Leadership Crises At Home and Abroad

Some incidents that took place last week make it seem that the future of the leadership of the political parties at home and abroad remains in question.

In a recent interview published in Rolling Stone, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi downplayed the idea of younger voices in her party including Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Seth Moulton (D-MA) calling for younger leadership, describing them as “Inconsequential.  They don’t have a following in our caucus.  None.”  That’s actually not true.  Nearly a third of House Democrats ended up supporting Ryan when he sought to challenge Pelosi for the position of House Minority Leader in 2016; albeit not nearly enough to oust Pelosi. Ryan blasted Pelosi’s remarks as “super judgmental” and “elitist” during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” over the weekend; echoing comments previously made by Chris Matthews.  During an appearance on CNN last year, Don Lemon asked Ryan if he thought Nancy Pelosi was more toxic than Donald Trump.  Ryan responded, “In some areas of the country, yes.”  Areas of the country where Pelosi comes off as toxic apparently include Pennsylvania’s 18^th Congressional District, which President Trump won with more than 60 percent of the vote.  As Democrat Conor Lamb successfully sought to win a special election there earlier this year, he promised to vote against Pelosi as Speaker should the Democrats manage to regain control of the House in November.  Many candidates have decided to follow his lead.  More than twenty Democratic House candidates, all of whom represent districts currently represented by Republicans and/or carried by President Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election, have indicated that they will also vote against the San Francisco socialite for House Speaker.

The 78-year-old Congresswoman has become a gaffe machine, as demonstrated by her repeated referrals to President Trump as “President Bush.”  For this reason, only the Republicans hope to see no changes to the leadership of President Trump’s not-so-loyal opposition party in the House of Representatives.   

Should the Democrats fail to take control of the House of Representatives, Pelosi may have a hard time winning another term as House Minority Leader.  Perhaps keeping that in mind, she has decided to delay leadership elections until after Thanksgiving, hoping that will give her enough time to capture the votes she needs.  Discussion of replacing Pelosi first began following the loss of Jon Ossoff in the special election in Georgia’s 6^th Congressional district.  Ossoff had lots of money thrown his way in addition to the endorsements of a bonanza of Hollywood celebrities but that failed to put him over the finish line in a district that President Trump only carried by a very small margin.  Pelosi’s fundraising skills, which the Democrats repeatedly cite as their justification for continuing to support her as Speaker, mean nothing if the Democrats can’t win elections.

Many in the Democratic base do not approve of Pelosi despite the fact that she agrees with them on nearly all of their far-left positions.  They see her as part of the “old guard” that worked to prevent Bernie Sanders from winning the Democratic nomination in 2016.  Pelosi felt the wrath of a bunch of angry DACA protesters who prevented her from speaking at a town hall event in September.  Keep in mind that Pelosi has served in Congress since before many of those people were even born.  The same goes for all three members of the Democrats’ House Leadership team.  Minority Leader Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, and Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn will all have celebrated their eightieth birthdays by the time the 2020 Presidential election comes around.  The advanced age of the Democrats’ leadership comes across as quite strange for a party that repeatedly declares itself the party of the future.     

The Democrats had assembled a list of possible successors for Pelosi.  The list had included Rep. Joe Crowley, who serves as chair of the House Democratic Caucus.  That plan will obviously not pan out, as Crowley lost his primary to a 28-year-old Democratic Socialist.  As the Democrats bicker about whether or not to give Pelosi a vote of no confidence, Republicans have to assemble a list of possible successors to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has decided not to run for re-election. The list includes Kevin McCarthy, the House Majority Leader, who failed to gain enough support to win the Speakership three years ago when the Previous House Speaker John Boehner resigned.  Rep. Jim Jordan, a member of the Freedom Caucus, has a lot of support among House conservatives but recent allegations that he failed to respond appropriately to abuse from a team doctor during his tenure as an assistant coach of Ohio State University’s Wrestling team could throw a wrench into his plans. Jordan has completely denied the allegations, calling them politically motivated.   

