Why pelosi must go

Close Cache Reset. Admin Edit Exit Admin. Log in Subscribe. My account Log out. Subscribe now. Arlie Kellogg Sandpoint. Letters policy The Spokesman-Review invites original letters on topics of public interest. In , under her leadership, the House passed the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act — a comprehensive bill to create clean energy jobs, combat the climate crisis, and transition America to a clean energy economy.

In San Francisco, Pelosi was the architect of legislation to create the Presidio Trust and transform the former military post into an urban national park. In continuing to push for accountability and transparency in government, under Speaker Pelosi, the House passed the toughest ethics reform legislation in the history of the Congress, including the creation of an independent ethics panel, and increased accountability and transparency in House operations, including earmark reforms.

Additional key accomplishments signed into law under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi include: an increase in the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years; the largest college aid expansion since the GI bill; a new GI education bill for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; and increased services for veterans, caregivers, and the Veterans Administration.

In the FY omnibus, Pelosi won the permanent authorization of the World Trade Center Health Program and a massive five-year extension of expiring wind and solar renewable energy tax credits. The Democratic Party has spent years failing to deliver for people. During that time, Nancy Pelosi was its leader in the House of Representatives.

If we are to have a new kind of politics, we desperately need new leadership. Unfortunately, most people think that Nancy Pelosi is untouchable.

She raises too much money, she has too many connections, she is too good at politics. Every day she is in office makes it harder for us to advance progressive politics. The good news is that there is an excellent primary challenger currently running against Pelosi, Shahid Buttar.

I have written about Shahid before. If he wins, it will completely upend Democratic politics. Sometimes you have to put aside predictions of doom and simply have faith and work hard. Shahid Buttar is everything that Congress needs—brilliant, principled, young and incredibly committed, empathetic, insightful and especially articulate. He was patient and informed, open and empathetic — as an American — in a context filled with people who only wanted to see him as something other than us.

They went low; Shahid went high. Since those days, Shahid has done nothing except fight a good fight—as a lawyer, and activist, and American. His latest stint has been at the extraordinary Electronic Frontier Foundation , building a national grassroots movement devoted to supporting civil liberties everywhere, especially online.

We have, then, an opportunity to put a genuine principled leftist into power. Whatever the arguments for having moderates in swing districts and I think they are poor , San Francisco should not be represented by an anti-single payer, anti-GND member of Congress.