She puts up the best fight for Democrats.

Was unlikable and horrid too me.

We need someone with experiential gravitas in that position - she has it. Best part - she will be a constant thorn in Trump’s side.

Well said. [grin]

VERY effective. And a liberal.

In fact, I don't think they really hate her.
They are told to hate her so they push the hate button. But with no reason behind it, it is just sleep walking hatred, if there is such a thing.

It's like so much else the think, feel and do. They are....asleep.

"Sleepers, awake!"

They don't know why they hate her. I remember my Fox-watching sister make some disparaging remark about Pelosi years ago. Later I realized she didn't have a reason, she heard people on Fox make nonspecific derogatory remarks about "liberal Nancy Pelosi" and of course, San Francisco. Well republicans and right-wing media just repeated it over and over again, until people believed they hated her, but with no apparent reason.

Of course, they did the same thing to Hillary Clinton. It is so much easier to demonize women politicians it would seem.

It’s like a knee jerk response to the various imaginary grievances.

though I think for many, they were looking for confirmation of their own misogyny.

S.E. Cupp, "Because you can't trust her." Crickets (end of discussion).

she's from San Francisco and she is used as a symbol of hatred of LGBTQ acceptance in our society.
Her home region is the reason they started on her years ago, long before she became speaker.

and only Rush/RW radio and Fox have the supply of bottles.....

My theory, FWIW....

They wouldn't even be able to pick her out in a line-up.

one of those horrible liberals, who are to blame for everything they don't like. Face it, the
republicans are male centered and they can't stand women having any power. Even the right to say no to men.

If you asked the people who think she's horrible why they dislike her, most of them aren't able to give a coherent answer. Or some, any answer. They think what they're told to think.

democrats cannot collectively say they're getting their reps' backs as long as we continue the idiocy of ignoring talk radio

now limbo leads them attacking election officials in florida - they're creating ballots, they're and there's no response

Let her chew them up and spit them out first. She knows all the tricks ... theirs and ours.

... and see them as one big-ass scary woman! Misogyny anyone?

Women are okay, as long as they don't have any power.

Pelosi is the woman who has achieved the highest rank in American history. Hillary is the woman who a majority of Americans voted to be president right now. It's no coincidence that both, and all other high-ranking women in the Democratic Party, are villified by people who claim to respect them, but! The "but" is usually that we have to get rid of them.

What we have to do is recognize, but not accept, that some Democrats are knuckledraggers on this subject, just as some are racist, often both. The OP's brother isn't just losing superiority over minorities but, worse, over half the human race; is widespread resentment, including into our party, really a surprise?

Sigh for that reality and that, obviously, not just some men but some women are misogynistic, somehow threatened by and resentful about women in authority. Anyone who hasn't lived life in a closet has met many of those latter. They're typically older now and unlikely to change before they finally drop dead, but at least most will have stopped posting long before then. Maybe after a few demented years hissing "Nanceee" and "Hillllareee" from their recliners, but that's their caretakers' problem.

We need Nancy Pelosi right now. She has the proven chops to do what needs to be done. She has the experience that a rookie can't possibly possess.

With thirty some-odd new House members, wet behind the ears so to speak, the guidance of the more experienced folks is imperative. It's easy to barrel in all gung-ho, ready to DO something, but take a breath, people.

Look, Listen, and Learn first. Then you'll be ready to take on the world...

That's why she's feared. She's smart, effective and full of that scary personal decency that flim-flammers can't deal with.

but I abhor that term "socially liberal but fiscally conservative". So, as a "socially liberal but fiscally conservative" independent, one would assume that they "sometimes" votes for people who are not Democrats. Anyone who doesn't vote for a Democrat is voting for a Repug. Therefor, someone I abhor.
YMMV

"I like to smoke weed and I hate brown people."

You framed my response for me. I absolutely agree.

(BTW, I also comprehend that many men don't like her because she has real courage, not courage fabricated in SOME men's tiny little minds that their testicles make them more intelligent. They perhaps are being led around by their nuts, but those things are pretty poor devices for THINKING! I can testify [no pun intended] to that.)

