Nancy Versus the Last of the Angry White Men

It's happening with so much subtlety that one has to stop and think about it. And they're doing it in a female way: Not with a stranglehold, but with a gradual but clear foothold.

The momentum in our politics belongs to women: Four of them who are pretty far along now. Yet, it all points to a quiet but clear revolution.

45 represents the last of the loud, angry old men, shouting at the rain, as Michael Douglas says in The American President. They want "the old way" preserved and maintained, but it isn't happening despite 45's rants.

A changeover, a new era, is at hand. A scary, permanent trench in our politics may just become an unfortunate but not unexpected interlude. A new byway of positivism looks to be here. It began with one woman, and may very well thrive through the last of them, fragile though it may be. The movement began in 2015:

• Hillary Clinton was the pioneer, the one out in front, the first genuine threat to the angry, old white men, the first woman to win a presidential election plurality. She was beaten up badly, but her tragedy paved the way for a rebound. She lost, but on a technicality. It's where it all bottomed out.
• Male counterpart: 45. He has practically ruined the presidency both for us and for the free world. Just. Plain. Awful.
• Ruth Bader Ginsberg, though sickly, is still alive and has a vital vote on the Supreme Court. A career feminist, she has challenged the male establishment and defied it. By simply remaining in a position that 45 craves, she's defying them still. She has stopped the establishment cold in its tracks, making it unable to grab the legal high ground.
• Male counterpart: Brett Kavanaugh. His performance during the confirmation hearings was disappointing, bracingly immature, and exposed him as a sycophant. Even if he wants to maintain judicial independence, most will be cynical about anything he does now.
• Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House, has had to deal with male challenges within her own caucus, never mind the taunts of 45. She stared that down first, then turned to tell the president off inside the Oval Office in her own polite but firm way. Her judgment about waiting for impeachment until this moment, absorbing the frustration of many, is becoming a masterstroke of politics. She is turning the momentum of the country around and throwing it right back at him. It re-legitimizes the Legislative Branch and the Constitution itself. (When asked about the political risks of having it all backfire, her response was the most responsible one: "It doesn't matter. He has given us no choice.") When we look back at this time, there will be more than a few who will insist that she has saved the republic.
• Male counterparts: Steny Hoyer, Majority Whip, for one. Hoyer's a pol who's also been down the road, but his gravitas has never equalled Pelosi's. Her challengers for the Speakership early this year, Tim Ryan and Seth Moulton--who, granted, had the guts to run for president, too--are good, solid members and will do well as party leaders when Pelosi retires in 2022. But they can't carry her purse.
• Elizabeth Warren, 2020 candidate for president. She's currently in the lead. Difficult to determine the final result, but if she wins, she will carry the momentum forward. She is a positive counterpose, and wants to know what we can do as a nation, not what we need to return to.
• Male counterpart: Joe Biden. He may yet gain the nomination, but he isn't the Democrats' best. She may not be, either. But she's better than he is.

If the Democrats manage to overcome themselves as much as the Republican angry white males (not a sure thing; remember '16), look for a few of these names to re-emerge: Sally Yates, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Mimi Rocah, and even people like Nicolle Wallace, who may just cross over to assist with the transition back to rationality.

We're just getting started here, so this could be a vastly incorrect prediction. And it won't be a complete flipping of the political pancake. But that's the way it's starting to turn. The country could still throw up on itself and cast itself into a cauldron the likes of which we just thought we'd seen. We are at the cutting edge of it now. Hold your breath. Don't walk away just yet. We may yet right this ship.

Be well. Be careful. I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark