Nancy Pelosi: A cornerstone for American democracy in a highly polarized Congress

It is expected that he will leave office after the ‘midterm’ to facilitate the renewal of the party’s leadership

MADRID, 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Nancy Pelosi has stood as a beacon for Democrats at a tumultuous time in American history. The president of the House of Representatives, uncomfortable for some Republicans who seek to gain control of Congress, has known how to defend democracy before a strongly divided Capitol.

The one that is for many a ‘rare bird’ of US politics agreed in 2018 to lead the Democrats in the Lower House of Congress for the second and last time, especially if the Republicans take control of the chamber in the ‘midterm’ this Tuesday, the well-known mid-term elections that serve as a consultation on the level of approval of the country’s president.

Pelosi, 82, represents the old Democratic guard, politicians in danger of extinction who have their sights set on making way for new generations to clean up and renew the leadership of the party to adapt to the new challenges of US domestic politics.

Although the Democrats maintain certain expectations for the elections, the majority of the congressmen of the formation point to an increase in pressure on Pelosi – who was also the leader of the Democratic minority on two occasions – to finally leave office. regardless of the results.

Training sources already indicated in early September that the race to succeed her had begun: the meeting between Jim Clyburn, in charge of party discipline, and the representative for the state of South Carolina Hakeem Jeffries would have served as a trigger.

Despite the fact that the high officials of the formation have treated the matter with discretion in an attempt to show respect towards Pelosi herself, the commotion has been spreading as some congressmen express behind closed doors their desire to replace her.

In this sense, it is Jeffries himself who appears as the main favorite to pick up the baton before a legacy that dates back to 2003, when Pelosi went on to lead the Democrats in the House of Representatives and became the first woman to lead a party in Congress.

However, the name of the woman with the most institutional political power in the country’s history has acquired new relevance in recent years, especially under the administration of now former President Donald Trump. Since then, she has become something of a guru for American politics, a role that has also earned her numerous critics and enemies from the right.

On January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Congress, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to stop the assault from within. During almost four hours of growing tension, both warned of the danger that the situation posed for the staff and officials who were inside the building, while pointing to the outgoing president as the main “instigator”.

Pelosi herself later promoted the opening of a parliamentary investigation to clarify what happened that day, when Trump himself advocated blocking the ratification of the presidential votes that gave victory to Joe Biden.

Before the ‘midterm’, which will allow the entire Lower House of Congress and a third of the seats in the Senate to be renewed, the commission advocates having Trump testify under oath after being accused of “conspiring” to reverse the electoral results.

It was Pelosi herself who threatened a second ‘impeachment’ after the assault two years after the chamber activated the same process against the billionaire for his pressure on Ukraine to investigate Biden’s son, Hunter.

According to the investigators, Trump wanted the Ukrainian authorities to investigate the former Democratic candidate and his son for alleged corruption in their businesses in Ukraine.

However, after the assault on Capitol Hill, it was Pelosi herself who again called for the opening of an impeachment process if the then Vice President, Mike Pence, did not invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to remove him from the White House.

Pelosi’s activities raised controversy again in September as a result of her visit to Taiwan with a delegation of high-ranking American officials, an issue that provoked harsh criticism from the Chinese government.

Democratic politics has defended the trip tooth and nail and has accused the president of the Asian giant, Xi Jinping, of acting like a “frightened thug” in what appears to have been his last official act as leader of the United States House of Representatives. Joined.

Thus, he once again adopted a forceful political stance alluding to the defense of “democratic values” and accused China of trying to “isolate” Taiwan in a region of growing geostrategic relevance for the United States.

In what was the first visit in 25 years of a president of the US House of Representatives to the island, Pelosi took the opportunity to guarantee the Taiwanese authorities that Washington “will not abandon them” despite the fact that China has increased its military deployment in the vicinity. .

Experts from the United States have warned of the possibility of a new outbreak of political violence ahead of the legislative elections given the clear polarization that the country is suffering and that has recently resulted in the attack suffered by Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Democratic president of the House of Representatives, in his home at the hands of an assailant.

Pelosi had to be admitted after a man hit him on the head with a hammer in an attack that was actually directed at his wife, whom he wanted to “break her knees”, as the attacker stated.

This assault appears as a paradigm and symbol of the threat posed to the country by the violence exercised, especially by members of the extreme right in the face of the elections.

For these experts, there is a cultural and ideological war fueled by the “increasing threat of Christian nationalism”, an identity that “welcomes conspiracy theorists, apocalyptic and members of armed militias” united by the specter of a second civil war in the country .

The attack has also once again put the Capitol Police in the spotlight, whose morale was already touched last year as a result of the assault on Congress. The deputies are now considering the possibility of increasing the funds allocated to this police force to reinforce the defense of the members of the House of Representatives and other politicians of special relevance.

As the Democrats now prepare for a possible defeat in the ‘midterms’, the Biden Administration will have to face a nation more polarized than ever in the presumed absence of Pelosi, who will leave behind a political earthquake in California after 35 years occupying his seat.