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hopes to get 100 percent of his caucus opposed to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.  It looks like he may have already run into some trouble with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who has to run for re-election this year in a state that President Trump won by a whopping 42 points.  Manchin said Schumer he can “kiss my you know what” when asked if the powerful New York Democrat would have any sway over how he voted on Kavanaugh.  Manchin had praised Kavanaugh, saying “he has all the right qualities.”  Senators Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who had voted for President Trump’s previous Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch, have also indicated their desire to distance themselves from Schumer; although not using nearly as colorful language as their counterpart from West Virginia.   

Splinter published an article titled “Turns Out You Can’t Count on ‘Centrist’ Democrats for a Goddamn Thing,” complaining about Manchin’s remarks. Well, now they know how conservative Republicans feel about the pro-amnesty, pro-abortion, pro-Obamacare Republicans walking the halls of Congress.  Perhaps keeping this in mind, the far left has instead decided to start a campaign to convince two of the Senators meeting that description, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, to vote against Kavanaugh.  Collins has voted for every single Supreme Court justice nominated by both Republicans and Democrats during their tenure in the Senate while Murkowski has voted for every Supreme Court Justice except Elena Kagan.

Despite the fact that a handful of Senators may have no desire to listen to Schumer when it comes to making decisions on how they should vote on President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Schumer does not face the same pressure to step aside as his equivalent in the House.  Unlike Pelosi, who has served as the top Democrat in the House since 2002, Schumer has only had a leadership role since Harry Reid stepped down at the end of the last Congress.  Many thought that he would serve as the protector of Hillary Clinton, his former Senate colleague in New York, should she have managed to win the 2016 Presidential Election.  Ultimately, that did not happen; and Schumer has instead become one of President Trump’s strongest critics. 

As House Democrats at home fight about who they want to lead them and Senate Democrats quarrel about the strategy over the Kavanaugh nomination, President Trump has spent time overseas advancing the “America First” agenda; much to the chagrin of the mainstream media, who describe “America First” as “toxic nationalism” and accuse the President of advancing the agenda of Vladimir Putin by asking NATO countries to pay more for their defense.   He also met with British Prime Minister, who has faced some pushback over her “soft Brexit” strategy.  The UK’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson resigned, citing his disapproval of her “Brexit” strategy, shortly after Brexit Secretary David Davis submitted his resignation.  In an interview with The Sun, which took place before his overseas trip, President Trump expressed some reservations of his own regarding “Soft Brexit,” where the UK would maintain strong ties with the European Union despite officially declaring their independence. The President would have preferred that May gone for a “hard Brexit” but she instead opted for a “soft Brexit,” where the UK would “maintain close ties to the EU.”  President Trump said “I told May how to do Brexit but she didn’t listen to me.  The President had also implied that the “soft Brexit” would put hopes of a bilateral trade deal with the United States in jeopardy, saying “If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the (trade) deal.”

However, during a joint press conference with May on Friday, President Trump described their relationship as “the highest level of special” and seemed open to negotiate a bilateral trade deal with England. This comes across as quite a contrast to the globalist President Obama, who threatened to move England to “the back of the queue” should they decide to vote “leave” in the 2016 EU referendum. 

May seems no more enthusiastic about implementing “Brexit” than President Obama.  After all, she advocated for voting “remain” in the 2016 EU referendum.  A majority of Britons ultimately decided not to take her advice, instead opting to vote “leave.”    May’s lackluster enthusiasm for implementing “Brexit” might explain why she faces the threat of a “no confidence” vote.   It looks like fully embracing Brexit may be the only way for her to regain the confidence of her party.  Appearing on BBC, May said that President Trump “told me I should sue the EU – not go into negotiations.”  President Trump had mentioned that he had given May a “suggestion” during their joint press conference but she saw it as too “brutal.”

 

The long-term leadership of House Republicans, House Democrats and Great Britain ultimately remains uncertain with the midterm elections less than four months away.  Voters on both sides of the aisle (and both sides of the Atlantic) have made it clear they want change; and failure to respond adequately to their desires has lead to crises of leadership at home and abroad.