The Pelosi Factor

A new political cycle begins this week in the U.S., midst a federal government shutdown. With the swearing in of the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi rises to its presidency once again.

A career building bridges

A very well experienced representative, Pelosi was the first—and up until now, the only—woman to exercise the high responsibility of Speaker of the House (from 2007 to 2011), during Obama’s first presidential term. Back then, her leadership was widely rejected by the extreme right, which today supports Trump as its ineffable Republican leader. However, she was simultaneously one of the most respected figures among Democrats. In fact, the 35 Democrat representatives that expressed a preference for a new leadership in the House for this next cycle did not find anyone willing to run against her.

Among other things, Nancy Pelosi created a successful national campaign strategy for the 2018 midterm election, together with the president of the Democratic Party Tom Pérez. In supporting state leadership, they designed a plan to restore a Democrat majority to the House without falling for Trump’s provocations. The communication strategy implemented focused on identifying transversal issues throughout the country, such as the defense of healthcare reform, but providing the each candidate the resources to construct a local discourse on the matters identified. Furthermore, she recruited a stellar list of candidates. Among them, a majority of female cadres intended to capitalize on the rejection women have towards Trump and the energizing participation that his speech mobilizes among the gender. In pursuing that objective, she also convened women with experience in matters of national security in swinging electoral districts, dismantling Trump from two different angles to shoot at both of his Achilles heels.

Born in an Italian-American family with a strong political tradition (her father was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland), Pelosi is very knowledgeable about parliamentary affairs, as well as an effective communicator and political operator. She is an establishment figure, and yet an icon of progressive beliefs. Having been reelected for 31 years to represent California in the House of Representatives, she has a great negotiation capacity, which adds to her pragmatism and ability to reach agreements. Not only does she know the method very well, but she also has a relationship with a big part of parliament leaders from both political parties. Pelosi does not give in on her fundamental causes and progressive principles, but knows how to defer and prosper in priority and State affairs, without sacrificing convictions, through negotiation. She is the type of political operator that discerns with clarity what separates people, and leverages matters where both sides have common ground. From there, she knows how to scale up to areas in which she can yield, in order to achieve her objectives. Pelosi masters the maxim according to which, in politics, the perfect is the enemy of the good; and that the parliamentary office is also the art of the possible.

A constitutional way around Trump

Trump already confronted Pelosi and she put him in his place. Even when the president—with his characteristic indifference towards women—wanted to remove her from the spotlight (in the conversation where the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Dick Schummer, accompanied her), she did not allow herself to be subjugated. Pelosi stated that there is no need for a wall on the border with Mexico to strengthen security at the border. She reminded Trump that he did not even have the votes of his party to impose himself, and made it clear that with the wall as a condition there would be no budgetary agreement. Back in December, Trump responded that he would assume full responsibility (which now he seeks to avoid) of the federal government shutdown.

Pelosi is aware that the country cannot subordinate to Trump’s whims and irrationality, and that the Government cannot remain closed. For that reason, she has announced that she has been working on a budget proposal that will add support beyond the Democratic Party, in both chambers. The experienced parliamentarian knows that politics transcends giving statements; and while Trump limits himself to declarations, she builds bridges and goes ahead with concrete proposals as an alternative to Trump’s stubborn denial.

Trump’s veto power is not limited, as it happens in constitutional systems. If both chambers have two thirds of the present parliamentarians, the proposal can pass without consulting the president—defeating his veto power. What do Pelosi and the Democrats need to reopen the federal government without giving in to Trump’s wall? A proposal that addresses the border security issue in a bipartisan manner, that does not include building a wall. Pelosi knows it is possible because Democrats and Republicans have already worked for almost a decade on budgetary impasses, achieving temporary or specific agreements, without prioritizing the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.

Working to move past the shutdown

At this moment, the polls blame Trump for the shutdown and he is facing the rejection that this event awakens. He has handled the problem with an irresponsible rhetoric to the point of declaring that most of the public officials affected by the closure were democrats. That is to say, for Trump the State, the federal government continuity and the services to the general population do not matter. What counts for him is to impose his will without measuring consequences, and disqualifying the administrative public servants that are included (and affected by not being able to collect their salaries) in this fiscal shutdown of the federal government. But Pelosi knows that, faced with this situation, she must fly high and build a bipartisan consensus, and reopen the government without showing intransigence in her objectives. Finally, the wall does not have to be the apple of discord in parliamentary negotiation.

If Trump is defeated at this juncture by Nancy Pelosi’s parliamentary prowess, the country and its supporters will have a renewed confidence in the leadership of the Democratic Party, which will naturally entail a high cost for the already decadent leadership of Trump. It would be humorous if the soft, but precise, blow of a woman cracked the bastion of male chauvinism.

Para español lea Al Navío: Esta es la mujer que puede poner en aprietos a Donald Trump

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