Clinton & Obama were the only Presidents in the last 40 years to actually reduce the deficit & even Mango Mussolini once said that the economy does better under Democratic presidents. It just another lie.

picking their nominee?

and by fellow Democratic members in the House to represent them.

She has no obligation to cater to dumb fucks across America.

all three of them seemed to think it was the Democrats' job to appoint representatives that appeal to Trumpers, but it doesn't occur to them how abhorrent we find Turtle and Ryan. (I should've added...there is NO Democrat that Trumpers will find acceptable, anyway.)

That doesn't make any sense.

That we needed to pick someone that had broad appeal. Including people like himself, more moderate or independent. I was baffled that they would think the speaker of the House is supposed to appeal to everyone, anyway. That's not the Speaker's job. Although if s/he does, that's great, I suppose. But that doesn't happen these days. And how it didn't even occur to them that Turtle and Ryan don't have broad appeal. You can even make the case that not only don't they have broad appeal, they don't even do their checks and balance jobs.

And you're exactly right. If Pelosi was popular with repugs I'd want her gone immediately. But since she's not, IMO that means she's doing a good job, as evidenced by what just happened in the election.

I include Perez in that as well because many were calling for his ouster earlier too.

They were also wrong as he delivered the actual blue wave that some Dems even have been reluctant to acknowledge.

than any man in at the very least, modern US history. She is the first woman to ever serve in the role, a role that most conservatives believe should be a man's job, and she has done it better than any of them. When she was Speaker, she put forward more legislation than her predecessors, much of which was filibustered by Republicans.

I seriously doubt that they even know who Nancy Pelosi is. They don't hate her, they hate the concept of her, they hate the caricature of her that has been fed to them by the brainwashing right wing media.

No offense to you or your brother/family but "independent" my ass. Independents to me, are just people who have already picked a side but are afraid to defend policies and practices that make them uncomfortable.

Fiscally conservative? WTF does that even mean anymore? Who in the Republican party is fiscally conservative that your brother supports? Donald Trump? Paul Ryan? Rand Paul? Those POS ballooned the deficit to over a trillion dollars. Fiscal conservative in my opinion is just code for "spend whatever you like on the military and tax breaks for the wealthy, just don't spend anything protecting the vulnerable people in our society."

I do think that Pelosi being female is part of it.

It's like after Obama was elected, all the racists came out of the closet, and exposed their hatred for all to see, whereas before, many had hidden it. Now after the women issues in the past two years, we are seeing the previously somewhat hidden hatred of women who exerted their rights and power, spill forth.

As for Independents, I have different views about that. I take what I can get, tho. He hates Trump, and though he didn't like Hillary, he said he could never vote for Trump. He's entitled to his views. And I'm entitled to mine. That's how we get along.

No matter how competent Pelosi is as a Democratic leader, she has been demonized for over a decade by the Republicans.

I think that may limit affect her effectiveness as Speaker and her ability to rip Trump a new asshole.

exactly WHY they hate her.

Because she's effective.

Their Adelson/hate radio overlords are afraid of her and rouse the rabble against her.

She walked at least a mile in low high heels. If she’s that tough and brave I look forward to her kicking repuke ass in the house. You never see repukes on the streets with real people.

. . .before you dismiss her or otherwise throw her away. . .

The Speaker of the House is the 2nd in line of succession to the POTUS position
POTUS
VPOTUS (1st in succession)
Speaker of the House (2nd in succession)

Democrats better make damn sure they have someone who is qualified for that possibility,
and that possibility may not be that far-fetched.

Remember, we are not living in normal times right now.

Just sayin'

Gee. Guess we see a pattern here.
To break the center's strongest link, one must select their strongest to target since it worked so well with Hilary, why not move on too the next strong link, Pelosi.

You see all the "Pelosi must go"! posts daily, its because of the orchestrated method of weakening the stronghold of the center balancing point of a Democracy.

You see where this chant is coming from. Its no difficult task to trace it back to it's origin.

