Why the post-Pelosi Democratic Party seems directionless
Earlier this month, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement after nearly four decades of public service. As Democrats say goodbye to one of their last remaining operatives to actually effectuate change, the party is left directionless.
The extent of Democratic leadership has now been reduced to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Both figures have repeatedly struggled to balance the progressives and the establishment moderates, with the most recent shutdown fiasco serving as a prime example.
'We all need to take a very big dose of humility.'
Onlookers on both sides of the aisle largely agree that the undisciplined messaging and disorganized strategy would never have taken place when Pelosi held the gavel.
With no obvious leader to follow in Pelosi's footsteps, the Democratic Party has become more undisciplined and rudderless than ever before.
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“She's an all-time great speaker because all other tools that speakers had to discipline or motivate legislators were not available to her," said Dheeraj Chand, a Democratic strategist and pollster with Siege Analytics, of Pelosi.
"She has no whip. She has no carrot. All that she has left is persuasive power, and she held that entire group of imbeciles together using nothing but persuasive power," Chand told Blaze News. "No small feat."
The latest instance of intraparty insubordination took place when 23 House Democrats chose to rebuke one of their own. The unusual reprimand came after Democratic Rep. Chuy Garcia of Illinois was censured by nearly all Republicans and several Democrats, with Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington authoring the condemnation.
Garcia, a retiring Democrat, was censured after he set up his chief of staff to be the lone Democrat on the primary ballot to succeed him in his deep-blue district, a move which Gluesenkamp Perez called "election subversion."
"Both parties are finding it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to lead their respective caucuses in the traditional hierarchical manner," Len Foxwell, a Democratic strategist based in Maryland, told Blaze News. "We see the example with Representative Garcia as emblematic of the challenges that Democrats face with breakaway members, and we saw during the attenuated leadership tenure of Kevin McCarthy how virtually impossible it is for establishment Republicans to contain the Freedom Caucus."
"When there's no leader, it's not only that there's no opinion, but there's nobody calling the shots," Chand told Blaze News. "When there's nobody calling the shots, it's hard to feel like you are playing for a team that can protect you."
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In both cases, neither party had a political north star to follow. With former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, President Donald Trump's command of the party slipped away after former President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election. In the case of Democrats today, the party is still on the back foot following the colossal electoral rebuke they endured in November 2024 after Kamala Harris stepped in to replace Biden at the top of the ticket.
Some party moderates still believe that "a lot of Democratic voters didn't come out because they were appalled at the vice president just getting to step in for the president, even though that was her job! Another perceived coronation, from her eyes, is just going to exacerbate the brand problem," Chand suggested.
"Without a leader, every legislator is responding to what they think is the reason for the loss," he told Blaze News.
“The Republican leadership chain is much more vertical and much more linear because the party is still led by Donald Trump," Foxwell told Blaze News. "It is still absolutely Donald Trump's party, and Mike Johnson toes the Donald Trump line, period full stop. It's easy when you have an outsized leader at the top to set the substance, the tone, and the stylistic direction of the party."
"We don't have that, and we haven't had it in more than a decade, even with the four-year interim with Joe Biden," Foxwell added. "He was not what one would consider a strong party leader.”
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The shortcomings of the directionless Democratic Party culminated on November 4, 2024, when Trump swept all seven swing states and secured impressive electoral gains across nearly every demographic.
"Exit polls are something like tabular tarot cards — you see what you want to see in them. They reveal more about you than they do the world," Chand told Blaze News. "It's unreasonable to rely on them too much, but post-election surveys are very, very revealing. This kind of loss is a catastrophe that is decades in the making. It's bigger than one candidate in 100 days or one term. We lost share with everyone except affluent white people. That's a Reagan-level defeat [over Walter Mondale], for similar reasons."
"Right now our party is in the midst of one of its periodic transitions in which the establishment wing is in a battle for primacy with its progressive insurgent wing. It's taking on philosophical overtones, but also generational ones," Foxwell told Blaze News. "It's not just that the old-school leadership represented by Pelosi was perhaps philosophically out of sync with some of these younger, more progressive insurgents, but she also came from a different generation."
While Republicans comfortably dominate the political landscape, Democrats are trying to find their own identity. New York progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani have emerged as rising stars in their party and as a rebuke to establishment figures like Schumer and even Pelosi. Other figures, like Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and even failed candidate Kamala Harris, seem to be scoping out the competition.
Even with a range of politicians to choose from, the first step Democrats need to take is zoom out and understand their electoral failures.
"Nobody sees this coming," Chand told Blaze News. "I think we're going to lose until we win. And when people figure out what it takes, we will win. I think we all need to take a very big dose of humility."
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New head of US Catholic Bishops said he would deny communion to pro-abortion politicians
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley is not in favor of giving politicians preferential treatment.
Coakley, archbishop of Oklahoma City, was elected as the next president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a secret ballot on Tuesday and will serve a three-year term as president.
'I think in many cases it becomes the right decision and the only choice.'
Coakley has set a strong precedent for supporting the denial of communion to certain politicians that dates back more than a decade.
Most recently, in 2022, Coakley spoke in support of Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone of San Francisco. As reported by Life News, Cordileone decided to withhold communion from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the time after she backed the Democrats as they blocked a vote on a bill to stop infanticide at least 80 times.
As Pelosi's district encompasses San Francisco, Cordileone informed Pelosi she would be denied communion following her repeated dismissal of the archbishop, who attempted to speak with her about supporting "grave evil."
Coakley supported the decision, saying, "I applaud the courage of Archbishop Cordileone and his leadership in taking this difficult step. Let us continue to pray for Abp. Cordileone, priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Speaker Pelosi, for the protection of the unborn, and for the conversion of hearts and minds."
