Thank You, Madame Speaker

 By Marilyn Moore

I have been amazed, no, appalled, at the vitriol and hatred flung at Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D, CA), Speaker of the House.  In the election just concluded, and in the election of 2020, and 2018, and most likely the federal elections before that, she has been the target of outrageous political ads, demeaning her intelligence, her leadership, her courage, her, well, everything about her.  

She is bright. She is strong.  She is courageous.  She knows the rules of the House, and she plays by them, and uses them to get things done.  She has been elected to the Speaker’s position twice.  She is the only woman to have held that position, to have been second in line to the presidency.  

She has been exceptionally effective, leading the large, messy, sometimes unwieldy House to the adoption of laws that, in her words, help the American people.  Laws that increase access to health insurance, laws that cap the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare, laws that let the federal government negotiate the prices for subscription drugs, likely bringing down the cost for consumers.  Laws that increased the child credit tax during the pandemic, that provided payroll protection for small businesses and their employees.  Laws that build bridges and highways and broadband internet, and that provide increased services for veterans. Laws that protect the marriages of LGBTQ couples and inter-racial couples.  Laws that made real the campaign promises of presidents and legislators.  Laws which are widely popular with American voters.  

And for all that, she has been a prominent target of scorn by the opposing party, and by some within her own party.  And that would be because….well, not because of the positions she has taken.  Those positions have been shared by a majority of the members of the House while she has been Speaker, but theirs are not the faces on the anti ads and political cartoons.  It’s not just because she’s from California; lots of political office holders are from California.  It’s not because of her age, or her clothes, or the fact that she’s a devout Catholic; other officials share those qualities, too.  It’s because she’s smart, and courageous, and strong, and persistent…and because she’s a she.  And especially because she’s very effective.

Nancy Pelosi is, of course, in good company.  Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, Patty Pansing Brooks, the leaders of the suffragist movement, and thousands more over the years….all have been disparaged, not only for their political stances, but for their gender.  And yet….and yet….all persisted, and they have done way more than their part to assure the strength of our democratic institutions.   

Words from an essay written by Clarissa Pinkolo Estes have been shared by Patty Pansing Brooks several times.  “One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul…. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these -- to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.”  I remember the first time I heard Patty quote these lines….and I think of them every time brave women stand up and step forward, knowing they will be attacked for who they are, but they do it anyway, and they give strength to others in doing so.  

A few days ago, Speaker Pelosi announced she would step down from the leadership position of the Democratic caucus.  She did so with grace and class, noting that the beauty of the U.S. Capitol is because of what it represents…the work of a democracy, the work of the American people.  She named those who had been beside her all the way, including her family.  She celebrated the increase in the number of women in the Democratic caucus from when she was first elected to Congress 35 years ago, from 12 to 90.  A seven-fold increase in a little more than a generation, cause for celebration.  And quoting from the Book of Ecclesiastes, she said that there’s a time for everything…and it’s time for a new generation of leaders to step up.  And so they will.

She has persisted, she has led, she has paved the way for others.  It seems she has, for the most part, been able to ignore the mean girls, and the mean boys.  (Except for the hateful and mean-spirited comments about her husband, who was assaulted in their San Francisco home just before the election.  The pain of those remarks was visible…and those remarks were quite simply inexcusable.) She will continue to serve as a member of the House, and she will be a source of wisdom and strength for others. 

This has been a hard election, and while there are many individual races that did not have the outcome for which I had so hoped, the overall outcome at the federal level was far better than I anticipated.  Still, there are rocky roads ahead, but they are roads that we navigate in a democracy.  Before we enter the next session of Congress, I say with full gratitude, thank you, Madame Speaker.  

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