According to media reports, on the 3rd local time, Pelosi won by a narrow margin and was re-elected as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
In the election held on the afternoon of January 3, Pelosi won 216 votes, surpassing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s 209 votes.
This is the fourth time Pelosi, 80, has been Speaker of the House; she is also the third speaker to win with less than 218 votes in the past 25 years.
January 3 is the day of swearing in the 117th Congress of the United States.
In a letter to colleagues that morning Pelosi said the new Congress will meet in “very difficult times”: “Each of our communities has been severely affected by the epidemic and the economic crisis: 350,000 people have tragically died in the epidemic, more than 20 million people have contracted COVID-19, and millions have lost their jobs – this The loss is almost incomprehensible.
She also said, “Thank you very much for the trust you have given.”
Pelosi faces many difficulties.
Pelosi did win with only seven votes over Republican McCarthy.
More importantly, at a delicate time of political situation in the United States, Pelosi faces many challenges such as age, shrinking Democratic seats, and the severe epidemic situation.
Biden has recently made another slip of the tongue, saying that the vice president is the president, whose health has always been an important issue of concern; the same question can be put on Pelosi, and whether the age of 80 can take on the task of high-intensity political games also raises doubts.
Pelosi has been the leader of the Democratic Party for more than 20 years, and is the first and only female speaker of the House of Representatives in American history.
She once promised to be only two Speakers, but this time she has opened the fourth speaker’s term.
The Republican Super Political Action Committee said that the Democratic candidates have repeatedly promised to change their leadership and legislative strategy in Congress over the past two years.
As a result, they broke their commitment to voters and appointed Pelosi as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
For Pelosi, when her personal political career will end in dignity may be a question, and for the Democratic Party, after Pelosi, she also faces the question of how to achieve intergenerational turnover.
Another challenge is how to maintain the unity of House Democrats when the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is greatly reduced, which also tests Pelosi.
Democratic lawmakers have indeed diversified, spanning color, gender and geography, but unity after pluralism is more difficult. Today’s Democrats especially need this unity.
After all, avoiding or reducing the “mutesy” of Democratic lawmakers’ votes is related to Democratic control of the House of Representatives.
However, not all Democratic lawmakers will make the same choice. Even with the existence of “whip”, some MPs are dissatisfied with Pelosi.
Unable to change the polarization of American politics
Under the coronavirus epidemic, political polarization and tribalization in the United States have intensified. This election is the image of the torn United States.
Racial contradictions have intensified again, the gap between rich and poor is difficult to bridge, and Pelosi is still facing an increasing “nopolitic”.
Compared with Trump, Biden may not be such a strong president, and how to cooperate with his own president is also a big challenge for Pelosi.
The House of Representatives is in charge of the wallet. Any great undertaking needs to be spent. Pelosi’s leadership of the House is different from the Trump administration’s fiscal concept.
She may support Biden’s series of policies. The U.S. government’s fiscal may turn to easing. Of course, the potential problem is that the tax cuts can still hold. Continue?
In the face of the coronavirus epidemic, it is obvious that Capitol Hill and the White House will work together to save the U.S. economy, but during the Trump administration, both parties adopted monetary policies for large-scale water release.
The crux of the problem is that without fiscal policy support, “released water” circulates within the financial system, and funds cannot flow into the real economy, which may aggravate economic and social imbalances.
Pelosi may cooperate with the Biden administration’s fiscal stimulus plan, and the future “sanglement” around the budget may occur between the two parties in the House of Representatives, not between the White House and THE Hill.
The Democrats still control the House of Representatives, and Pelosi is still Speaker.
It seems that nothing has changed, but it is necessary to see that the pluralism of the Democratic Party, such as the rise of minorities and women members, does not necessarily have a “melting pot” effect, but may further stimulate the Republican Party’s “white supremacy” sentiment.
As Speaker, the House of Representatives Pelosi faces has been torn by multiple fault lines such as gender, race, class, etc.
At a time when the Democratic Party’s advantage is greatly reduced, the Democratic president has entered the White House, and American society is still torn apart, Pelosi’s way forward is even more and more difficult.
