Read Carefully

Progressive firebrands (or socialist, but who’s asking) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Talib graced the cover of Rolling Stone, alongside Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The cover accompanied a very long feature with Nancy Pelosi, and three separate features on Cortez, Omar, and Talib respectively. All part of a broader series from Rolling Stone titled Women Shaping the Future featuring various prominent women from various fields.

As far as the feature’s themselves go, they aren’t very notable. Pelosi certainly has a long and interesting career filled to the brim with war stories. Cortez, Omar, and Talib are all dynamic and inspirational figures in their own right, but the features aren’t anything you couldn’t find in any number of features on any of them written in the last few weeks. However, packaging them all together, packaging Nancy Pelosi with the young faces of the ascendent left wing is incredibly savvy. And whether intentionally/deserved or not, the pieces taken as a package ties Pelosi to the progressive/leftist movement as a whole.

Which is something that should be questioned at every turn. Nancy Pelosi isn’t an arch conservative. She could be worse and there are certainly some moments in her long career worth applauding. However, tying herself to the resurgent left in a time where she is selling out policy positions like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, or more importantly for our purposes, Ilhan Omar herself, is incredibly problematic and should not be allowed to slide without scrutiny.

Nancy Pelosi Can’t Even Stand With Ilhan, How Can She Stand With The People

In early February Ilhan Omar tweeted a criticism of AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby group with significant power and financial clout, which was quickly characterized as anti-Semitism, igniting perhaps the most braindead news cycle in recent history. The tweet itself alluded to the broader US-Israeli alliance, stating “It’s All About the Benjamins” a glib tweet, that was clearly a joke, which nonetheless had the punditariat debating whether or not it recalled the long history of anti-Semitic tropes of Jewish people and money.



The discussion was instantly focused on the potential anti-Semitic angle, and not the clear anti-lobbying angle. Without any question of potential Islamophobia or proportional response, Democrats were quick to rebuke Omar. In the days following figures ranging from Nancy Pelosi and Chelsea Clinton to Mike Pence and Donald Trump rebuked Omar. Once people like Donald Trump seized the narrative and went as far as calling on Omar to step down, Democrats came to her defense. A simple tweet apology where Omar did good to thread the needle given the hysteria inherent in the whole thing, and the media crisis was over almost as quickly as it started.

However, during the whole thing, Nancy Pelosi had a chance to step up for Omar and defend one of the furthest left members of congress from bad faith attacks from both inside and outside the party. Instead she added to the pile and wasn’t even one of the first to temper the attacks when Republicans added to the pile. Even though she was perfectly positioned to keep this entire “anti-Semitism” discussion a largely internal one on how to message concerning the intersection of Israel and lobbying.

This may have actually resolved the problem. It might have honestly resolved the tension between the very real financial power pro-Israeli players wield in Washington and the very real anti-Semitic tropes at play in political discourse around the world today. That’s a very important discussion to have, but a bipartisan dog pile on Ilhan Omar isn’t a discussion and Nancy Pelosi enabled that dog pile.

Nancy Enabled Attacking Ilhan Omar as an Effective Media Strategy

Enabling that dog pile is exactly why Omar’s comments created controversy just a few weeks later. This time Omar was speaking at a “progressive town hall” in Washington D.C., alongside Rashida Talib, among others. And during the town hall Omar stated, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it’s OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

Almost immediately Democratic houses rep Eliot Engel called the statement “a vile anti-Semitic slur” once again thrusting Omar into the news. Whether tactical or not, Engel capitalized on the moment much the same way other house reps like Lee Zeldin did in the past, thrusting themselves into the news. Again, if Nancy Pelosi handled these problems internally and really dove into the very real criticisms that should be leveled against both AIPAC as a lobbying organization but American policy towards Israel as a whole, then this sort of back and forth anti-Semitism media narrative wouldn’t exist.

When push came to shove the first time Nancy Pelosi caved. She did what she thought was politically expedient and maybe what she thought was right. Although that’s hard for me to believe, it’s possible. Now that this has become an ongoing thing, where any statement from Omar anyone suspects is out of line can be wielded against her, Nancy Pelosi needs to take a stand. The Democratic Party needs to combat anti-Semitism, of course. It also needs to be able to have open and frank discussions about what is actually anti-Semitic and what is instrumental use of ideology to further the interests of both U.S. and Israeli militarism. If Nancy Pelosi wants to use the left wing of the party for good PR, she needs to stand with them when they are unfairly attacked. And while I personally don’t find Omar’s statements to be anti-Semitic, Nancy Pelosi could have stood with Omar without conceding that debate. She chose not to, she chose to force a public apology as a show of power, and what she does now that the controversy has sprung up again should be viewed as a sign of how seriously she takes the left and their priorities. Rolling Stone cover Nancy would likely stand with Omar, but politics is more than photo-ops and only time will tell.