Nancy Pelosi’s Delusional Remarks About the Republican Party

By David Starr

Neoliberals in the Democratic Party have usually put up some resistance to the Republican Party’s agenda. Beyond that, they usually cave to that agenda in the name of “bi-partisanship.”

Neoliberals, or “Third Way” Democrats, have expressed support for social issues such as LGBT rights, women’s rights, rights for people of color, etc. But they don’t go far enough in their support. At a certain point, they will act as conservative as the conservatives, going along with Republican objectives like the scenario of cutting Social Security. Would they go along with Republicans wanting to privatize or even eliminate this beneficial social program for seniors? Hopefully, it won’t come to that.

Loyal opposition has been tried over and over again but usually leads into a dead end. As a result, the Republicans can dominate the political narrative. An example of this loyal opposition came in the form of bizarre comments made by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) about the Republican Party. In early May, 2022, Pelosi was a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Climate Conference in Miami, Florida. According to Danya Hajjaji, writing in Newsweek (05/10/2022), Pelosi declared that the United States “needs a strong Republican Party,” and not a cult.

While she may oppose the Trumpites in the GOP, Pelosi thinks that the GOP can be saved from them, perhaps seeing them as an aberration rather than a continuation of the GOP moving further right. Contrary to Republican claims that climate change is a hoax, Pelosi nevertheless hopes that climate change can be a “bi-partisan issue.”

But then it got really bizarre as Pelosi continued, this published in Mediaite (05/10/2022) by Zachary Leeman: “So rather than saying, ‘Well, we have to defeat them,’ no let’s just try to persuade them. I want the Republican Party to take back the party, take it back to where you cared about a woman’s right to choose, you cared about the environment.” This was an out-of-touch moment for Pelosi. Historically and up to the present time, the GOP never exactly cared about reproductive rights and the environment. (There was, however, Richard Nixon’s signing into law of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But that was when the international situation was different, and when the Left had momentum.)

Again, and again the GOP has been the Party of No, obstructing the objectives of the Democratic Party. One example was preventing the Obama administration from appointing Merrick Garland as a supreme court judge, thanks specifically to Mitch McConnell. And still, some Democrats just don’t get it. Rather than being a strong opposition, they continue to cater to Republican demands when things get a little too intense. But they also have similar ideological interests, being essentially bought and paid for by major corporations. And they push for the protection and expansion of capital worldwide, usually to the detriment of labor rights.

Bi-partisanship is hard to come by, with the GOP collectively losing its mind. But Democrats like Nancy Pelosi don’t want to propose a real alternative when they continue to harbor the illusion that the Republicans are generally trustworthy.