Want to Impeach Trump? Primary Nancy Pelosi

This is not an attack on Nancy Pelosi. We all honor her history-making career in Congress. We all celebrate her role in engineering the Blue Wave election of 2018. We all cheer her skillful manipulations to thwart Donald Trump’s worst legislative impulses. As a political operative, Nancy Pelosi has few peers. But managing the political organs within the gurgling bowels of Congress is not leading, and right now — specifically on the issue of impeachment — we need our Speaker to lead.

With the responsibility of not only holding the diverse coalition of Congressional Democrats together but also getting them re-elected, Pelosi has become the poster-pol of slow-rolling impeachment — if not blocking it outright. We have heard her arguments, and they may be right or they may be wrong, but we should not assume they reflect her personal opinions, nor even her own best political interests.

She holds this anti-impeachment stance because the majority of Americans do not support impeachment, and the majority of her cohort — especially those in swing districts — are scared to death of how impeachment may negatively affect their prospects in the general election of 2020.

One politician who definitely does NOT need to worry about reelection? Nancy Pelosi. As the Representative of California’s 12th District, located entirely within the city of San Francisco, she garnered almost 87% of the vote against her Republican opponent in 2018. She could go all in for impeachment. She could legally change her name to Nancy “Impeach Trump” Pelosi. She could mount a steed and drag Trump’s burning effigy through the streets with a noose. NO ONE is going to defeat her in 2020 in this bluest of blue districts because she is too hard on Trump.

But what if somebody primaried her for being too soft on Trump? What if some pro-impeachment firebrand took a page from the AOC playbook and challenged Pelosi from the left?

Pelosi looks — and may well be — invincible. But what if a charismatic candidate announced a primary challenge laser-focused on the issue of impeachment? How fast would that 86% majority start to dwindle, and how far could Pelosi comfortably allow it to drop before she had to make a change? Would she take notice at 76%? Would she get nervous as 66%? Even at 56%, she would still coast to a 12-point margin of victory, but no politician on earth could withstand that kind of negative swing in their numbers without major panic setting in.

And if that challenge were announced right now, while she is at home on recess, she wouldn’t have to wait for poll numbers to get the message — she would hear it in real time, directly from her constituents.

In a sense, Pelosi is taking an unselfish stance by opposing impeachment. She is doing it for those who may not be as secure in their seats as she. But it’s easy for a politician to be unselfish when she sits on an unassailable throne. A strong primary challenge would give that throne a wobble, and it might get her to see more clearly how moving on impeachment would align favorably with her own fortunes.

Again, this is not about ousting Nancy Pelosi. Nor should anyone wish to make the Democratic Party a mirror image of the insane purity politics that have unhinged the Republicans. This is just about sending a message. Many are looking at the success of the protests in Puerto Rico and advocating that citizens should mount a similar effort in the States. Yes, we should do that, and it would definitely get her attention. But if one really wants to get a politician’s attention, nothing does it quicker than threatening her job.

@ikeandmikeblog

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