I don't know if it's the same thing but watching the incredible spectacle of British politics - I've become a fan of the Speaker John Bercow, it's better than Rumple in court - I am at a total loss as to why American lefties adore the ineffective, disastrously bad Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as they routinely and reflexively despise and dismiss the far more effective, far more competent and far more successful Nancy Pelosi in the United States. And, I would say, that being the Democratic opponent of Republican-fascism under the American system is far harder than being even the Labour opposition leader in the Brit system. Though some might argue that.
Perhaps Pelosi's gender is the deal breaker for them.
Jeremy Corbyn and I agree on lots of things, maybe more things than I agree with Nancy Pelosi on - though I'm not sure that's true. I fall on the extreme left of the American political scale, single-payer healthcare, free access to education, . . . In my more candid moments I'd admit to wanting to see the elite private institutions of the country, private prep-schools and elite private universities either taxed to support public education and opportunity or nationalized. I want billionaires and multi-millionaires taxed into levels where their wealth is not a danger to democracy, I am an extreme leveler, which is the most radical of political position. But politics is either about what is possible or it is play-time pretense. I am afraid that for, especially, many of the more affluent lefties in the United States as in Britain and elsewhere, it is all a matter of entertainment for the elite left, which, by that, turns out to be no left at all.
Probably it's because Pelosi is not pushing the Green New Deal (to which I have few objections at present), or eliminating the electoral college (fine, but as Rick Wilson says, how do you get there? "Show your work." I think it's a distraction from getting Trump the hell out of office.), or anything else that is currently garnering the attention of the chattering classes.
ReplyDeleteBlame it on the internet (except everybody focusses on LBJ's failures, not his successes, which we take for granted), but complaining is the preferred narrative over praise. Pelosi is running the government (she forced McConnell to vote on Trump's declaration, even got the Senate to vote against it, too), Trump is overseeing a Klown Kollege (even his claims of regulation reform are a joke). But McConnell and Trump still get the attention because "Dems in Disarray!" is the dominant model of political reporting.
I don't even think Dems doom themselves by discussing eliminating the electoral college. Frankly, what happens in the party primaries stays in the party primaries. If eliminating the e.c. gives Warren a leg up on the competition, it won't be the issue she runs on after the convention. In a crowded field, everybody has to grab something to make them stand out (the mistake the GOP clowns made in 2016 was not doing so, and leaving it to Trump). Indeed, I regard Pelosi more in the manner I regard Mueller: neither one is fighting out their positions on Twitter, because they don't need to. Even AOC understands the importance of the legislative process (her appearances in hearings has been sterling).
The chattering class is not giving Pelosi her due (any more than, to this day, they give to LBJ). More fool them, sez I.