There ought to be monuments erected in Washington D.C. to honor Nancy Pelosi.
I’m dead serious about this.
Can somebody point to one person like Pelosi in our nation’s longish history who has book-ended and deftly turned the pages on two ugly chapters of Republican filth, incompetence and destruction?
Can somebody point to just one person who hung in for America’s sake and lead the charge to rescue her twice from the abyss?
Just 12, awful years ago, George Bush the Far, Far Stupider One, was busy drooling while hundreds of our nation’s finest were being killed and wounded every month in Iraq thanks to a war predicated by his singular ability to lie through his crooked teeth.
As caskets draped in flags were brought back to our country and hidden from plain sight by the Cheneys, Roves and Rumsfelds, we were quietly steaming toward what would be the most horrific financial crisis since the Great Depression. Making matters potentially worse, just moments away from hundreds of thousands losing their homes and jobs, Bush the Far, Far Stupider One was snorting and cackling about Social Security reform, because, well, shouldn’t everybody have the ability to invest in the stock market? Yes, had that ghastly GOP reform gone through, it actually could have been far, far worse. Imagine that.
Well, not a moment too soon, the 2006 Midterms happened and the Democrats seized control of the House and Senate and set about restoring order to the smelly, corrupt Republican animal House. And, say, is this ringing any bells …?
Anyway, in the Democrats’ wisdom back in ’07 they nominated Pelosi, the firebrand from San Francisco, to become the face of the party and the first woman ever to grab the Speaker’s gavel.
And an aside: I still get chills down my spine typing about this. I was not prepared for that moment. To see a woman finally rise to new heights meant my daughters and other daughters could do it, too. In short, I became a blubbering fool and my love for Nancy Pelosi started. Nobody has ever done her job better.
From 2007 to 2011, Pelosi ran the House with style, integrity and a champion arm-wrestler’s strength. She was key in helping elect our nation’s first black man to the presidency. And when you think about it, have we ever been better off than with Pelosi and Obama at the helm of our government? Sigh …
Pelosi’s 111th Congress was one of the most productive ever. Some say it was the most productive. Who am I to quibble? She tirelessly rammed through life-changing and -saving legislation. She didn’t suffer fools lightly, but really she was just smarter and savvier then what she was messing with — and she wasn’t messing around.
The San Francisco lightning bolt passed Wall Street reforms, got rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” committed our country on a course toward clean energy, and twisted enough arms to get something called the Affordable Care Act passed by a whisker. Hell, those are just a few headlines. I could type 30 more column inches on what this titan accomplished during her historic, four-year term.
So with order restored and our nation on its way back from the abyss, the Democrats did what they absolutely do best: took a big, damn nap.
The Radical Right Tea Party blew a hole through truth and decency in the 2010 Midterms, and after four years of restoring order to the House, Pelosi was done as Speaker.
Six years later, the Democrats still in a Van-Winkling slumber sat out the 2016 elections and Trump, replete with a Senate and Congress, was elected president.
The Democrats awoke from their nap in a panic and started sifting through the rubble for answers while tripping all over themselves in the darkness.
It was going to be a long, terrifying two years. In fact, it was a long, terrifying two years. But something magic was happening … While the orange beast terrorized the countryside, he was being met with real resistance. I’m talking get-out-on-the-street-and-do-something resistance.
If the Democrats were completely outraged by Trump and his GOP, they were even more outraged at themselves for letting it happen in the first place. A never-again resolve gripped the Left like, well, I can’t remember.
Then, just like in 2006, the 2018 Midterms came along and hopefully in the nick of time.
The Democrats demolished the GOP at the polls on November 6, casting nearly nine millions more votes. Despite being gerrymandered to the point of suffocation, the Dems seized 40 seats in Congress. They were back in charge, but who would lead them?
What?! Are you kidding?! Who would lead them?!?!
Nancy Pelosi would lead them, that’s who, dammit.
You got a mess to clean up? You need order restored? You need a titan to stand up to a bully? You need strength and honor staring down the crooked face of evil and corruption?
You call on the strongest leader in the world.
Pelosi has been back on the job less than a month and without even raising her voice has backed Trump into the corner of his playpen. She is building committees and what will be the most powerful political caucus in U.S. history, brick by solid brick. This is what she does.
This is what the most powerful person in the world does.
And when Nancy Pelosi is done fixing things again — and you can bet every dollar in your pocket she will — you honor her.
You thank her.
You build monuments to her.
