XPost: alt.culture.alaska, alt.appalachian, alt.politics.democrats.d   
   XPost: soc.culture.african.american   
   From: goffman@gmail.com   
      
   Students of history will no doubt recall how Marie Antoinette,   
   when told   
   the French people were starving and asking for bread, supposedly   
   said:   
   "Let them eat cake." It is a tale, albeit possibly apocryphal,   
   that has   
   come to symbolize unfeeling leadership in a time of crisis that   
   leads to   
   revolution.   
      
   The political elites in Washington would do well to remember the   
   story,   
   especially now. The Paycheck Protection Program to help small   
   businesses   
   weather the economic consequences of the COVID-19 shutdown has   
   run out of   
   money, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her lackeys like   
   Senate Minority   
   Leader Chuck Schumer are blocking Congress from appropriating   
   additional   
   funds, while people from all walks of life are facing ruin.   
      
   Pelosi seems to regard this crisis as an opportunity to force the   
   Republicans to agree to the adoption of her left-wing agenda.   
   And, as she   
   has already shown once during the COVID-19 crisis, she is   
   willing to make   
   struggling Americans wait until she gets her way.   
      
   Her behavior is shameful.   
      
   Consider what she wants in exchange for additional funding for   
   the   
   Paycheck Protection Program. Among her demands is a bailout of   
   the U.S.   
   Postal Service, designed to help the Democrats' long-held desire   
   for   
   federal elections conducted by mail be made a reality. She and   
   her party   
   have stated that, as far as they are concerned, voter fraud is a   
   figment   
   of the collective conservative imagination. It's not, as   
   journalist John   
   Fund has amply demonstrated in his book Stealing Elections: How   
   Voter   
   Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.   
      
   But this isn't the only wrench Pelosi has tried to throw into the   
   recovery. She and her friends have tried to drop into the   
   stimulus   
   packages, sometimes successfully, measures that would allow   
   unions to   
   organize worksites without companies being able to show why that   
   might be   
   disadvantageous for workers, require airlines to adhere to new   
   emissions   
   requirements, mandate racial and gender diversity on corporate   
   boards and   
   give $25 million in emergency funding to the John F. Kennedy   
   Center for   
   the Performing Arts.   
      
   Looking over that list, and there's lots more than could be on   
   it, it's as   
   though Donald Trump didn't win the election. Pelosi's behaving   
   like her   
   party and its agenda are what carried the day in 2016, and she's   
   determined to cram it down our throats, consequences be damned.   
   Some might   
   call that leadership, but it's more like tyranny.   
      
   Notice as well how the Republicans—who have their own long list   
   of wants,   
   including the abolition of the Davis-Bacon Act, a national   
   "right to work"   
   law, the retroactive indexation of capital gains to remove   
   inflation from   
   the calculation of what constitutes a gain, the repeal of   
   Obamacare, tort   
   reform and an end to federal funding for Planned   
   Parenthood—aren't using   
   the coronavirus crisis to push these issues on the American   
   people.   
   They're focused on keeping the economic liquid and keeping   
   businesses from   
   failing.   
      
   None of this seems to be getting through to the American people.   
   Hopefully, they'll catch on, thanks to Pelosi's considerable   
   hubris,   
   which, when she's winning, causes her to misstep badly—as she   
   did the   
   other night, while she was being interviewed by James Cordon on   
   his late-   
   night CBS talk show.   
      
   Standing in front of shiny, expensive appliances, Pelosi showed   
   off her   
   ample supply of designer ice cream, gelato and other frozen   
   treats.   
   Perhaps she thought that sharing her social distancing diet   
   would make her   
   relatable, but what it showed is how far out of touch she is.   
   She's buying   
   ice cream by mail and restocking her supply for Easter when many   
   Americans   
   can't even find a decent roll of toilet tissue. It's her version   
   of "Let   
   them eat cake," and hopefully she'll be made to pay the price   
   for her   
   insensitivity later this year.   
      
   Newsweek contributing editor Peter Roff has written extensively   
   about   
   politics and the American experience for U.S. News and World   
   Report,   
   United Press International and other publications. He can be   
   reached by   
   email at RoffColumns@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeterRoff.   
      
   The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.   
      
   https://www.newsweek.com/pelosi-small-businesses-let-them-eat-   
   ice-cream-   
   opinion-1499079   
        
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)