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Nancy Pelosi has fallen into Trump's trap A new biography of the Speaker vividly captures why the Democrats failed in the face of populism

Pelosi is wealthy and entitled and cross: all meat and drink for the populist president. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Pelosi is wealthy and entitled and cross: all meat and drink for the populist president. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty


June 1, 2020   5 mins

A vignette: President Obama, the most powerful man in the world, has gone to visit Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, in her Congressional office. They are both Democrats, the young President and the veteran Congresswoman, so this is a friendly gesture. He sits in her chair — the one that has its back to the window, with the sweeping House of Cards view of the Washington Mall, down towards the Lincoln Memorial. She asks him — politely but firmly — to move. It’s her chair. Her position. He has to choose another place to sit.

This event is mentioned approvingly in Molly Ball’s new biography of Nancy Pelosi. We are meant to be impressed by the speaker’s sense of self and propriety — she is, after all, America’s most successful elected female politician and hey, Congress and the White House are co-equal under the Constitution.

But oh dear: where is the emotional intelligence here? Could she not have just plopped herself down on a sofa. On the floor, even? Did it really matter so much?

There is something about Nancy Pelosi that captures in vivid fashion the failure not just of the Democratic party but of many modern democratic politicians to realise the threat that — post Obama — populism posed. They thought they could carry on as normal. They thought they could keep the same rules, the same perks, the same dignity. And folks would go on voting for them. Getting out of their chairs.

Pelosi is not an interesting book in its own right because — as the author all but acknowledges — Nancy Pelosi is not a particularly interesting person. It is best read as a study in (unintentional) irony. Almost everything it wants us to admire leaves us less than admiring.

It is meant to be a success story — the battles of a woman who didn’t begin her career until she was 47 and eventually reached high office and national importance. It is actually a story of how a political movement went awry. How the US Democrats, at pivotal moments in their post-Clinton history, took themselves ever further into the wilderness, or the upper atmosphere — sometimes into outer space: enabling George W Bush via Gore’s vapidity, then losing Congress so that Obama couldn’t govern effectively, and finally allowing a man uniquely unqualified to be president to win because Hillary Clinton literally couldn’t be bothered to travel to the state of Wisconsin to campaign.

Molly Ball’s Pelosi spans all of this because Nancy does. Our eponymous heroine gets to Washington DC in 1987, with Reagan still in power. She is still there today. In spite of efforts by the Left of the party to topple her she was re-elected for this Congress as Speaker of the House of Representatives, which, as we are constantly reminded, makes her the most senior elected woman in the nation: occasional White House invitee, target of presidential ire and sexist unpleasantness. But above all… well, that’s kind of it.

She calls herself a ‘master legislator.’ She gets things done in the corridors of Congress. She knows the numbers. She even impeached the president. But does she reach the parts of America that need to be reached? Does she energise? Does she galvanise? After all these years of getting to know her, do Americans think, “ah Nancy, don’t always agree with her but she speaks plainly to me and my concerns”?

A brief taste of Pelosi gives a clue. As so often in the book, the prose is designed to make us say ‘wow’ but leaves us mouthing, ‘huh’?

She had been up until 2 a.m., calling colleagues, tweaking this clause and that, refreshing herself as she did so with a watermelon-lime seltzer. At seventy-eight, she found her preternatural energy undiminished. She never drank alcohol, rarely had caffeine that wasn’t from her beloved dark chocolate and didn’t need more than a few hours’ sleep per night.

To be blunt, she’s a freak. She ain’t normal. And that, in a nutshell, is the problem for the Democratic party and for other decent, hard-working western politicians wondering how populism could have happened when they are all so busy and disciplined and up all night.

It’s all so tight and prinked and holier than thou. Obama succeeded because he lodged himself in the imagination of a nation that wanted — yearned — to be good. But outside that brief and passionate spasm of symbiosis between party and nation, the Democrats have played it cool, played it distant. Culminating in the loss to Trump.

And it’s not about policies. Although she represents a district in lefty San Francisco, Ms Pelosi has been perfectly happy at various junctures to face down the Left of her party. She has fallen out pretty spectacularly with ‘the squad’ of ethnically diverse Left-wingers who have dominated much of the coverage of the most recent congress. She is not an extremist or a fan of unfocused dreamers: she is a doer of deals.

So what went wrong? Her life — like the life of her party — has simply diverged from the life of the nation. She is rich (from her husband’s business.) She holidays in Hawaii in the winter and her Napa Valley vineyard in the summer. She lives in a mansion in San Francisco and a riverside penthouse in Washington DC. She travels in private jets. She knows the in-set. The Hollywood set.

Does she know about life in Baltimore, where she was born? Perhaps she reads about it. I am convinced by the book that she genuinely wants it to be better and works hard to make it so. But like her party, she has taken a one-way trip to what seemed like a better place. We are not in Baltimore anymore.

