For many, 2021 was without a doubt a chaotic and stressful year for most Americans, attempting to navigate through a confusing, and at times, contradicting federal bureaucracy intent on imposing arbitrary and random COVID mandates ‘just because’.
The year began with hopeful anticipation for Democrats who gleefully recaptured the White House away from their arch enemy Donald Trump. They hoped to once again transform America back to international dependency, relying on countries that threaten our economic wellbeing along with undermining our national security interests.
Back in the House Pelosi began 2021 with much fanfare, after securing another term as Speaker, along with a very narrow majority in the Senate and President Biden sitting in the Oval office. The road ahead for Pelosi seemed secure, until it was time for Democrats to actually govern.
Within a matter of week’s political infighting between moderates and progressives exploded into open warfare, exposing for the first time Pelosi’s weakness and inability to control those new members who would simply not “toe-the-line.”
The infighting has gotten so bad that it contributed to longtime Texas Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson’s decision to retire from office.
QUEEN NANCY is losing grip on her throne?https://t.co/UkOrMZXelL
— Allen (@Allen14180738) December 31, 2021
“You begin to question the why when you get to a point where our party is not as together as you’d like it to be, like you’ve experienced,” she said.
Members of the Squad, the far-left wing of the House Democrats, had become the dominant force within the House. The more moderate Democrats took a secondary position through a series of tough negotiations between the two factions attempting to pass the infrastructure bill that had passed the Senate with bipartisan support from both Democrats and Republicans during the summer.
However, the negotiations between the two factions quickly disintegrated after members of the Squad demanded that the bill be held up until the Senate also passed a social spending reconciliation bill.
Infighting between moderates and progressives became a battle of wills, with one side accusing the other of not negotiating in good faith. All this drama while Pelosi attempted to unsuccessfully broker a peace deal between the two warring factions.
“It’s the effing progressives,” a moderate Democrat told Fox News earlier this year, saying progressives were requesting unreasonable things.
The 81-year-old Speaker found herself in a no-win position, shifting alliances from one faction back to the other, accomplishing nothing more than eroding her own credibility within the process.
Freshman lawmaker Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., an outspoken member of the Squad, told BuzzFeed last month that the Democrats’ “old ways of thinking” are holding them back and that she doesn’t wear the same glasses that Pelosi wears.
“For me, I’m not a woman first, I’m Black first. I don’t care about party lines the way that she does. I don’t care about looking like I’m leading, or care about being the one that is staying within — like, just playing the game.” https://t.co/GC9313wwmH
— Ryan Brooks (@ryanbrooks) November 24, 2021
“For me, I’m not a woman first, I’m Black first. I don’t care about party lines the way that she does,” Bush said. “I don’t care about looking like I’m leading, or care about being the one that is staying within, like, just playing the game.”
To make matters even more tentative for Pelosi’s chances of retaining the House. A recent Gallup poll taken earlier in the month shows the Speakers approval rating at just 40%, which is 3-points below “sleepy” Joe, and astoundingly 4-points below VP Harris. Among Independent voters her rating is even lower at 38%.
Couple that with Democrats retiring in record number before the 2022 midterm election in November, along with predictions of a red wave, and Pelosi’s chances of keeping her position in the House, diminishes greatly.
