Time To Throw Pelosi Under the Bus

LOTS of questions are being asked by chastened Democrats in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory. Here’s one they’re not asking enough, however: Why does Nancy Pelosi still have a job?

After her pathetic nearly 14-year tenure as the most powerful Democrat in Congress, she’s poised to continue as House minority leader. It’s a travesty.

President Obama has overseen the Democrats’ biggest loss of House, Senate, gubernatorial and local seats in nearly 100 years. Yet Pelosi can’t be held blameless: Since she became speaker in 2007, Democrats are down 45 House seats.

Remarkably, only now are some Democrats finally starting to wonder out loud whether it’s time for Pelosi to go. Politico reported that House Democrats postponed their leadership elections until Nov. 30 in order to “review the election cycle.” Still, despite moans and groans from a few (rightfully) unhappy Dems, only Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan has yet mustered the courage to challenge her.

Compare this lack of accountability to the flood of stories and drama over whether House Speaker Paul Ryan would keep his position after only serving a little over a year. Some grassroots Republicans labeled Ryan a sellout for not trying harder to halt some of President Obama’s agenda.

Whether this kind of constant infighting is healthy is a different question, but at least some Republicans let their leaders know that they expect results.

Pelosi’s continued presence represents a symptom of the Democrats’ broader intellectual bubble that has led to their historic losses over the past six years. Just look at the House, where Democrats currently control 188 seats, with a whopping 39 coming from Pelosi’s home state of California.

With a fifth of their congressional seats coming from a single state, Democrats have two choices: remain a regional party or try venturing outside California’s pleasant weather and start acknowledging that there are 49 other states. When Democrats continuously reward establishment figures from wealthy seaside communities, it sends a pretty clear message that the rest of the country doesn’t matter much.

In fact, it’s unclear what matters to Democrats. They’re certainly not articulating a clear agenda that appeals to Americans outside California and New York. They might as well be speaking a different language — because they’re definitely speaking to different concerns. Californians and New Yorkers seem to be satisfied with the Democrats’ record, but the rest of the country is clearly scratching its head. It’s no surprise that Americans in socalled flyover states aren’t in love with a Pelosi-run Democratic Party. Workers in Ohio are worried about their job prospects as factories get shipped overseas. Pelosi, meanwhile, thinks what they should really worry about is the fact that gas prices are too low, as she contended last year.

Blue-collar whites in Michigan might be frustrated by stagnating wages, but don’t look at California for any ideas. Sure, the Golden State passed a $15 minimum wage, to be implemented by 2022. But even its governor, Jerry Brown, once warned that such a hike would “put a lot of poor people out of work.” How many poor people do liberal policies have to put out of work before Pelosi notices? Whatever the number, we haven’t hit it yet.

Although Pelosi has remained a loyal soldier to the Democratic establishment, there’s little evidence that she’s been an asset to the party. Yes, she’s celebrated for her fund-raising, but that money isn’t buying them a majority. Democrats should drop the niceties and work on rebuilding their party and not just rewarding loyalty.

During the campaign, Hillary Clinton railed against “quarterly capitalism” — the practice in which corporate boards demand short-term financial gains at the expense of long-term investments, like worker training and benefits. Democrats have gone through plenty of quarters running at a loss; perhaps they should take some advice from America’s businesses and fire one of their leaders.