this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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That's because Congress has been piss-poor at being representative of the people.
It's usually not about who shares the policy positions of the electorate as much as who can scrape together enough money to buy enough ads to convince them that they're the one most likely to beat the other team.
That's how Pelosi became Speaker in the first place in spite of having no legislative accomplishments to speak of nor seniority: she was simply the best at collecting fat checks from rich people and their corporations.
Pelosi had literal decades of political experience, and was co-authoring legislation in the late 80s concerning the AIDs crisis. She became Speaker after Democrats won control of the house with her as minority leader -- a position she won in 2002/2003 after being directly under it for a couple years.
I get not liking Pelosi, or fundraising I guess, but it's bizarre when criticisms are spun seemingly whole cloth.
Yeah, decades of effectively soliciting bribes in exchange for being one of the most pro-corporate democrats in all of California and that's saying a LOT in the neoliberal utopia of Hollywood, a huge chunk of the music industry and Silicon Valley.
So was many other experienced democrats who didn't pander to the rich as effectively as the queen of fundraising.
No matter how little you like admitting it, that WAS the only way in which she excelled over other prospective candidates for minority leader and then Speaker.
So now we're saying she actually did have both signficant political and legislative experience, but won because of a penchant for fundraising. Which is something you see as soliciting bribes. That's a fair interpretation.
From your original comment:
My gripe is why invent this idea that her taking a bunch of bribes and being good at soliciting more is the sole reason they made her speaker, with no other qualifications? She had held prominent positions within the party for a while (decades), and was minority whip (second in command essentially) for some time prior to becoming Leader/Speaker. She was minority leader when Dems took the house, which automatically makes her a major contender for the position and she was comparable to her opponents on the whole. A cursory search of her career casts a ton of doubt on your claims, and they're obviously flawed to someone who lived through that time.
Getting caught up in bashing Pelosi waters down the legit criticism you have, and makes your viewpoint seem biased. We should be upset that her penchant for fundraising is such an asset, not that she was good at it in the first place.
Our "democracy" does this by design. Looking at history, it's hard to believe we can ever fix this.
Yeah I know. All the rules are written and being written by the already rich and powerful. Based on the world's oldest national constitution still in use.
Who would have thought that perpetually basing society on the opinions of a bunch of slave owning WASPs would lead to inequality ‽
And then we're supposed to feel enthused about voting for the candidate who's gracious enough to harm fewer marginalized groups, rather than feeling perpetually depressed and miserable about the whole situation, which seems like a normal reaction.
I wouldn't say it's by design. It hasnt had any updates in quite awhile. It's like a Commodore 64 trying to play Skyrim. When it was designed, the world was much different. We have not updated our government to catch up.