Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs to be careful not to throw shade at the millennials she accused of being Twitter creations this past weekend. I believe that Ms. Pelosi is trying to head off the Democrats mimicking the Tea Party. The Republican faction, now known as the Freedom Caucus, has allowed the inmates to run the asylum. Hopefully, Democrats take an optimistic view and move the issue to a question of philosophy and ideology, not hate and fear mongering. The Tea Party became a tool for destruction using the explicit statements of Mitch McConnell to stop Obama as its guide to a conservative North Star. Despite years, of economic ruin and war foisted upon the American people due to the incompetence of the Bush/Cheney administration, three-cornered-hat wearing militants did not take to the streets carrying, ‘don’t tread on me’ flags until Obama took office.
The T-E-A Party, for those of you who have forgotten, stood for “Taxed Enough Already.” Led by groups of Christian-righters, using FOX News as its’ mouthpiece and the false claims of it being an organic organization, overwhelmed then-House Speaker—John Boehner and the last of conservatives willing to listen to compromise. In 2014 Boehner thought that the Republican establishment had successfully put down the insurrection but subsequently saw his influence and power wane under the pressure of hardlines, hard talk, and even harder xenophobia. Boehner sought to mollify the rising dissatisfaction with appeasement, “There’s not that big a difference between what you call the tea party and your average conservative Republican,” Boehner said.
Speaker Pelosi is determined not to make those same mistakes and watch her party become a rubber stamp for what she may see as uncompromising extremism. The attempt to deny her the Speaker’s job, after the Democrats drubbed the Republicans in the House midterms, was led by Seth Moulton and Tim Ryan who sought to ride the mid-seam of the coattails of change behind high profile liberal representatives Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar. Pelosi acquiesced to their influence but not their demands—corralled the Democratic caucus and was re-elected, Speaker.
Pelosi made it clear in a New York Times piece penned by Maureen Dowd that she will not be consumed by the incoming caucus members, “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.” It is important to point out that the statement by Pelosi was in direct response to a specific question posed to her about the four opposing the recently passed funding deal for the children being caged at the border.
Let me be perfectly clear I hope that Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib are the future of the party. The increased diversity and majority-minority rule of the United States are inevitable. There is no need to fear changes but to embrace it with people who have lived it every day. Fairness is a result of the three P’s; the Past, the Pain and the Progress. I feel secure with the past history Pelosi brings to the table, I feel hopeful that the pain of new ideas brings new energy and optimistic that progressive ideas speak to a brighter future.
Vote in 2020 for Change.