So when the populists came, Nancy Pelosi had no defence. And now, more dangerously, she and her ilk takes pleasure in Pyrrhic victories, apparently genuinely thinking them real and substantial. The book begins with an endorsement from Senator Amy Klobuchar: “If you think a woman can’t beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day.”

This is not really true, is it? She has landed some blows to be sure: an encounter at the White House where she spoke sharply to him on camera and he looked foolish, the tearing up of his State of the Nation speech while sitting behind him in was also quite a thing, a meme for the faithful. She gets under his skin, as Molly Ball rightly points out. And all the more so because she and he used to be pally — and he thought they could be when he came to power.

But all of this is failure because all of it is on his terms. Tearing up speeches in public is Trumpism. She has fallen into his trap. It takes Pelosi and her party to a place where he wants them: a place where nothing is normal, everything hyper-partisan. She is wealthy and entitled and cross: all meat and drink for the populist president.

Again, the point here has nothing to do with policies, and everything to do with style and connection with normal people who are — even in modern America — willing to be brought politically to a safer place. With Joe Biden, and more importantly with his vice president and with a new Congressional leadership coming from the younger generation, it is entirely possible that the Democratic party re-invigorates itself and re-establishes its place in the nation.

But they have to give up their chairs. They have to read Pelosi, thank her for her service, and move on.


Justin Webb presents the Americast podcast and Today on Radio Four. His Panorama documentary “Trump the Sequel”, is available now on  Iplayer

JustinOnWeb

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Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago

In the course of my lifetime I don’t think there has been a more repulsive politician than Pelosi. Not in the west, anyway. She does not appear to have a single redeeming feature, even if only in terms of a sense of humour or the ability to conjure a few effective words.

Simon Davies
Simon Davies
4 years ago
Reply to  Fraser Bailey

Two words, George Osborne!

jeremynash147
jeremynash147
4 years ago
Reply to  Simon Davies

Well said. quite agree

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago
Reply to  Simon Davies

Fair point, and until recently I would have said that he was the worst. But i think she takes the prize, such as it is.

JR Stoker
JR Stoker
4 years ago

Very thoughtful analysis of a politician who is much too obsessed with her own cleverness – worryingly, as she is not clever. She loves the limelight and that combined with a ludicrous sense of her importance means she has done the Democrats no good at all.

Why is is it in such a huge nation full of talented people, the current crop of politicians are so useless? There’s a doctoral thesis there.

Peter Shaw
Peter Shaw
4 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

Absolutely. All that talent . I can only assume that talented people are weeded out of the process very early on by rich, self-entitled narcissists who won’t allow any real challenger.

Liscarkat
Liscarkat
4 years ago
Reply to  Peter Shaw

“In our civilization, and under our form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.”

Ambrose Bierce

Clive Mitchell
Clive Mitchell
4 years ago
Reply to  JR Stoker

It seems to be a problem of the west. It’s not just an American problem.

Mark Corby
Mark Corby
4 years ago

Well done Mr Webb, you said it all she is a “freak”.

Nigel Clarke
Nigel Clarke
4 years ago

With Joe Biden, and more importantly with his vice president and with a new Congressional leadership coming from the younger generation, it is entirely possible that the Democratic party re-invigorates itself and re-establishes its place in the nation.

Haha…not a cat in hells chance. Trump might be Trump, but the Dems will bring worse, and the Trump voting electorate know this, and so do many of the rest of the electorate, they’re gonna have to choose and I think they will choose Trump over Biden (if he makes it).
When you have senators openly declaring that they don’t care if Biden eats babies they’ll still vote for him it’s really all just another piece of US election theatre that will, imo, return Trump to the White House

PS. I still suspect Biden will be subbed before we get the elections, he’s clearly suffering mental health issues. Mind you, so was Clinton in 2016, so…who knows…just wouldn’t surprise me.

Jim Bowen
Jim Bowen
4 years ago
Reply to  Nigel Clarke

Although the Democrats can be creative with rules when it serves them to do so, it would be unprecedented in America for a major political party’s insiders to jettison the candidate who has prevailed through the nominating process. Biden is going to be the nominee.

Nigel Clarke
Nigel Clarke
4 years ago
Reply to  Jim Bowen

…and yet, i’m not convinced. Watch out for the great switcheroo

Clive Mitchell
Clive Mitchell
4 years ago

What with the main essay arguing that the USA is beginning to resemble a failed State and this throwing further light on its politics, you’ve got to worry about its future.

Which won’t be good for any of us.

David Bell
David Bell
4 years ago

I have a simple rule in life – never trust anyone who doesn’t drink coffee. Pelosi proves it!

Robin Bury
Robin Bury
4 years ago
Reply to  David Bell

Nor alcohol!

