Progressives squeezed by the war between Pelosi-type corporate establishment and anti-Pelosi corporate lobbyists
The
anti-Pelosi insurgency is not a movement. It’s a cabal,
orchestrated by the appropriately hashtagged #FiveWhiteGuys, a group
of self-self-interested players with big money behind them. These
white males resemble nothing so much as the next-generation
terminator played by Robert Patrick in “Terminator 2: Judgment
Day.” They’re cunning, aggressive, shape-shifting, and so
reflective that anyone who looks at them sees only a distorted image
of themselves.
Here’s
something else worth knowing about Democratic power in the House: Its
party organizations are still deeply hierarchical, and are built on
deeply embedded relationships. If the Moulton/Ryan gang succeeds in
unseating Pelosi, the speakership will not go to someone the left
supports. Sure, it would be great to see Barbara Lee become Speaker,
but that simply isn’t going to happen. Besides, she’s not even
running. (Lee is running for the House’s number five position.)
The Five
Guys (not to be confused with the burger chain of the same name) and
their backers are almost certainly looking for one of two outcomes:
either Pelosi accedes to their demands, which will paralyze the
Democratic agenda, or Pelosi is replaced with someone who will. But
if Pelosi goes down, that replacement will probably not be Rep.
Marcia Fudge, despite her public expressions of interest (as of this
writing) and Moulton’s professed support for her.
The Five
Guys may block Pelosi, but they will not choose her successor.
Instead, in the chaos that would follow a Pelosi defeat, the
speakership will probably go to the second-highest member of the
Democratic hierarchy: Steny Hoyer.
The left
is distressed with Pelosi, and that’s understandable. Pelosi’s
commitment to “pay as you go” funding is a political and
procedural mistake of the first order. The new tax rule is, as
MoveOn.org and others have said, “a staggeringly bad idea”—although
that may have been forced on her by the Five Guys crowd.
(Progressives should note, however, that this rule could be waived at
any time to pass progressive programs.)
A Hoyer
speakership would be a catastrophe for the left, for reasons
Politico’s Bill Scher lays out here. Hoyer represents the worst of
the corporate-backed, “centrist,” economically neoliberal party
elite. His faction’s disastrous policies and muddled messaging led
it into the political wilderness. With this election, the party has
only begun to make up some of the ground lost under its rule.
Progressives
should mobilize to defeat Hoyer and replace him, preferably someone
who can serve as an heir apparent. And if the left wants a more
progressive House Speaker, it needs to run candidates in more
primaries. When House Democrats are more progressive, Pelosi or her
successor will either change accordingly or be replaced.
This
country needs a mass movement that will demand fundamental political
change. But nobody needs the Five Guys’ corporate-backed chaos, or
the reactionary regime it seeks to impose on the House of
Representatives.
If some
leftists don’t want Pelosi to win, that’s understandable. But
they should hope with all their hearts that her opponents lose.
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