Pelosi’s Bad Strategy Editor’s Blog – Talking Points Memo / by Josh Marshall

Pelosi’s Bad Strategy

Editor’s Blog – Talking Points Memo / by Josh Marshall / 30min

I really, really agree with this note from TPM Reader MA. There are lots of asides and elaborations along the way I’d quibble with, some disagreements about the structure and habits of the Democratic party and more. But on the key point: top elected Democrats – and here I’m largely talking about Nancy Pelosi – are simply too dismissive of this hunger and this anger. As MA himself notes, you’ve got a basic dynamic in which Democrats, even with the House, simply don’t have much power, not enough to meet the expectations and sense of urgency of many of their supporters.

She has tried to keep these expectations in check largely by being dismissive of them. (I’m talking here largely about impeachment; the dynamic with “the squad” is a bit different, though related). None of us should underestimate the magnitude of the challenge of keeping those expectations in check, keeping her caucus united when she has at least a couple dozen vulnerable freshman to protect in 2020. But dismissiveness is backfiring. It’s not modulating expectations or channeling them in productive directions. It’s giving a substantial percentage of Democrats the impression that she doesn’t see the problem, that she doesn’t know why people have such a sense of urgency.

That doesn’t mean throwing in with a couple dozen reps in the safest of districts and the most active social media profiles. At least on the question of impeachment, yes or no, I agree with her, though whether my reasoning is her reasoning, I don’t know. But she’s needlessly discrediting herself with a faction of the party she simply does not need to. And she’s creating a backdraft of internal turbulence and division which is only going to help the President.

From TPM Reader MA …

A thought on your post re: inaction and infighting among the Dems– I think you correctly assess a dynamic wherein 1.) the Dems really don’t have a ton of actual power, even with a House majority, and that 2.) Dem/left activists and plugged-in observers feel hair-on-fire urgency and are frustrated with a seeming torpor in the top ranks of the party electeds (I’d add that this feeds into a much older dynamic, real or perceived, pitting progressives demanding change against status-quoist, softly-softly, don’t-rock-the-boat-and-upset-the-cable-news-heads-and-“centrist”-lobbyists electeds and leadership).

What’s missing here is any kind of communication from the party leadership that they feel the same apocalyptic urgency about the threat to democracy that the base does (and I’m talking here about a much broader share of the base than the extremely-on-Twitter lefty types that Pelosi and Biden, et al have been feuding with). This is political malpractice on grounds of both internal communications (gotta keep the base united and fired up!) and messaging to the broader electorate (gotta let ’em know that American democracy is really in peril and it’s not just a presidential reality show you can tune out!). At least some of the complacency we think we’re seeing, among the press and the political class alike, has got to be real. And this is what really terrifies and infuriates.

Solidarity is a two-way street. The Democratic leadership at its best (and Pelosi is its best) has always preferred a monologue. And right now, they’re not even saying much of anything. Maybe there’s a grand strategy behind their muted slow-footedness that we just can’t see yet. But I don’t think anyone can blame the rabble for suspecting, based on long experience, that it’s just the same old witches’ brew of derp, arrogance and learned helplessness that’s characterized the party since the days of Carter and Reagan.

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