As the most powerful Democrat in America, Nancy Pelosi has a singular responsibility to lead effective opposition to an increasingly lawless and extremist Republican Party. She has failed spectacularly and should be replaced as Speaker.

The evidence of her failure — and that of the entire Democratic Party leadership in the 21st century — stares us in the face every day. Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Stephen Miller, Bill Barr, Kellyanne Conway, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Brett Kavanaugh, Mike Pompeo, Devin Nunes, and their extremist ilk are conducting a full-scale assault on our checks and balances, on the rule of law, on women’s rights, on immigrant families, on basic human values. A motley assemblage of GOP crooks, theocrats, and authoritarians runs the country, emboldening white supremacists and torturing migrants with impunity.

If Pelosi and her fellow Democratic leaders are “master tacticians” playing a “long game,” as her cheerleaders insist, it’s unclear what the objective is. Since the early 2000s (when Pelosi admittedly gave Bush a free pass for a war based on lies), that “long game” has led to the rise of a Republican autocrat, the empowerment of oligarchs, and the wholesale pillaging of the working class. But you wouldn’t know it if you perused the corporate media’s coverage of the Speaker. Pelosi’s round-the-clock press operation ensures a steady stream of fawning corporate media fluff pieces about her ‘7-dimensional chess.’

A blaring “Trust Pelosi” brigade greets any online criticism. Her fans swarm Twitter threads, crowing about her “brilliant strategy” and “perfect timing.” She “gets under Trump’s skin” they declare gleefully, as though a racist autocrat who kidnaps migrant children cares about who points fingers or claps sideways at him. Pelosi takes full advantage of the glorification of her empty gestures, with a full panoply of merchandise for sale on her official website.

The dichotomy between the glowing perceptions of Pelosi and her real world actions is perfectly illustrated by her now-iconic clap during Trump’s 2019 State of the Union speech. To this day, that gesture is put forth as incontrovertible proof that Pelosi alone has the power to “rattle” Trump. In reality, Pelosi confirmed that she was clapping for Trump. “It wasn’t sarcastic,” Pelosi explained. The Democratic Speaker — the party leader — felt it was appropriate to applaud a president who has stoked neo-Nazi terrorism, abused migrant families, incited violence against the free press, coddled dictators, alienated allies, and who poses (according to her) a “threat” to the Constitution.

To add insult to injury, Pelosi has willingly given Trump legislative wins that will boost his reelection chances, including extending the Patriot Act, passing a massive military budget with a “Space Force,” and bizarrely, announcing a trade bill an hour after Democratic leaders unveiled Articles of Impeachment. Perhaps most egregiously, as Trump was torturing asylum-seeking families in the spring of 2019, Pelosi said she was praying for him and that she and Chuck Schumer “had hoped to give him a signature infrastructure achievement.”

In stark contrast to her gentle prayers for Trump, Pelosi has displayed dripping scorn for the left, eagerly reprimanding and marginalizing progressive members of Congress, calling the Green New Deal the “green dream or whatever” and rushing to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar even after Omar apologized for insensitive comments.

Pelosi has long been a central figure in the Democratic establishment’s performative opposition to the GOP, feigning outrage and sending strongly-worded letters while caving to Republicans on a wish list of monstrous policies. And media elites continue to praise her as she upholds a corrupt establishment that enriches billionaire plutocrats.

But Pelosi isn’t alone in preserving the toxic status quo. Barack Obama has recently gone after progressive activists, while Michelle Obama has said she shares values with George W. Bush — the former president whose horrendous policies caused untold death and suffering. Joe Biden has indicated that he doesn’t want to defeat the GOP too badly, because he thinks we need radical Republicans as a “countervailing force.” Chuck Schumer has rolled over for Mitch McConnell’s court-packing. And Hillary Clinton appeared on Howard Stern’s show to ridicule Bernie Sanders.

Pelosi recently admitted knowing that Bush lied America into war, but didn’t think war crimes were an impeachable offense. And her strategy on Trump’s impeachment has been nothing short of disastrous. She rejected month after month of relentless grassroots pressure, scoffing at progressive activists and members of Congress, including Al Green, Maxine Waters, AOC, and Rashida Tlaib, who were adamant that Trump should be impeached when Democrats took control of the House.

While her fans gushed over her “patience” and “wisdom,” Pelosi refused to impeach Trump as he trampled rights, obstructed justice, ignored the law, disgraced his office, enriched his family, abused migrant children, and incited racist violence. When the grassroots pressure became overwhelming, she seized on a whistleblower complaint that Trump was pulling another foreign interference scheme and gunning for Joe Biden, immediately ditching all her arguments against impeachment.

The reversal was stunning. Pelosi quickly wrapped herself in the mantle of the Founders, stole all the progressive arguments for impeachment that she had derided all year, and claimed credit as the champion of constitutional oversight and accountability. And of course the elite media and her social media fans heaped praise on her for playing the “long game,” invisibilizing the tireless activists who had spent years pushing for Trump’s impeachment.

Unfortunately for America and the world, Pelosi’s impeachment-lite approach — where Trump is effectively exonerated for every heinous abuse of power except trying to cheat to beat Joe Biden — is an epic failure, with a slim majority of Americans in a recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll opposing conviction and removal in the Senate. The impeachment hearings came far too late and were far too narrowly-focused, probing the intricacies of Ukraine policy for weeks as polls flatlined and the public lost interest. “The level of readers’ social media engagement on stories about impeachment has steeply declined since September,” reported Axios.

For most of 2019, Pelosi’s supporters vehemently argued that the Democratic leadership’s decision to ignore the progressive grassroots and wait for a whistleblower would lead to massive public support and GOP defections. The reverse is now the case: Democratic defections and waning public interest. None of Trump’s cronies were held to account for defying subpoenas, nor was impeaching Kavanaugh or Barr even considered. To top it off, Mitch McConnell now has free rein to make a big show of acquitting Trump.

The worst moral lapse of all is that if Democrats knew the inevitable outcome of impeachment was Senate acquittal, why would they avoid impeaching Trump for crimes against humanity at the border, not to mention all his other hideous abuses, at least to make a point for history that we don’t tolerate child torture? Their explanation for absolving Trump of atrocities at the border defies logic: ‘It’s easier to explain Ukraine policy to the public than caging children.’ Really? In what world? The ugly fact is that although Trump’s “family separation” policy is unique to his administration, Democrats are also culpable for caging children.

In the end, we must face the truth that the Democratic Party leadership is comfortable and complicit. Trump has been a boon to their fundraising. We cannot look to them for true accountability. They are part of the broken system that must be overhauled. To those who incessantly repeat “trust Pelosi, she knows what she’s doing, she’s playing the long game,” this isn’t a game. It’s people’s lives. And now more people will pay the price for this disastrous impeachment-lite.