I’ve never been a joiner.\u00a0 I don’t much like being labeled, and if any political philosophy suits me, it’s that of Ralph Waldo Emerson:<\/p>\n
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” he wrote, “adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”<\/p>\n
But one “ism” that I have long espoused — despite its occasional detours into academic tomfoolery — is feminism.<\/p>\n
I’m convinced that the liberation and empowerment of women in American society is one of the truly novel and extraordinary things that sets us apart, and defines our greatness.<\/p>\n
The rise of women into positions of independence and influence has made us a better, more equal and just society.\u00a0 It’s also made us more prosperous.<\/p>\n
It is also, remarkably, one of the things we all generally agree upon.\u00a0 A century ago, women couldn’t vote.\u00a0 Their legal rights were curtailed. They were barred from many professions.<\/p>\n
Now, there is a substantial unity around the idea that women are and should be treated as equals.<\/p>\n
That’s not to say that women receive the same pay for the same work, or share equal power with men.\u00a0 But those things are coming.\u00a0 Indeed, among young men and women, it’s the guys who appear to be falling behind.<\/p>\n
I say all this as a preamble to the awkward debate over the future of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n
Pelosi rose to the highest political position a woman has ever achieved in America.\u00a0 In that role, she pushed through historic legislation, the healthcare bill and the first serious effort to confront climate change.<\/p>\n
She also presided over the most scandal-free Congress in recent memory.\u00a0 (Yes, there was some garden variety misbehavior, but nothing to compare with Abramoff-era corruption.)<\/p>\n
Her personal conduct, when contrasted with that of, say, Newt Gingrich, was exemplary.<\/p>\n
In the end, I’m convinced that much of the backlash that she faced was because of her gender.<\/p>\n
Here in the North Counry, the tea party movement liked to portray her in bridal dress and gown, as the spouse of Democratic Rep. Bill Owens.<\/p>\n
Conservatives like to caricature her as a pinch-faced harridan, a wicked witch from San Francisco, from the part of America that’s not “real.”<\/p>\n
But the other truth about Nancy Pelosi is that she is a brittle and awkward personality, at least in public, with almost no capacity to connect with the American people.<\/p>\n
There was a time when House Speakers (or minority leaders, for that matter) could get away with her kind of stiffness.\u00a0 They were backroom dealers, fixers, and legislative architects.\u00a0 But no more.<\/p>\n
We live in an age of 24\/7 cable, of intimate chat shows.<\/p>\n
When John Boehner, the new Republican speaker, starts weeping on election night, talking passionately about his working class childhood, it goes viral.\u00a0 It lifts his party.<\/p>\n
I understand that women still face hurdles and very serious double-standards on this front.\u00a0 How would we react if Pelosi started weeping?\u00a0 Not very well, I imagine.<\/p>\n
But in the end, Pelosi’s deficits as a communicator, as someone incapable of voicing the vision and passion of her party, go beyond gender.<\/p>\n
In his speech Tuesday night, Boehner laid out a sweeping portrait of a better America.\u00a0 The goals are clear, even if the policy ideas and the budget math remain pretty fuzzy.<\/p>\n
I can’t remember a single moment from Pelosi’s four-year tenure when she offered the same, Shining City on the Hill, aspirational view of America’s future.<\/p>\n
I can’t remember a single moment during the darkest days of the recession when Pelosi seemed to be connecting personally and viscerally with the suffering of the people she helped to govern.<\/p>\n
The truth is that Pelosi has earned her place in our history books, as a pioneering woman and a pioneering lawmaker.<\/p>\n
But it’s hard to see her as the right leader for a Democratic Party that desperately needs to find some heart and soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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