EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION: ‘Democracy’ and ‘polarization’ will be some of the focuses
Liberal Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi has landed a new gig teaching and overseeing an institute named after her at the University of California Berkeley.
The former speaker of the House and a reliable liberal Democrat will lead the “nonpartisan” center focusing on “democracy” and “polarization,” as she wraps up her final term in Congress this year.
“The work of democracy is never finished, and securing its future is our greatest calling,” Pelosi stated in a news release.
Political science chair Scott Straus laid out bold plans for the center, which has already raised $35 million dollars.
“We envision the Pelosi Institute encompassing a range of bold centers and initiatives, ranging from a Center for the U.S. House of Representatives to a Global Dignity Lab to an AI & Democratic Innovation Initiative to a Center for the Study of Gender and Politics,” Straus stated. “There are lots of possibilities for people to support things they’re passionate about.”
The center will also host “faculty research initiatives, undergraduate courses and a visiting fellows program.”
UC Berkeley’s promise that Pelosi will focus on “nonpartisan” engagement and broadly building up “democracy” may land like a thud to many who read the newspaper or know anything about the liberal congresswoman.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund rated Pelosi “100%” for her support for the intentional killing of innocent preborn babies. Her staunch advocacy for abortion, and obstinate refusal to change her ways despite her professed Catholic faith, led Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to order her to refrain from receiving Communion, a directive she has ignored.
After President Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union, Pelosi famously tore up a copy of the speech despite, or because, she was in a prime view of cameras. It is unclear how this disrespect for the office of the president will inform Pelosi’s perspectives on political dialogue and bringing people together.
But UC Berkeley is a good place for her to land, as the school has welcomed other political actors and figures when they need something to do after failing at their last job.
In February 2023, the university welcomed the former U.S. Capitol Police assistant chief Yogananda Pittman to oversee campus law enforcement. The hiring came despite criticism of Pittman’s botched role in stopping the violence on January 6, 2021.
Being bad at enforcing the law has never stopped the university from hiring someone, however.
Later that year, the school hired soft-on-crime San Francisco prosecutor Chesa Boudin to run a new legal clinic after voters booted him from office following his disastrous leadership.
He is the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, who both served time in prison for murder and robbery in connection to their involvement in the Weather Underground. The Berkeley news release noted that Boudin was raised by his “adoptive parents,” but never names them – he was raised by domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, as The Fix previously reported.
Boudin is paid $210,000 a year for that role .
The Fix looks forward to finding out how much Pelosi will be getting paid for her new job.