1) She's a woman
2) She's old-ish
3) She's a Democrat
4) She's been House Speaker and Minority Leader
5) She's elected by San Francisco, CA

Beyond that they can't tell you anything *substantive* about her. Why? Because they're just repeating vacuous, vague or plainly-false talking points they've heard on the radio or cable news or seen on the internet.


Look at the last Speaker from each party. Look at how they wrangled votes on difficult bills, or failed to. Look at how they balanced the needs and wants of the various members of their caucus, or failed to. Look at whether they passed meaningful legislation, or failed to.

Right wingers don't like her because right wing politicians and pundits speak of her as if she's a bogeyman. And they do that because she is effective.

I don't know why there is such a warped view of Pelosi, but if you put it in the sexist terms the right wing seems comfortable with they might not have so much angst about her.

If Pelosi gives us the best chance to win in 2020, keep her as speaker.

That Republicans hate her is great. Don't care 1 bit what they think. If swing voters don't like her that's a problem and the party needs to assess and address that.

Personally, I doubt swing voters care much about who the Speaker is. Run the right candidate in 2020 and it doesn't matter. I'd love to see a military vet at the top of the ticket and have that person hammer Trump mercilessly for his cowardly draft dodging.

The fact that the war mongering far right lets that slide is baffling. I think it should be hammered home, esp since he talks so tough but has no appreciation of what war is.

The biggest problem I have with his draft dodging is that it wasn't because he was against the war. He was in favor of OTHERS going to war. Just not him. So his privileged status got him out of it.

He's also never had a job, as far as I know. He started "working" for Dad at a young age and never had to report to work, tow the line, compete for bonuses, or anything that a normal person has to do. I think that's a BFD, too. He has lived in a bubble all his life & doesn't know what it's like to be what they would call a common American.

A vet would have standing to attack him on those issues.

Trump is going to be unhinged and say terrible things, have to hit him back on a few key issues, but then be able to stay above the fray still.

One would think such a person would appreciate Pelosi.

Which makes a stupid kind of sense, since they're running the same baseless smear on Pelosi that they ran on Clinton.

The question is are we going to let stupid dictate our choices?

gop has waged a decades-long hate campaign against her and smart, strong women. Case in point, the hate job on Hillary. If Dems back down because of gop hate campaigns, it will enable future hate campaigns.

Pelosi is smart, strong, and extremely competent. She will kick trump's ass while the gop is whining and waging their campaign of hatred. We need women like Pelosi. Strong women like her, Kamala Harris, and many more are exactly what we need representing American Values and Democrats, in general.

But I think we need her experience.

you might find out he's been listening to talk radio on his commute or at work

He mentioned Limpballs once to me, so he must listen to that talk radio station at least on occasion. I didn't let that slide, of course. He looked surprised when I called him Limpballs. My brother got involved with Republican views during Obama's first term. He fell for the birther thing and the Muslim thing. He didn't follow news closely, so just heard this stuff, and fell for it. I set him straight, or tried to. He started accepting Obama by the second term & even thought he was okay.

So I wouldn't be surprised if he still turns on that radio station sometimes.

my stepmother is on FB a lot and exchanges those rightwingnut stories with others, and email and texting has in the past been, and still is, a way to spread their hatred. I've gotten a few emails over the years somehow...one from a relative by marriage who I guess assumed I was like them.

They really have this spreading of hate down to a science. It's everywhere. On the land, in the air, in the sea, so to speak.

it's the only medium with no competition/correction of the other side of the spectrum - 20-1 monopoly

all the other mediums provide 'alternatives' a click away so there's a choice

republican radio has a huge 'captive' audience where there are no free easy alts and a massive secondary and tertiary audience including those stuck to those stations for weather, traffic, sports etc and disinterested people who get it around the bar, or at work, etc

I'm looking for a serious kick ass offense, some stand-our-ground toughness. I do not feel that Madam Speaker has that. It's not Nancy. We are dealing with a whole new breed of repugs and we need a rough and tumble leader that is willing to get ugly in a fight. By all means we do need Nancy as a coach.

by right-wing radio, Hannity, Limbaugh and every fuckhead Republican on the planet. They don't need a reason. I've asked many a repug troll why they hate her. They have no answer.

