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Progressives Won't Be Happy With Nancy Pelosi


Incoming House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks on Capitol Hill, Dec. 6.

Incoming House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks on Capitol Hill, Dec. 6.


Photo:

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez arrived on Capitol Hill last month and promptly joined a climate-change sit-in at the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Yet the Democratic Socialist freshman from New York soon endorsed Mrs. Pelosi for speaker. So did the Democratic caucus, by a vote of 203-32.

Don’t be fooled by this show of party unity. Progressives don’t trust Democratic leaders. For evidence, look to a down-ballot leadership race. Hakeem Jeffries of New York defeated Barbara Lee of California for party caucus chairman by a vote of only 123-113. Media reports touted Mr. Jeffries, 48 and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, for his youth and diversity. But progressives don’t place much stock in youth—after all, they supported the septuagenarian Bernie Sanders in 2016. They revere Ms. Lee, 72 and also a CBC member, as a profile in courage for casting the only vote against the 2001 authorization for use of military force against al Qaeda—a position that looks prescient with U.S. troops still bogged down in Afghanistan 17 years later.

“Jeffries is a big money Democrat and a member in good standing of [Gov.] Andrew Cuomo’s New York machine,” the Huffington Post’s Zach Carter complained on

Twitter
.

“There is no way to spin his victory over Barbara Lee as a sign the party is moving in a progressive direction.” Margaret McLaughlin, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, added that “the Democratic Party establishment needs to be primaried into oblivion.” (Mrs. Pelosi later recommended Ms. Lee as a co-chairman of the caucus’s Steering and Policy Committee.)

What do progressives, who account for 72% of Democratic voters in one recent poll, want? They care less about identity politics than policy. As in 2016, they’ll take the old white man who promises a $20 minimum wage and Medicare for all over a centrist woman, or even a disabled LGBT Muslim millennial who offers a mere $15 and a public option. Old lefties like Mr. Sanders and Ms. Lee have kept the faith despite scorn and long years in the wilderness. That counts for a lot.

Ninety percent of Democrats worry “a great deal” or “a fair amount” about climate change. Progressives believe it’s worth sacrificing jobs and living standards to combat this existential threat. Mrs. Pelosi proposes to revive the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which was created in 2007 and dissolved when Republicans took the majority in 2011. “We are already in climate crisis mode on both coasts of this country,” says progressive journalist Valerie Vande Panne. “It’s disturbingly out of touch that her solution to climate change is the resurrection of a committee.”

Mrs. Pelosi wants to reduce prescription-drug prices and shore up ObamaCare, but she won’t try for single-payer. Eighty-five percent of Democrats (and 52% of Republicans) want an up-or-down vote on Medicare for all. To be sure, Democrats can’t legislate while Republicans still control the Senate and White House. But they can articulate an agenda, and progressives want their aggressive wish list to become the platform in 2020.

Leftist Democrats feel vindicated by the midterms. Even in races they lost, progressives like Beto O’Rourke, Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams put in strong performances. There’s a sense among the left that their time has come and that centrism is a road to defeat. “The corporate Democrats have proven they would rather lose to a corporatist like Trump than win with an anticorporatist like Bernie Sanders,” says activist and comedian Lee Camp.

Progressive populists are already demanding that one of their own be allowed to become the nominee in 2020. If not, they may stay home in large enough numbers to hand Donald Trump a victory. If that sounds like an idle threat, remember that it happened in 2016.

Mr. Rall is a political cartoonist and author of “Francis: The People’s Pope,” the latest in his series of graphic novel-format biographies.



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