U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
For the past two months, Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has figured out the secret of dealing with Donald Trump: treat him like the toddler that he is. The results have been remarkable. First, on December 11 of last year, Pelosi cleaned Trump’s clock in a televised Oval Office meeting that also included Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a silent Vice President Mike Pence. Pelosi called Trump’s threatened government shutdown the “Trump Shutdown,” and even dared Trump to ask for a vote in Congress on his desired border wall. The Trump Shutdown label stuck, and angry voters punished Trump and the Republicans for their failure to keep the federal government open despite controlling all of its branches.
Since December, as Pelosi became House Speaker, she has continued to put Trump in his place. Democrats gave away nothing except an agreement to meet, something they have always been willing to do, in order to get Trump and the Republicans to reopen the government. Then, last Tuesday night at Trump’s State of the Union address, Pelosi, sitting in the Speaker’s chair over Trump’s shoulder, seemed to own Trump. The sarcastic applause Pelosi gave Trump at one point (when Trump said “we must reject the politics of revenge”) was even described by comedian Patton Oswalt as a “fu*k you clap,” and by another Twitter user as a “diaper change” moment. On Wednesday, in an interview with Politico, Pelosi then flat out said, “there will not be another shutdown.” Pelosi is known as a Congressional vote counter, and it’s quite possible that she had a good basis not just from the House of Representatives, but from the Senate, to make her confident prediction.
Ironically, Nancy Pelosi’s very effective handling of Donald Trump flips the script on the paradigm of Republicans as the “strict father” and Democrats as the “nurturing parent” when it comes to their behavior, talking points and political views and actions. Under this paradigm, developed by Democratic messaging guru George Lakoff, Republicans like to think that they behave in a personally responsible, “you’re on your own” way, and they like to elect politicians who act as authority figures who enforce conservative morality on everyone else. On the other side, Democrats believe “we’re all in this together,” like to have rational two-way discussions, and strive to make sure everyone’s needs are met.
Now, there’s little doubt that Democrats will continue to be more nurturing in their public policy, for example, in advocating a “Green New Deal” to battle climate change, or “Medicare For All” to provide more affordable healthcare to more people. Likewise, the Republicans will no doubt attempt to continue their cruel “strict father” policies such as environmental destruction to favor oil drilling, and taking away a woman’s right to choose. But when it comes to the treatment of Donald Trump, Speaker Pelosi has found that being the corrective strict parent to Trump’s misbehaving child is exactly the right strategy.
Photo by AFGE, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/tpRXDY