If I wrote something derogatory like that about women I'd be alerted on in a nano-second. Different people have different explanations for things, man, woman, young, old. There's no need to treat men like we're some alien beings.

Thank you.

I've not heard that referred to as objectionable. It's sort of a humorous description of what is a real thing. I did also say in my post..."woman-splaining." So I referred to both in the same way - humorously. But I certainly don't want to be offensive (really). I'll read up on that to see if that is male bashing or anything close. I love my brother...he "explains" things to me all the time. Like "explaining" to me about Pelosi. I'll ask him about that word. He'll be honest with me.

Here's where I heard it first. From a male-to-female Transgender in a Ted Talks video about her experiences as a female vs male. It's a really funny video and not too long, if you want to watch it. The "man-splaining" part starts at about 8:00. This is a great video, not too long, and funny. Followed by a video of Jimmy Kimmel - Hillary Clinton skit on what Kimmel calls "mansplaining." It's hilarious.

... and desperately want Democrats install someone else, ANYONE else, as her replacement just reinforces the fact that she absolutely needs to stay as speaker! Especially now, when her experience, knowledge, and expertise is so very needed.

That Republicans wont lose their minds over ...

A low bar perhaps, but absolutely true.
The Honorables Ryan, Boehner, Hastert, Livingston* and Gingrich. Where are they now?

and if so, so irrelevant like, .... emails. Two strong smart capable successful women sitting in power, for a lot of years, with a strong voice and totally independent in their empowerment. Ya, what would be the issue. As liberal as some of us are, it is still hard for some to see a woman in a leadership role. We are that conditioned. It is hard seeing a woman hold the gravel and dictate rule and proceeding. It reminds us of the power our mothers had over us. And it simply is not a woman's role.

I love how we delight in Trump's low approval rating but rationalize around the world and beyond that it doesn't matter with Nancy Pelosi.

It should be impossible to have a 31% approval rating nationally in an exit poll with your voters a huge portion of that split, and you just won big on the night the exit polling was done. This is hardly a depressed sample amidst a cycle slanting toward the other side.

"appeal to the general public" and "excite youth" are not essential job functions of the Speaker of the House.

She's intelligent, powerful, and does not exist to please them in any way. She's been demonized almost as badly as Clinton.

give a reason beyond," I just don't like her."

He's horrid, but look what he's done for Republicans.

He refused Merick Garland. He got Gorsuch in.He's an F'n grinch. But if they had some nice, charismatic guy as Senate majority leader, we would have Garland.

We are at war. We need a figjhter", not a "personality"

have developed for its political utililty without even a small factual basis. It is typical mysogony. She's mostly hated because she is a woman who holds her positions which counter what those "decent" republican men say.

mostly support trump.

in order to weaken and eventually take them out. We wouldn't use misogyny as a weapon even if Republicans had women in party leadership positions.

Misogyny is, though, a major weapon for Republicans, used to destroy confidence in our Democratic Party's female leaders -- as a first step. It was a hugely important to derailing the election of our first woman president by weakening Democratic support for her. It'll fail to keep her from becoming our speaker of the house, but they did successfully convince many useful fools to despise her.

Maxine Waters has been under vicious attack (low IQ) in preparation for the day when she becomes chair of the house financial services committee. (!) It will increase dramatically. Democratic control of this committee strikes genuine fear in the greedy and/or criminal Republican and donor classes, and being who they are they naturally consider her gender a weak point for attack; after all, many believe it makes her genuinely unfit for office.

Nita Loway. Almost never mentioned now, but we can expect gullible DUers to learn that her appointment is yet more proof of Democratic incompetence. She'll be as well known and despised by useful fools and misogynists as Dianne Feinstein. Because Ms. Loway is going to be chair of the very powerful house appropriations committee.

And so on. Btw, our women in congress are now numerous enough to develop wedge issues around. Expect these poisonous cultures to be brought here and passionate factions developed by malicious agents and gullible tools from the usual sources.

thank you for your deeper explaination. It helped me to clarify what's coming.