The new USCCB president has remained consistent, and the proof is showcased in an interview he gave in 2014.
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After Coakley said that many Catholic politicians have been at the forefront of "fostering so-called abortion rights," he was asked about denying them communion due to the "severity" of their support for abortion.
Coakley replied, "I think one has to determine yet at what point it can be determined that they have come to that state of obstinate refusal to desist from that condition of manifest, grave sin."
He told Life Site News, "I think we have an obligation as bishops, as pastors, to try to work with them to bring them to a change of heart and refusing them communion would be, not the first, but more than likely, the last stage in a serious [sic] of steps."
The outlet then clarified, asking if it was something he would rule out or not.
"Oh, absolutely not," Coakley reiterated. "I think it is something that Canon Law sanctions and that I think many bishops find themselves with no other choice but to make that decision. I think in many cases it becomes the right decision and the only choice."
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Upon accepting his new role, Coakley wrote a statement on X about being "put out into deep waters" in his new position.
"Once again, the Lord is inviting me," he wrote. "Please pray that I may be a faithful steward and a wise servant of unity and communion with our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and with my brother bishops."
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Trump calls Pelosi an ‘evil woman’ — but Marjorie Taylor Greene showers her with praise
President Donald Trump on Thursday called former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an "evil woman" when asked to comment on her retirement announcement.
"I'm glad she's retiring," Trump said as he took reporter questions in the Oval Office.
"I think she did the country a great service by retiring," he continued. "I think she was a tremendous liability for the country. I thought she was an evil woman who did a poor job, who cost the country a lot in damages and in reputation. I thought she was terrible."
However, not all conservatives gave Pelosi the same exit treatment.
“I will praise Nancy Pelosi. She had an incredible career for her party. I served under her speakership in my first term of Congress, and I’m very impressed at her ability to get things done. I wish we could get things done for our party like Nancy Pelosi was able to deliver for her party,” Marjorie Taylor Greene shockingly said in an interview on CNN.
“She was on ‘The View’ the other day too,” BlazeTV co-host Jeff Fisher says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.” “Yeah, she’s been making the rounds."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on social media that the reason why MTG has changed her tune on opposition like Pelosi is because Trump told her she could not be the Republican nominee for Georgia Senate.
“She was gearing up for that statewide race, and Trump told her no,” AOC said in the social media video post. “The White House and Trump-land shut down Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal ambitions to run for Senate, and she has been on a revenge tour ever since.”
“So we’re believing AOC on this,” “Pat Gray Unleashed” executive producer Keith Malinak comments.
“I mean, it adds up,” host Pat Gray says. “That definitely checks out.”
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Nancy Pelosi announces retirement after nearly 4 decades in Congress
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that she will not seek re-election after nearly four decades serving in Congress.
Pelosi was first elected to the House in 1987 to represent California and eventually became the first female speaker of the House. Pelosi served as speaker from 2007 to 2011 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and again from 2019 to 2023 under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
A successor has not been named.
"For decades, I've cherished the privilege of representing our magnificent city in the United States Congress," Pelosi said in a video posted on X.
"That is why I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know," Pelosi said. "I will not be seeking re-election to Congress."
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Although she has announced she will step aside after this term, a successor has not been named to run to represent California's 11th District.
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"With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative," Pelosi said.
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The left’s vile rhetoric just keeps getting darker
Democrats are learning all the wrong lessons from where their vile rhetoric has gotten them — and Nancy Pelosi’s latest outburst is only the latest proof.
In a recent CNN interview, Pelosi called Donald Trump “a vile creature” and “the worst thing on the face of the earth," before backing up her claim with virtually nothing.
“He’s just a vile creature. The worst thing on the face of the earth, but anyway,” Pelosi told the interviewer.
“You think he’s the worst thing on the face of the earth?” the interviewer asked.
“Yeah, I do, because he’s the president of the United States, and he does not honor the Constitution of the United States,” Pelosi replied.
“Really, Nancy? You couldn’t think of one single solitary thing that’s worse than a president who believes in things like freedom and liberty, and, you know, smaller government and lower taxes? That’s really the worst thing in the world to you?” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales responds on "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered."
“These people are so incredible in their myopic thinking. I really wonder how they’re going to cope when Donald Trump is out of politics,” she adds.
Pelosi’s assertion that Donald Trump is “the worst thing on the face of the earth” is the kind of rhetoric that has led many Democrats to speak similarly to any Republican voter or official, as is evidenced in one recent case out of Montana.
After voting for Trump’s big, beautiful bill, freshman Senator of Montana Tim Sheehy (R) received an alarming voicemail from Haley McKnight, a woman running for the Helena city commission.
“I just wanted to let you know that you are the most insufferable kind of coward and thief. You just stripped away health care for 17 million Americans. And I hope you’re really proud of that. I hope that one day you get pancreatic cancer and it spreads throughout your body so fast that they can’t even treat you for it,” McKnight said in the warm, friendly voicemail.
“I hope that you die in the street like a dog. One day, you’re going to live to regret this. I hope that your children never forgive you. I hope that you are infertile. I hope you never manage to get a boner ever again. You are the worst piece of s**t I’ve ever, ever, ever had the misfortune of looking at, and you don’t serve Montanans. You serve your own private interests,” she continued.
“God forbid that you ever meet me on the streets, because I will make you regret it. F**k you. I hope you die,” she added, for good measure.
Apparently, McKnight doubled down when asked about the voicemail, calling it justifiable rage.
“Did she have this all mapped out on a piece of paper, or did she just fly in there blind?” Gonzales asks, shocked.
“This woman is running for office,” she adds.
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