Republican propagandists have for years made her the poster child of why their rank and file should despise Democrats, yet she has remained unscathed. Young Democrats running for House seats made campaign promises that they would not support her to continue as their leader, yet she easily became Speaker of the House. There a simple reason why. Nancy Pelosi remains one of the savviest politicians to ever walk the corridors of power in Washington. Her political instincts are uncanny.
Since taking on her leadership role, young outspoken progressives in her caucus have challenged her authority, to no avail. When the Mueller investigation concluded with more like as whimper than a bang, those same young house members campaigned to immediately start impeachment hearings against Trump, though only a minority of American voters supported that action. Pelosi resisted even the demands for impeachment grew as other Democratic House members joined the chorus because she correctly understood that the facts of the Mueller investigation were too nuanced and complicated for the typical voters to fully grasp.
She understood that a move to impeach under those circumstances would put her moderate caucus members who had beaten Republicans in purple districts, and in the process given the Democrats control of the House, at a disadvantage in their reelection bids in 2020. She also knew that proceeding with impeachment under circumstances would not persuade the majority of voters that Trump should be removed from office prematurely and would only serve to energize his base. She understood that Trump must not be given the opportunity to claim that he was completely exonerated after the Senate easily voted to acquit him.
However, when the contents of the Trump’s call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of the Ukraine first came available Pelosi knew immediately that this was an easily understood case of presidential abuse of power that the average voters could sink their teeth into. Even before any of the details were available, she pounced and announced the impeachment inquiry.
As usual, she was right. Almost immediately the polling on impeachment shifted. Within a week polls indicated that the majority of Americans favored opening the impeachment inquiry. And tide continues to turn. A recent Fox News poll, which incurred Trump’s wrath, showed that 55% of the voters believe that Trump should be impeached with 51% believing he should be impeached and removed from office. (Strangely enough Fox News employs and excellent polling organization which shows no hint of bias.)
I expect that the number of American who favor impeachment to continue to rise as facts continue to come out. Eventually it may be only the Trump groupies who will continue to support him. Maybe that is a bit of dreaming on my part, but one thing is clear. Democrats running for reelection appear be on solid ground when their Republican opponents accuse them of using impeachment only for political purposes. It is Republicans who will continue to defend Trump who should fear a public backlash in the voting booth.
By initially resisting the strong urge of the Democratic base to impeach Trump at the earliest opportunity, Pelosi may have avoided a political disaster in the 2020 election. By acting decisively when she did she may have paved the way for Democrats to not only defeat Trump, but also retain their majority in the House and against long odds win control of the Senate. Republican’s who continue to defend Trump may avoid the wrath of his rabid supporters in the Republican primaries, but in the process also put themselves in real jeopardy in their general elections.
For all of this we should first thank Trump’s stupidly and his belief that he is above the law and that he can abuse his power in any manner he sees fit. Secondly, we should be thankful that have someone with the skill and political savvy of Nancy Pelosi leading our majority in the House of Representatives. She is indeed one of the most skillful politicians of our lifetime.
Cajun 10/15/2019