"Pelosi leaves behind a party addicted to performance and a nation more cynical than ever."
"Nancy Pelosi’s farewell was less a retirement than an encore — one final pirouette in the long, exhausting pageant of American power. For nearly forty years, she ruled Washington like a monarch in pearls and Prada. A mistress of manipulation whose smile stretched wider than the chasm between her sermons and her sins. When Barack Obama gushed that she was “one of the best speakers the House has ever had,” he wasn’t lying. Pelosi could speak. She could sermonize, sanctify, and spin with unmatched flair. What she never managed was to see beyond herself.
"Her gift was never governance; it was performance in its purest form. Pelosi turned morality into marketing, and the House into her own Broadway stage. The taxpayer was merely her patron. When she wasn’t preaching unity, she was kneeling in a Kente cloth beside Chuck Schumer, a tableau so contrived it made Hollywood blush. The moment was hailed as courage by the credulous and as comedy by everyone else. Yet it defined her perfectly: the politics of pose over purpose, where conviction is cosmetic and every crisis demands a wardrobe change.
"Behind the podium, she preached compassion; behind closed doors, she perfected profit. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, traded stocks with timing so immaculate it bordered on clairvoyance. From Tesla to tech IPOs, the Pelosi portfolio outperformed the market like divine revelation. Any other citizen might have faced indictment; Pelosi faced applause. “We’re a free-market economy,” she quipped once, flashing that lacquered smile. Indeed — and few have freeloaded on freedom with such finesse.
"In Washington, she ruled not by charm but by fear, flattery, and an inexhaustible supply of donor cash. Committee seats became favors; loyalty, currency. To her admirers, she was Saint Nancy, defender of democracy. To her detractors, Machiavelli in Manolo heels. Both descriptions fit. She was relentless, calculating, and convinced that virtue, like diamonds, mattered only when it caught the light.
. . . "Pelosi learned early that outrage paid better than compromise. Every cultural wound became a weapon — every tragedy, a means to tighten her grip. When George Floyd’s death convulsed the nation, she moved quickly, not toward compassion but control. She spoke of justice while supporting policies that gutted police forces and left the poorest neighborhoods to fend for themselves. Businesses burned, families fled, and those meant to be helped were hurt most. Yet the fury persisted, because it served its purpose. Pelosi understood what few dared admit: outrage could be organized, monetized, and endlessly recycled. The country didn’t need healing — not when division had become the Democrats’ most dependable currency." . . . More...
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