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Wendelle's Reviews > Pelosi
Pelosi
by
by
A Portrait of a lady on fire
Every big, tent-pole political party will be comprised by a diverse group of people, and that's good. There will be visionaries who are the architects of the sweeping philosophy and future overall direction of the party. There will be elder statesmen who form the reliable old guard keeping the party steady. There will be activists dedicated to espousing a certain cause or movement. There will be glad-handers who enjoy the race and the chance to build their external network and their clout within the party. There are probably many more other characters.
Nancy Pelosi, this book says, is an operative. She does not dither or contemplate the foundational philosophies of the Democratic party. She is just decisive and gets things done. Instead of wondering on the subtleties of 'to be or not to be', she starts from fixed moral principles originating from her upbringing in the Catholic Church, in a family that was politically active and embedded in the Democratic Party, and the sense of noblesse oblige which she inherited from her politically connected parents who kept a 'favors' ledger for the needy and powerful in local Baltimore and which she further developed as a privileged grande dame married to a multimillionaire. Her effectiveness lies in her decisiveness, her inexhaustible ability for organization and tapping on to her steadily growing networks, and her ingenuity to think of methods to accomplish things once she's summarily decided they are worth accomplishing. She was not naturally charismatic-- hence her forced-looking grin/grimace on TV- but she would keep on pressing the issues, and her caucus members, until the deal is done. As one of the earliest lone women on Congress, and as the first female House Speaker, she always had to arrive better prepared than everybody else. She would read, annotate and memorize thousands of pages of policy documents, memorize electoral maps, and strive to get on to the substantial House Committees as opposed to the relaxed, symbolic ones.
The running tally of her initiatives and accomplishments are as follows:
1. campaigning for AIDS to get federal acknowledgment and funding in the age of the Reagan administration, sending informational pamphlets about the disease to all her constituency in a move that Reagan copied, and inserting medical aid packages into a law that translated into billions for affected people
2. steadfastly condemning the Tiananmen Square Massacre, visiting China, and getting Pres. Clinton to include a condition for human rights in his free-trade agreement with China (which he later failed to honor)
3. opposing the Iraq War
4. opposing Bush cuts to Medicare that would have led to its gradual privatization
5. changing Democratic support for Bush plans to privatize parts of Social Security and unifying the ranks against it
6. enduring Newt Gingrich's gangrenous presence on the Senate
7. introducing technological innovations to the Democratic Party's operations early on, such as computerized databases for polling, and consulting marketing and branding specialists from the private world to rejuvenate the party's stock of ideas for campaigns
8. pushing over Republicans a bill that: strips away deregulation riders, enables gun violence research, prohibits spending on a concrete border wall, barred interior ICE agents
The book shows that Nancy Pelosi is not necessarily of the lofty, magnanimous 'When they go low, we go high' variety-- in her method of operations. She will call her contacts. She will horse-trade. She will arm-twist. She will fundraise. She will invite centrist candidates into the party, if it will help the party tent swell in size. You want someone who will play hardball and hold the line, Nancy is your woman.
However, she is staunchly lofty and magnanimous in her principles. She will not hesitate to let her donors down or oppose her party's president on grounds of principle. For instance, because of her repeated vocal censure of the Tiananmen Massacre even when its tenure in the news cycle was long past, she lost the support of some businesspeople in her district who wanted to slide in free trade agreements with China that would have been favorable to them. She stands staunchly on her principles, because her civic career sprung from innate moral resolve, not some desire to keep her position or to elevate it to the Senate or the presidency.
---
President Obama doesn't look so good here. His reputation has mythologized, but his actual legacy is checkered. As this book reveals, negotiated with Republicans to "loosen Wall Street Regulations and campaign finance limits". Furthermore, he was willing to cut a deal with then-Speaker, Republican John Boehner, to make "welfare reform" or cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
---
This book is also a healthy reminder of the catalogue of wolfish cabinet members that Trump has assembled, in case public memory wanes. Here it is:
Health Secretary Price who spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money on private jet travel
Interior secretary Ryan Zinke who "opened public lands for oil and gas drilling" and "steered agency policies to his own personal benefit"
Scott Pruitt the Environment Protection Agency administrator who is a climate change denier and hands out favors to his friends and family
the Commerce Secretary worth 700 million who wondered why federal employees locked out during a government shutdown had to use food banks, when they can just take loans
Every big, tent-pole political party will be comprised by a diverse group of people, and that's good. There will be visionaries who are the architects of the sweeping philosophy and future overall direction of the party. There will be elder statesmen who form the reliable old guard keeping the party steady. There will be activists dedicated to espousing a certain cause or movement. There will be glad-handers who enjoy the race and the chance to build their external network and their clout within the party. There are probably many more other characters.
