the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Dec 5, 2022
Nancy Pelosi is leaving her position as Speaker of the House, but keeping her California Congressional seat, following the 2022 election results.
When she made the announcement, the news media was filled with praise for a woman’s successful leadership. It’s note-worthy because few women are allowed into positions of leadership.
When she was elected Speaker of the House in 2006, she was the first woman to obtain the position. At the time, she said it was a step forward following many years of women’s struggles. Indeed, it took more than 200 years for the men of Congress to recognize a woman could have leadership qualities.
Since then, many nasty women-hating remarks were thrown at her, some by elected officials. In 2016, she warned other women in Congress that they faced what she had—numerous threatening and obscene phone calls and Internet attacks. A few weeks ago, her husband was viciously beaten with a hammer by an intruder to their home asking, “Where’s Nancy?”
On the one hand, she showed leadership, voting for the rights of women to a legal abortion, the rights of gay people to wed, pushing through the watered-down Affordable Care Act. On the other hand, she is typical of many in Congress. She got her start in a political family, as her father was elected to Congress, and then as mayor of Baltimore.
Her husband has been for years a very successful real estate and venture capitalist. Pelosi herself is estimated as one of the ten richest people in Congress. The right wing was willing to attack her for buying and selling stocks, at a time when Congress was considering regulations for that industry. In this matter, Democrats and Republicans act exactly the same. They all made money on the oil and gas industry, with no slaps on the wrist for the tax breaks Congress gave that enriched shareholders for the last 100 years.
If she voiced opposition to the Iraq war, she did not stop the billions of dollars sent out to contractors to make money off it and in the Afghanistan war. She agreed to continue the Bush tax breaks, even if she opposed some of the Trump tax breaks. That’s politics.
When it comes down to it, no matter how liberal or progressive some politicians are on social matters, they support this capitalist economy. Pelosi opposed a proposal to stop elected representatives from buying and selling stocks while in office. As she put it, it’s a “free market economy,” and they should also be able to benefit from it.
Nancy Pelosi truly was “top of her class"—for the capitalist class!