged him to run as an Independent in 2016.
Bubba Clinton only beat GHW Bush in 1992 because Ross Perot scarfed up almost 20M votes (just under 19%) – Bubba <45M (43%) & Bush 39M (<38%).
Similarly Ralph Nader’s 2.8M/17% cruelled Gore in 2000 and gave the world Shrub jnr and all that followed.
As in Britain, the joys of FPtP screws the majority of the electorate.
Never succumb to the blandishments of the hard Right and relinquish our STV (HoR) & PR (Senate)!
Proportional representation is far better because it is the only system in which every vote counts. e.g. a party with 5% of the votes gets 5% of the seats.
Is this satire? She should be in jail for insider trading.
And imagine being ignorant enough to laud the 2008 bailouts as an achievement! This was classic Pelosi: bail out Wall Street and leave the working class homeless.
She is a disgrace and this piece literally sickens me
The bailouts were necessary otherwise econimic collapse. Waht people forget is that the bailout monies were all loans paid back. What is egregious is no one went to jail.
Polling suggests this will be a very close election in both Houses. What amazes me is the level of support the Republican Party gets from electors who vote against their best interests. A quick review suggests Republicans vote against Democratic legislation because it’s more important to stop the Democratic Agenda than it is to actually help America and its people.
Of course, Republican majorities in both houses will be the final nail in the coffin of Democracy in America.
Republicans have already broadcast their intentions. The midterms in 2022 may be the last opportunity for Americans to save their country.
I would hate to see the outcome should the Republicans prevail.
and, like it or not, if the U.S. falls the world will follow – and our kids will see the world burn around them and wonder what the feck made our generation so stupid and greedy
Seriously “if the U.S. falls the world will follow…”?
How does that work?
The whole world followed when Wall St crashed in 1929.
No, it did not, anymore than ‘the whole world’ has been involved in the European 20thC wars on the Continent.
Only those countries which were colonies, toadies, protectorates and satraps.
Just as today, 70% of the world couldn’t give a rat’s about the new Western obsession of the Ukraine.
Most are more than happy to watch the civilisational suicide & social collapse – the most common thought being the apocryphal remark of the Inner Temple KC in rags, Mohandas “It would be a good idea.”
The world? Really? The West is not the World despite what the West thinks.
The Dumocrats are no prize either that’s for sure and Pelosi is one of the most partisan, war mongers around. Biden has been a disaster (albeit better than Trump, just) however there seems to be no way to bring both sides together for the good of the country. The soul of America died decades ago and its politics are just catching up now.
Pelosi opposed the war on Iraq.
Much hinges on the Democrats getting young and/or passive registered, out to vote and co-opting centrist Republicans.
Pundit and commentator Michael Moore interestingly predicts trouble for the GOP, as opposed to the media talking down the Democrats, while boosting but ignoring multiple issues round the GOP and their ecosystem.
He has been writing ‘Mike’s Midterm Tsunami Truth. A daily series to counter the myth that the Republicans are going to win the House and Senate’
Will be good when this corrupt living fossil and warmonger finally goes. Her electoral district is one of the most poor, miserable and neglected in the US. Her family is wallowing in financial scandals. Corrupt politicians never suffer consequences in the US and she’s one of the worst.