By Andrea Shorter–
My vote for the next selection of Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” goes to Nancy Pelosi.
Thanks to the genius, persistence, discipline and masterful leadership of House Minority Leader Pelosi—and soon again to be Speaker of the House of Representatives—last week’s midterm election gains of 220 plus seats (and still counting) that won back a Democratic majority of the U.S. House of Representatives were nothing less than epic.
President Trump has been dangerously hellbent on dominating all three branches of government, dissolving all democratic norms and institutions, disregarding rule of law to protect his own personal interests to thwart the FBI investigation and its expected damning findings regarding his campaign’s association with a foreign adversary’s interference with the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections, and has frequently engaged in fraudulent and illegal business dealings.
Pelosi’s highly probable and rightful return as Speaker of the House to exact the overdue checks and balances on a wholly imbalanced President will therefore surely cement her place as the most powerful woman in U.S. political history—of any era.
Until we eventually succeed in electing our first female President, Pelosi’s sturdy, strategic leadership will remain one of the most formidable profiles in courage, fortitude and intelligence for decades and generations to come. After all, she might very well have saved our beleaguered, but resilient, republic in one of its darkest hours.
Pelosi, of course, didn’t do it all on her own.
The republic itself took to the ballot box in record numbers. With over 39 million early voters in at least 28 states for a midterm election, up from 27 million in 2014, the cold civil war inflamed by the most purposefully divisive President was battled out for a blue wave referendum on this reddish-orange Presidency at the ballot box. Even with the Senate out of strategic reach for a red to blue flip, taking back the House reigned as supreme priority number one during a strike back against the insanity.
While Madame Speaker’s push for message discipline on the bread and butter issues like healthcare costs, and wages versus fixation on the fiascos of President Trump proved key for candidates poised to take back the House, there was never any denying the fact that once Democrats got a majority foothold to take back the house, dealing with the big elephant in the room, aka Donald Trump, remains an undeniable, unavoidable urgency.
Within 24 hours of an exchange of civil pleasantries, hopes for bipartisanship after a clear Democratic majority win were quickly overshadowed by the forced resignation (firing) of the U.S. Attorney General followed by the President’s swift move of heaven and earth to install his very own anti-investigation loyal devotee public defender as Acting AG in a shameless, bare naked attempt to stop Mueller’s investigation now—as in move fast before Pelosi and her new big bright blue House opens for business in January to deliver subpoenas, protect the investigation and administer other bothersome constitutional rule of law stuff.
Then, within 24 hours of The Don’s gangsta move, legions of the refreshed republic took to city streets in protest of the latest Nixonian constitutional crisis brewed up in this desperate, but cunning, act to obstruct justice to, well, obstruct justice.
In the meantime, before the last of the confetti hit the floors of election night, celebrations of elected or re-elected women, people of color, immigrants, LGBT governors, congressional members, state legislators and local officials across the country, voter suppression tactics in Georgia sought to stifle another long-anticipated, historic midterm win.
A runner-up selection to Pelosi as Person of the Year? Stacey Abrams.
There was another seismic shift of heaven and earth to deny highly qualified Yale Law School Graduate Stacey Abrams’ very possible win as the first Black woman ever elected governor in any state of the union, least of all over deep south peachy keen Georgia.
How in the world can it be that the man overseeing the state’s elections is a candidate for state office while overseeing the election process that determines the winner of the race in which he is running? Really? As worse as obstruction is denying justice to deny justice.
Good for candidate Abrams for standing her embattled ground on the civil rights era blood-soaked long, long road from Jim Crow not to concede until every single hard-fought vote is counted.
As the fight to maintain or prop up older, white suburban and working-class voter majority advantage through gerrymandered congressional districts to brace against an inevitable majority minority representation in the electoral process, voter suppression to clearly disenfranchise, discourage and dismiss communities of color (mostly Black and Brown people) reared its ugly head as the default strategic defense.
Voter suppression cannot be dismissed as just ruthless political maneuver. Voter suppression is an expression of values rooted in maintaining racial division, oppression and dis-empowerment.
I do wish my friend Andrew Gillum had done the same as Abrams in his too close to call bid for governor of Florida instead of at first throwing in the towel. Apparently, there are thousands more uncounted votes out there in Broward County than what was reported earlier, enough margin tightening votes to force into play a state law required automatic recount in the race.
In the context of the historical significance of that race, protecting the brightness of a real rising star on the national stage was an act of political expediency over principle of assuring that every vote was counted. Bowing out gracefully before an apparent loss based on potentially faulty numbers? Come on, now. It’s Florida! Hanging chads ring a bell?
At least Florida voters freed nearly 2 million formerly convicted felons, who paid their debt to society, by restoring their right to vote, making for the brighter moment of the evening from the Sunshine State. With the majority of these renewed voters being people of color, let’s hold fast against further voter suppression tactics to dissuade them from future elections.
Another Person of the Year? #GOTV.
To the record-breaking numbers of voters in this do or die, put up or shut up, most important midterm election of our lifetime, whether we were blue, red, purple, pink, brown or green voters, thank you. Thank you for showing up.
It was ugly, but we showed up. Showing-up to the polls, despite any obstacles, interferences and threat to the right to vote is ultimately what saves the republic. Exercising our constitutional right to vote for whom we want to represent us in our Congress, as state governor, in state houses and all levels of government, is the best demonstration of American democracy.
Democratic action taken for the sake of democratic action is the single most powerful saving grace of our democracy.
Thanks to Pelosi, Abrams, Gillum, the congressional candidates and the voters who showed up to fight for a democracy always worth fighting for. Let’s do it again in 2020.
Andrea Shorter is a Commissioner and the former President of the historic San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women. She is a longtime advocate for criminal and juvenile justice reform, voter rights, and marriage equality. A Co-founder of the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition, she was a 2009 David Bohnett LGBT Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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