No country for old women?

November 20, 2018

As the midterms recede in the rearview mirror, the news cycle has been consumed with chronicling the challenge to Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House in the incoming Congress.  Between this and the 24/7 coverage of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s every utterance and wardrobe choice, in an effort to paint her as a fraudulent arriviste who is in over her head, the Beltway pundit class has clearly pivoted to its preferred narrative of “Dems in disarray,” rather than acknowledging the seismic change this election represents and who has powered that change.

First, we need to look at what the job of the Speaker actually is.  The Speaker presides over the House, controls what legislation gets to the floor and is responsible for keeping the Caucus unified in order to pass important legislation. The Speaker is also third in the line of succession for the President.  This is not a job for poseurs or neophytes.  Nancy Pelosi is widely acknowledged as having been an extremely effective Speaker and is credited with passage of the Affordable Care Act, (Source:  “How Obamacare Will Return Nancy Pelosi to House Speakership,” by Bruce Japsen, Forbes.com, 11/18/18).

Some on the progressive side welcome a challenge to Pelosi, noting the advanced age of the triumvirate of Democratic Congressional leadership. They definitely have a point. Pelosi is 78, potential Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is 79 and incoming House Majority Whip, Jim Clyburn, is 78.  It is telling that, before he lost in the primary to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, 56 year old, five term Congressman Joe Crowley was the Democratic leadership’s idea of fresh blood!

It is important, though, to scrutinize those actually on record challenging Pelosi’s leadership.  Sixteen Democrats signed a letter against Pelosi.  The letter signers claimed to represent a message of “change,” but the question is, change to what?  The incoming class of newly elected Congressional representatives contains a record number of women and much welcome racial and religious diversity, including the first two Native American women elected to Congress, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and the first Black women elected from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

In contrast, fourteen of the sixteen letter signers are white and fourteen of them are men, (Source:  “A letter from 16 House Democrats opposing Nancy Pelosi is out, but she still has no challenger,” by Ella Nilsen, Vox.com, 11/19/18).  There is a legitimate claim that the Democrats should have a plan for cultivating leaders from the diverse ranks recently elected. After all, African American women powered the Blue Wave (Source:  “Study Finds Black Voters Propelled Blue Wave,” by Nathan Solis, Courthouse News Service, 11/19/18).  This letter, on the other hand, represents an effort by an overwhelmingly male group of centrists to pre-emptively push the caucus rightward.

If we have any doubt of their goals, we need look no further than their ringleader, 45 year old Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan.  Ryan seems to think that his bland good looks, surname and Rust Belt cred entitle him to leadership.  He tried this gambit in 2016, challenging Nancy Pelosi for the job of Minority Leader, and losing, (Source:  “Nancy Pelosi Beats Back House Democratic Leadership Challenge,” by Emmarie Huettman, The New York Times, 11/30/16).

Back then, Ryan was short on specific ideas on how electing him as leader would bolster Democratic chances of winning over disaffected white working class voters (Source:  ibid).  After a wave election with victories on a scale not seen since Watergate, this challenge makes even less sense.  Let’s call this challenge to Pelosi for what it is — a bunch of mediocre, mostly white, men who think that their best path to power is to step on the back of an accomplished woman.  To paraphrase rappers everywhere, from Mase to Snoop, I have two words, “Naw, Son.”

#TEAMPELOSI