Nancy Pelosi, this book says, is an operative. She does not dither or contemplate the foundational philosophies of the Democratic party. She is just decisive and gets things done. Instead of wondering on the subtleties of 'to be or not to be', she starts from fixed moral principles originating from her upbringing in the Catholic Church, in a family that was politically active and embedded in the Democratic Party, and the sense of noblesse oblige which she inherited from her politically connected parents who kept a 'favors' ledger for the needy and powerful in local Baltimore and which she further developed as a privileged grande dame married to a multimillionaire. Her effectiveness lies in her decisiveness, her inexhaustible ability for organization and tapping on to her steadily growing networks, and her ingenuity to think of methods to accomplish things once she's summarily decided they are worth accomplishing. She was not naturally charismatic-- hence her forced-looking grin/grimace on TV- but she would keep on pressing the issues, and her caucus members, until the deal is done. As one of the earliest lone women on Congress, and as the first female House Speaker, she always had to arrive better prepared than everybody else. She would read, annotate and memorize thousands of pages of policy documents, memorize electoral maps, and strive to get on to the substantial House Committees as opposed to the relaxed, symbolic ones.
The running tally of her initiatives and accomplishments are as follows:
1. campaigning for AIDS to get federal acknowledgment and funding in the age of the Reagan administration, sending informational pamphlets about the disease to all her constituency in a move that Reagan copied, and inserting medical aid packages into a law that translated into billions for affected people
2. steadfastly condemning the Tiananmen Square Massacre, visiting China, and getting Pres. Clinton to include a condition for human rights in his free-trade agreement with China (which he later failed to honor)
3. opposing the Iraq War
4. opposing Bush cuts to Medicare that would have led to its gradual privatization
5. changing Democratic support for Bush plans to privatize parts of Social Security and unifying the ranks against it
6. enduring Newt Gingrich's gangrenous presence on the Senate
7. introducing technological innovations to the Democratic Party's operations early on, such as computerized databases for polling, and consulting marketing and branding specialists from the private world to rejuvenate the party's stock of ideas for campaigns
8. pushing over Republicans a bill that: strips away deregulation riders, enables gun violence research, prohibits spending on a concrete border wall, barred interior ICE agents
The book shows that Nancy Pelosi is not necessarily of the lofty, magnanimous 'When they go low, we go high' variety-- in her method of operations. She will call her contacts. She will horse-trade. She will arm-twist. She will fundraise. She will invite centrist candidates into the party, if it will help the party tent swell in size. You want someone who will play hardball and hold the line, Nancy is your woman.
However, she is staunchly lofty and magnanimous in her principles. She will not hesitate to let her donors down or oppose her party's president on grounds of principle. For instance, because of her repeated vocal censure of the Tiananmen Massacre even when its tenure in the news cycle was long past, she lost the support of some businesspeople in her district who wanted to slide in free trade agreements with China that would have been favorable to them. She stands staunchly on her principles, because her civic career sprung from innate moral resolve, not some desire to keep her position or to elevate it to the Senate or the presidency.
---
President Obama doesn't look so good here. His reputation has mythologized, but his actual legacy is checkered. As this book reveals, negotiated with Republicans to "loosen Wall Street Regulations and campaign finance limits". Furthermore, he was willing to cut a deal with then-Speaker, Republican John Boehner, to make "welfare reform" or cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
---
This book is also a healthy reminder of the catalogue of wolfish cabinet members that Trump has assembled, in case public memory wanes. Here it is:
Health Secretary Price who spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money on private jet travel
Interior secretary Ryan Zinke who "opened public lands for oil and gas drilling" and "steered agency policies to his own personal benefit"
Scott Pruitt the Environment Protection Agency administrator who is a climate change denier and hands out favors to his friends and family
the Commerce Secretary worth 700 million who wondered why federal employees locked out during a government shutdown had to use food banks, when they can just take loans
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
August 8, 2020
– Shelved
