{"id":10672,"date":"2018-12-21T11:42:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T19:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=10672"},"modified":"2018-12-21T11:42:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T19:42:34","slug":"nancy-pelosi-represents-house-democrats-but-san-francisco-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/12\/21\/nancy-pelosi-represents-house-democrats-but-san-francisco-not-so-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Pelosi Represents House Democrats, but San Francisco? Not So Much"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"field-wrapper-attribution\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-article-date field--type-datestamp field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\"><span class=\"pb-timestamp\"><span class=\"date-display-single\">December 21, 2018\u00a0<\/span><\/span>by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Common Dreams<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-subtitle field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div>\n<h4>Pelosi\u2019s response to President Trump\u2019s recently announced intention to withdraw American troops from Syria is just the latest instance of the House Democrats\u2019 leader taking a foreign policy stance out of sync with the expressed views of her base<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"field-wrapper-authors\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix inline-fields\">\n<div class=\"grouping-prefix\">by\u00a0<span class=\"pb-byline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/tom-gallagher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tom Gallagher<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"shr_canvas2\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app-id=\"6840209\" data-app-id-name=\"views_article_above_content\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"Nancy Pelosi Represents House Democrats, but San Francisco? Not So Much\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/views\/2018\/12\/21\/nancy-pelosi-represents-house-democrats-san-francisco-not-so-much\" data-summary=\"\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope shareaholic-share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui shareaholic-no-print shareaholic-flat shareaholic- shareaholic-block shareaholic-horizontal  shareaholic-mini\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-animation-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading shareaholic-custom\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading-text ng-binding\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-button-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-article-img field--type-image field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"caption-processed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/cd_large\/public\/views-article\/nancy.png?itok=Ry0AcuNK\" alt=\"Ever since Pelosi entered the congressional leadership of her party, the nature of the representation she offers has been an ambiguous thing. (Photo: Zach Gibson\/Getty Images)\" width=\"955\" height=\"500\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-main-caption field--type-text-long field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p><em>Ever since Pelosi entered the congressional leadership of her party, the nature of the representation she offers has been an ambiguous thing. (Photo: Zach Gibson\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<div>\n<p>Who does Nancy Pelosi represent? The Democratic members of the House of Representatives or the people of San Francisco? New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently voiced the opinion that Pelosi appeared to be the most progressive choice available to lead House Democrats in the upcoming congressional term when the party\u2019s leader will presumably assume the position of Speaker of the House \u2013 or re-assume it, in the case of Pelosi. And since no challenger to Pelosi ever actually emerged, it\u2019s hard to fault Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s assessment. On the other hand, Pelosi\u2019s response to President Trump\u2019s recently announced intention to withdraw American troops from Syria is just the latest instance of the House Democrats\u2019 leader taking a foreign policy stance out of sync with the expressed views of her base.<\/p>\n<p>Taking issue with Trump\u2019s claim that U.S. military goals had been achieved, Pelosi\u2019s official statement argued that \u201cIt is premature for the President to declare a sweeping victory against ISIS when, just a few weeks ago, our military led more than 250 coalition-conducted airstrikes against targets in Iraq and Syria.\u201d While time will tell whose military assessment is the more accurate, we should not miss the point that Pelosi apparently considers those \u201c250 coalition-conducted airstrikes\u201d to be something she stands behind, or at the least considers an acceptable activity. Apparently perceiving no problem concerning the legal basis for this intervention, she concludes by declaring that \u201cThe American people deserve a smart, strong and strategic Syria policy that keeps America safe, protects our interests and advances peace in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"pullquote\">Pelosi has cast some good foreign policy votes and some bad ones, but has in no way adhered to the antiwar profile set by the groups she supposedly answers to.<\/p>\n<p>It just so happens that the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee has weighed in with its take on what might constitute \u201ca smart, strong and strategic Syria policy\u201d in a April 26, 2017 resolution that called upon Pelosi and the city\u2019s other congressional representative, Jackie Speier, to cosponsor Oakland Representative Barbara Lee&#8217;s HR 1473, \u201cThe Prohibit Expansion of Combat Troops Into Syria Act,\u201d which aimed to limit any future Syrian deployment of troops or military contractors to &#8220;rescuing or protecting members of the United States Armed Forces from imminent danger.&#8221; At a point when there were approximately 900 American troops already in Syria, the Central Committee, which is the official voice of the city\u2019s Democratic Party, declared that &#8220;the route to peace and national security does not lie in undertaking \u2018just one more invasion.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No such co-sponsorship was forthcoming. Nor was this the first time that Pelosi would be unmoved by the expressed will of her base: In November, 2008, 60 percent of the city\u2019s voters backed a ballot question specifically declaring it city policy that its &#8220;elected representatives in the United States Senate and House of Representatives should vote against any further funding for the deployment of United States Armed Forces in Iraq, with the exception of funds specifically earmarked to provide for their safe and orderly withdrawal.&#8221; Nor would it be the last: At their most recent convention, in February of this year, the California Democratic Party adopted a platform advocating \u201cending air strikes in Afghanistan, &#8230; a timetable for the withdrawal of all American military forces and military contractors\u201d and opposing \u201cfurther appropriations for such operations,\u201d with the usual caveat of \u201cthose necessary for safe and orderly withdrawal of our troops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over this period, Pelosi has cast some good foreign policy votes and some bad ones, but has in no way adhered to the antiwar profile set by the groups she supposedly answers to. Indeed in the most recent budget debate earlier this year, she declared that \u201cIn our negotiations, Congressional Democrats have been fighting for increases in funding for defense.\u201d This despite the well known fact that this country\u2019s military expenditures were already the size of the combined total of the next seven largest national military budgets \u2013 while the streets of her city were teeming with encampments of the homeless.<\/p>\n<p>Ever since Pelosi entered the congressional leadership of her party, the nature of the representation she offers has been an ambiguous thing. Does she answer primarily to the House Democratic Caucus? If so, as noted above, she may be considered to be doing a reasonable job, there being many Democrats more progressive than her and many less. But at least as far as foreign policy matters go, although there may be many districts where a representative with her voting profile might be considered progressive in comparison to that of a likely Republican alternative \u2013 districts in, say, Nebraska or maybe even Orange County, California \u2013 the record would seem to show that her San Francisco district is not one of them. So far as military interventions go, we surely don\u2019t appear to be the constituency that matters to her.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"field-wrapper-copyright-cond\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-copyright field--type-text field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\"><em>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 21, 2018\u00a0by Common Dreams Pelosi\u2019s response to President Trump\u2019s recently announced intention to withdraw American troops from Syria is just the latest instance of the House Democrats\u2019 leader taking a foreign policy stance out of sync with the expressed views of her base by\u00a0Tom Gallagher Ever since Pelosi entered&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/12\/21\/nancy-pelosi-represents-house-democrats-but-san-francisco-not-so-much\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10673,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10672\/revisions\/10673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}