Nancy Pelosi’s disdain for the Squad is not a good look for a leader

Don’t underestimate the Squad

Nancy Pelosi has never exactly been subtle about her disdain for the left-leaning wing of the Democratic party. The House speaker once scoffed that a “glass of water” could have won congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s seat; she condescendingly described the Green New Deal as the “green dream, or whatever they call it”; she dismissed the ever-growing Squad as “like, five people”. Now some imaginative new insults have come out. Pelosi once mocked the Squad’s “purity politics” using a baby voice, according to a new book by Susan Page, Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power.

“Some people come [to Congress] … to pose for holy pictures,” Pelosi told Page while discussing the Squad in a 2019 interview. Page writes that Pelosi then: “changed her voice and mimicked a child trying to make a solemn show of piety. ‘See how perfect I am and how pure?’”

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“When you come in, cross that door, take that oath, you have to be oriented toward results,” Pelosi continued, apparently referring to AOC. “Have confidence in what you believe in, have humility to listen to somebody else, because you’re not a one-person show.”

It’s a little bizarre to describe Ocasio-Cortez as a “one-person show” when she’s part of something that’s called the Squad. While AOC gets a huge amount of media coverage, she doesn’t hog the mic, she shares it. During her short political career, she, along with the other members of the Squad, have worked incredibly hard to amplify the sorts of voices that don’t usually get heard. Instead of pulling up the ladder behind them, they’ve worked to dismantle the barriers that stop regular people from entering politics. In 2019, for example, the Squad spoke out against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) policy of prioritizing incumbent Democrats. This has always been an unofficial policy but, in 2019, the DCCC announced they would blacklist any political vendors that worked with challengers in Democratic primaries. That’s a big deal because it helps enshrine the status quo. It helps to keep the same sort of people in power.

“If the DCCC enacts this policy … we risk undermining an entire universe of potential candidates and vendors – especially women and people of color – whose ideas, energy, and innovation need a place in our party,” Ayanna Pressley tweeted at the time. She explained that she wouldn’t be airing all this on Twitter if people in the DCCC had listened to the Squad’s concerns. “When a candidate takes the risk to run, Democrats should not be in the practice of creating litmus tests or roadblocks that have a chilling effect on new candidates.”

As well as speaking out against the blacklist policy – which the DCCC eventually dropped – the Squad launched a fundraising committee to raise money for progressive candidates. How on earth does this constitute a “one-person show”?

Pelosi may wax lyrical about the importance of listening to others, but it’s worth noting that the US government is still very much a one-type-of-person show. The majority of lawmakers in Congress are millionaires, for example. Far too many are also related to each other or former politicians. One study found that sons of senators have an 8,500 times higher chance of becoming a senator than an average American male. I don’t want to diminish Pelosi’s achievements at all, but she herself is part of a political dynasty: her dad was a congressman and a three-term mayor of Baltimore. The government may be full of people who call themselves representatives – but they mostly represent an elite sliver of the United States. If we want government to work for the people then it’s imperative that we don’t have the 1% legislating for the 99%. It’s easy to dismiss social justice as “purity politics” when, like Pelosi, you have a net worth of $114m.

However, things like a living wage and student debt forgiveness aren’t purity politics when they’re a part of your daily life – they’re existential. AOC, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are still paying back student loans; Cori Bush has experienced homelessness. We need more politicians like this. We need more politicians who understand how the system has failed people; not more politicians who have always benefited from the system.

Pelosi has had an impressive career, but publicly demeaning the Squad really isn’t a good look. True leadership isn’t just about knowing how to leverage the power you have, it’s about knowing when to step back and cede power to a new generation.

Australian navy battles twerking scandal

Eyebrows were raised and pearls were clutched this week over an “inappropriate” twerking performance by a dance troupe to launch a new naval vessel. The dancers are now accusing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation of deceptively editing their routine and sexualizing them. While the whole thing is pretty gross, here are a few rather more important Australian scandals to worry about: war crimes in Afghanistan; a rape allegation by a government staffer; Australia’s chief of the defence force telling young cadets not to go out alone while “attractive” if they don’t want to be assaulted.

France toughens age of consent laws

Until now France has stood apart from most western countries by not having statutory rape laws. After a number of high-profile child sexual abuse cases, some of which involved incest, that’s changing: the French parliament has adopted legislation that characterizes sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape.

The only people arrested after a 13-year-old Venezuelan girl was raped? The women who helped her

An enraging story by the New York Times.

Afghan women fear the return of the Taliban

After 20 years, the US is finally getting out of Afghanistan. Taliban control is greater than at any point in the past two decades and violence against women is surging. And yet the US has always insisted they’re meddling in Afghanistan to fight for the rights and dignity of women.

The week in periodarchy

I regret to inform you that an all-male startup has created “period gloves” called Pinky Gloves. These are pink gloves which let you dispose of tampons in a “sanitary” manner. As doctor and author Jennifer Gunter lamented: “Every day there is another useless product for the vagina.”