Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi

The Way Forward: Advice from Great Women

By Linda Burstyn

Every day seems to bring a fresh blow to our democracy, and with it, a chorus of hand-wringing about who has the wisdom to lead us out of this mess. While legal work is crucial, the public needs a philosophical framework to give us the hope we need to move forward. Who better to provide that than women who’ve already gone to war in the political trenches and emerged victorious?

This series, The Way Forward, is about those conversations. We’ll start with Nancy Pelosi, the great political strategist, Speaker Emerita of the House and current California Representative, who doesn’t mince words about the future—or how she expects us to get there.

HOW DO YOU BEGIN TO THINK ABOUT THIS MOMENT IN US HISTORY?

At the beginning of our country, Thomas Paine wrote that “the times have found us.” Now, the times have found us. It’s no exaggeration that it’s going to take all of us to save our democracy from being paved over by this person who doesn’t care about the Constitution.

HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS?

We have to win the House in this next election. Right before I became Speaker, Harry Reid and I made a plan of how we were going to win the congress, and it worked. We did it by preparing the year before. That’s what we’re doing now.

The goofus in the White House knows he’s going to lose and that’s why he’s cheating in Texas; because he knows that, left to the public’s choice, he’s going to lose. I don’t like midterm redistricting and I think it should be outlawed, but it isn’t. I don’t want to be engaged in this, but if that’s what he’s doing, we have to have self-defense, not unilateral disarmament. We will beat him at his own game and we will win the House. That is essential to saving our democracy.

I go back to Lincoln: “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed..” But for public sentiment to prevail, people have to know what Trump is doing.

People may not care that he’s an insurrectionist and a rapist and a vile creature. They may be okay with that and the fact that he’s harming our democracy. So, we have to go to the kitchen table and to public safety issues and family-oriented issues–and women must lead the way on this because this is our territory. This is our turf.

Now, let me make a complaint about the press. Every time I turned on the TV this summer, reporters were talking about the Big Beautiful Bill. Why use his language? It’s a stinking, lousy, rotten, disgusting, unfair, unjust piece of crap. We have a fight on our hands that’s bigger than just this bozo. He’s put a chilling effect on news and communication, which is not confined to the media.

Why are the scientists not up in arms about what he’s doing with science? Why aren’t the academics up in arms? That’s the chilling effect. Scientists and academics are afraid of losing their jobs. And what about the lawyers? This guy is disregarding the constitution of the US, the Supreme Court is a complete rogue operation, and you’d think the American Bar Association or somebody would raise their voices. You’d think they care about the constitution, right?

HOW DO WE CHANGE THIS?

Winning is the best and biggest antidote; it corrects many other sins he’s trying to put out there and that is what we have to do now and what we fully intend to do. Hakeem Jeffries will be the next Speaker of the House. I have absolutely no doubt about that. We only need three seats—we want thirty, but we only need three to win.

I’m a believer that we must own the ground. Whoever owns the ground wins the election. You can have every ad you want on TV, but if you’re not on the ground knocking on that door or calling or texting, you’re just talking to a narrow group of people. I think women will save the day. In this election, they have the most at risk and most at stake. That’s true in every election but especially this one.

HOW ARE WE PREPARING TO COMBAT FUTURE ELECTION TAMPERING?

There are certain places where we know he’s going to try to change the ballots. With redistricting in Florida and Ohio and places like that. Florida is not to be trusted. They’re completely in sync with him. In order to win, we have to go where we know we’ll get the votes to win. Not spend a hundred million in Texas to come in second.

Trump is a person who breaks the law and dishonors the constitution and violates his oath of office, jeopardizes free and fair elections and gets away with it. Why? Because he’s an excellent snake oil salesman and instiller of fear.

He’s the most vile creature who ever swam out of the swamp since evolution, but we move forward by understanding that elections have ramifications and that we must get out the vote. This is the antidote to many ills and if we don’t win, I fear for our nation. People don’t really believe that our democracy is at stake, I guess. But the fact is, this guy is there to undermine it. He’s following the pattern of autocrats, by the book. Goebbels, the information officer for Hitler, said: Tell a lie over and over and over and over again. Keep telling the lie.

Some of us have to modify our behavior by understanding what is at stake in this election and if it isn’t persuasive enough to say our democracy is at stake, then our messaging has to go to where our elections are usually fought. If what people care about is the price of eggs, let’s talk about the price of eggs.

HOW CAN YOU GIVE PEOPLE HOPE?

I’ll never understand how he could’ve invaded the Capitol, invited an insurrection, caused people to die, violently attacked the police and all of the rest of that, and then changed the narrative of it by saying it was liberals, antifa, or something like that…and that he has yet to pay a price for it. But you know what? It’s not over. It’s far from over. It’s a longer path—and we will win.

We have to be focused on the three M’s: First, mobilization. We have to turn out the vote. Messaging must be disciplined. And we have to create the message from down below and up. And then there’s money. The Republicans will have more than us; but we’ll have enough.

If he insists on going forward with re-redistricting in Texas, we will go forward in California and we will win and neutralize whatever he picks up in Texas. And that will give people hope. That’s what people have to have: hope. We have to realize it’s possible to do this. Every time we’ve won the House in modern times; we’ve won when there was a Republican president.

So, have confidence! Have hope! Know your power; the power of you. It’s an amazing thing when you talk to people and they say: I don’t know…I’m so tired of the whole thing. No! You can’t be tired of the whole thing! You must never tire! You must never tire!

When people ask me: ‘Where is hope?’ It’s where it has always been, sitting comfortably between faith and charity. Faith, hope, charity. You have to believe something can happen and you have to believe in the goodness of enough people to make it happen. Belief in the goodness of our country. That gives us hope.

Linda Burstyn is an Emmy award winning journalist and TV drama writer.