Pelosi’s Job in Peril, Democratic Base Fed Up over Condescending Liberals Who Show Them Contempt

Nov. 17, 2020 (EIRNS)—Nancy Pelosi is not guaranteed another stint as House Speaker, as she is seen as representing the East and West Coast liberal elites who have shown nothing but disdain for the concerns of Democrats in other parts of the country. Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, representing Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, has announced she will not vote for Pelosi, Politico magazine reported Nov. 13. “I believe we need new leadership,” she told Politico in a lengthy feature. “I would love to see more Midwesterners, because if you look across the leadership. ... I respect these people, but it’s New York and California.” Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, observed that Donald Trump won in her district and that she won reelection by only 4%—far less than had been projected.

There is no love lost between Slotkin and President Trump. But, she remarked to Politico,

“You know, the one thing I will say about Donald Trump. He doesn’t talk down to anybody. ... And I think that there is a certain voter out there because of that who identifies with him and appreciates him.... It’s not just that he does things that the common man can kind of appreciate. And it’s not even because he uses kind of simplistic language—he doesn’t use complicated, wonky language, the way a lot of Democrats do. We sometimes make people feel like they aren’t conscientious enough. They aren’t thoughtful enough. They aren’t ‘woke’ enough. They aren’t smart enough or educated enough to just understand what’s good for them.”

Slotkin emphasized that the elites talking down to people, is “alienating them. And there’s just certain voters who feel so distant from the political process—it’s not their life, it’s not their world. They hate it. They don’t like all that politics stuff. Trump speaks to them, because he includes them.” Politico added its own “uncomfortable truth” for Democrats that Trump won sizable Black and Hispanic votes, writing: “There are millions of voters—working-class whites and working-class minorities—whose stances on social controversies put them out of touch with the Democratic Party.” Although Slotkin sidestepped the central issue of the economy which drives the anti-Establishment sentiment in these layers, she warned that if the Democratic Party doesn’t change, doesn’t abandon its “political correctness” stance, it will continue to lose people who once supported it.