What's as risk in the upcoming 2018 election?

According to San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi, nothing less than "civilization as we know it."

Talking to Rolling Stone reporter Tom Dickenson, Pelosi sounds the warning:

Pelosi is charting the strategic course of the 2018 election, raising millions of dollars and boosting the recruits who would plug into a political machine she's honed for nearly 15 years. The stakes could not be higher: "Civilization as we know it is at risk in this election," Pelosi says. "We have to win." But as she sits in an Iowa pub on a warm Sunday in May, enjoying a slice of dark-chocolate torte, Pelosi is unbothered by the dangers or her doubters. She can get that gavel back, she insists, and knows how to use it to put Trump in his place. "I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I am confident," she says. "I'm really good at what I do."

Others might not agree. Rolling Stone writer Tom Dickenson notes that "Pelosi is unique among congressional leaders in being weaponized against her party." This year she has been featured in more than a third of House GOP TV ads. The Conservative Leadership Fund, Ryan's "has aggressively yoked swing-district candidates to Pelosi." Director Corry Bliss told USA Today, "We're going to spend millions and millions of dollars reminding voters across the country why Nancy Pelosi is bad for the country," calling her the "most toxic, unpopular politician in American politics, period."

To Pelosi, this means that "the GOP is simply afraid of her." "I've made some very powerful, rich enemies," she says. "I don't think we should allow our opponents to choose the leaders of the Democratic Party. But that's what they're trying to do." Her strategy in the face of the Republican onslaught is to grin and bear it. "I don't spend money to take my numbers back up," she says. "I'd rather spend the money on the candidates who win than getting into a tickle contest with a skunk over this stuff."

Dickinson talked to a Pelosi protestor in Des Moines, where Pelosi recently appeared at a fundraiser. Gary Leffler held a sign reading "Dinner with Nancy? 75 crumbs," a reference to Pelosi's description of the average American's savings from the Trump tax cut. "Wearing a Trump T-shirt, a blue MAGA hat and a bushy mustache, Leffler stood beside his tractor, airbrushed with a streaming American flag across the hood": "I wish I would have made one more sign," he said of Pelosi. " 'Please Don't Retire!' She's almost like an undercover Republican, with all the things she's saying."