As one might imagine, it easy for a conservative living in the San Francisco Bay Area to find events from which to draw inspiration for discussion. On Wednesday, soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi provided yet another such incident, as she echoed President Obama’s post-election lament. Unmoved by the obvious sentiment conveyed by the American people to an out-of-touch Washington, Pelosi chooses to continue pursuing the politics of delusion.
In her opinion piece in yesterday’s USA Today, Pelosi extols the virtues and accomplishments of the Democrat-controlled 111th Congress, over which she presided. She proclaims the Congress as “job creators from Day One, saving the country from the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression. The Recovery Act created or saved more than 3 million jobs…” Really? Has the speaker overlooked the 2 million jobs lost since the Obama/Pelosi stimulus bill was signed? I suspect the American people have not.
Pelosi goes on to celebrate her stewardship over a Democratic body of legislators committed to “restoring fiscal discipline to the Congress…” Fiscal discipline? Was she referring to the United States Congress? Perhaps she simply overlooked the record budget deficits of the past two years. Perhaps massive budget deficits far in excess of $1 trillion are considered fiscal restraint in some quarters. I suspect most Americans would disagree.
Although her apologists may forgive her for waxing lyrically, it is doubtful that the broader American electorate will.
Pelosi’s comments come one week after similar remarks offered by President Obama following Democrats’ historic defeat in last week’s midterm elections. Obama referred to it as a “shellacking,” but submitted that the massive congressional losses his party suffered were not a repudiation of Democrats’ priorities and far-left agenda but instead a misunderstanding of what his administration was attempting to do for the American people.
President Obama responded to a reporter’s question by stating, “But what is absolutely true is that with all that stuff coming at folks fast and furious — a recovery package, what we had to do with respect to the banks, what we had to do with respect to the auto companies — I think people started looking at all this and it felt as if government was getting much more intrusive into people’s lives than they were accustomed to.”
Obama continued by expressing understanding for those who may have objected to his agenda, stating “I’m sympathetic to folks who looked at it and said this is looking like potential overreach.”
Potential overreach? The American people considered Obamacare, the stimulus package, and the massive auto bailouts as more than merely potential overreach.
President Obama and Speaker Pelosi have done both themselves and their party a disservice by failing to acknowledge the underlying current of dissatisfaction that marked the recent midterm elections. The American people spoke loud and clear last week when they overwhelmingly rejected the Obama/Pelosi agenda.
The politics of delusion may fly in liberal enclaves like San Francisco, but it doesn’t resonate across the rest of the country. The Democratic leadership should have realized that last Tuesday. Apparently it has not.
Scott G. Erickson is an advocate of conservative, principled solutions to the issues facing America. He has worked to advance conservative priorities through coalition building and is an active participant in myriad organizations seeking to restore the foundational principles of America. A committed public servant, he has worked in the field of law enforcement for the past decade and holds both his B.S. and M.S. in Criminal Justice Studies. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.