Go Away Please
Go Away Please
4 years ago
Reply to  David Bell

Ha! Ha!
And especially if they also then eat dark chocolate.

regnad.kcin.fst
regnad.kcin.fst
4 years ago

Clinton lost WI and MI and PA and OH for the same reason – she is a Dem and these are blue collar states. Blue collar voters are not Dems anymore. The ones in unions are, but normal non-union blue collar voters hate unions – they raise prices. WI in particular, in 2016, was R top to bottom. I knew that WI had a very good chance to go R in the POTUS election – I live there part time.

Jim Bowen
Jim Bowen
4 years ago

All true, but she never encountered an American voter who was not carefully prescreened throughout the entire campaign. She had armies of campaign staffers who had nothing better to do. I shudder to think what the cost was for one of her contrived, photo-op meetings with actual Americans. Like Pelosi, Hillary Clinton has lived in a bubble for nearly 30 years and has no earthly idea, except perhaps some memories from her young adulthood, how ordinary Americans live. She was an atrocious candidate who felt she was entitled to be President because it was her turn.

Robin Bury
Robin Bury
4 years ago

Good stuff She is also pro Irish extreme nationalists and supported Northern Ireland staying in the EU and all because of the IRA threats to return to violence (which comes naturally) if the border came back…she even threatened Britain if it restored a border. There is a border between Norway and Sweden and no violence. Trucks have to stop off the road and be checked. I would argue a spoilt extremist woman rather than ‘a freak’. She is a devout Roman Catholic so that might effect her support of Irish Catholic nationalists. Saying she would pray for Trump was ridiculously infantile.

Jim Bowen
Jim Bowen
4 years ago
Reply to  Robin Bury

Devout Roman Catholic who apparently has no concern with abortion up to the day of birth.

cas2689
cas2689
4 years ago
Reply to  Robin Bury

She is the furthest thing from a “devout Roman Catholic” as evidenced by her abortion extremism and cheerleading and her general hateful viciousness.

Owen Morgan
Owen Morgan
4 years ago

In which universe, Justin, did Obama “succeed”? Just because your employer never troubled itself with the innumerable scandals of the Obama years and its incredible corruption doesn’t mean that those things didn’t happen. Obama deliberately sowed the seeds for the mayhem occurring in the USA right now.

Obama was a disastrous President, in the same way that Justin Webb is a pathetic apology for a journalist.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago
Reply to  Owen Morgan

Exactly. For most normal Americans – including black Americans – things continued to get worse under Obama. You know there would be no hope and no change from the moment he appointed Goldkan Sachs’ Geithner as his Treasury Secretary. Following this 5.1 million black Americans were thrown out of their home under Obama as the banks were rewarded and enlarged. And remember, Black Lives Matter started under Obama. The guy was a total fraud – he looked and sounded good but said nothing of substance and delivered even less.

Dr Irene Lancaster
Dr Irene Lancaster
4 years ago

Agree that Democrat women appear to have a sense of entitlement which doesn’t endear them to others, plus the party has become alarmingly anti-Semitic. End of.

David Waring
David Waring
4 years ago

The Democrats have really lost the common touch, with a Senior Democrat showing off her ice cream selection beautifully laid out in her freezer to James Corden on TV. Nancy you really have lost the plot!!

Lee Johnson
Lee Johnson
4 years ago

Is there any difference between Hilary C and Nancy P ?
Can’t see any…….

David Waring
David Waring
4 years ago

I was impressed by an earlier piece by Taki which highlighted the commonality between New Labour the Momentum Party and the Democrats.
The then Labour leader lived in a London property with two kitchens one with a cooker large enough to support a large foodbank..
Then we had Hilary with her basket of deplorables comment and the UK Tory Party suggesting UKIP were swivel eyed loons.
Then we had Momentum and the Picasso collector
Finally we had James Corden being given a tour of Nancy Pelosi’s luxury ice cream selection arranged as lovingly as an art collector might display their paintings.
What comes across is most of the so called liberal left live entitled lives.
Yes President Trump lives a spectacular existence, however he got out to walk the ground and appears to relate to people working damned hard.He does not delight in sharing
his culinary propensities.
Both liberal left parties and the national media appear infatuated by posturing of very rich politicians who have long ascended beyond us mere mortals

cas2689
cas2689
4 years ago

It is really absurd to say that Pelosi has “fallen into his trap….where everything is partisan”. She has always been a hateful partisan and a dirty street fighter, with no principles except power.

And she isn’t rich because of her husband’s business, she enriched her husband’s business with her power.

Sarah Lambert
Sarah Lambert
4 years ago

Ice-Queen sure is freaky.

Brenda Euwer
Brenda Euwer
4 years ago

could not disagree more with this article- contradicting itself throughout. I’d say you are the undisciplined freak.