Peer Rejection

From the perspective of a 16 year old whose life revolves around being socially connected, just as the rest of my generation, I feel that the worst thing would be to be hated by the very people you thought appreciated and respected you. Now this is a circumstance which I think not to be true for myself but is often the case with many elected politicians. This is in fact the case with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she seems to be disliked by the very people that nominated her to begin with. As of late many Democrats have been trying to distance themselves from House Speaker Pelosi. A comment made at a Chamber of Commerce event in Montgomery, Alabama, on Wednesday, exemplifies the feelings of many Democrats towards Pelosi. The comment was made by Representative Bobby Bright of Alabama as he suggested Ms. Pelosi “might lose her re-election bid”, or that she “could die before the next session”. Other cases of Democrats professing their Anti-Pelosi-ness have been Representative Joe Donnelly of Indiana and a new candidate, Representative Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania. Representative Donnelly runs an advertisement in which he repeatedly calls himself an “independent” and touts his vote against “Nancy Pelosi’s energy tax on Hoosier families”, while Representative Altmire runs one in which he features a female supporter praising him for standing up to the speaker.

It seems that a majority of the time the people who are elected for certain positions end up being less liked than they came in as. In the cases with everyday citizens turning against their representatives and elected officials it is most often because of the officials not fulfilling the duties that they promised the people. However in these cases it seems that the reason for these Democrats turning against Pelosi is self-interest. The comments and advertisements of these conservative and moderate Democrats are frantic attempts to disassociate themselves from their liberal leader, Nancy Pelosi, in preparation for midterm battles. I find these Representative’s actions extremely contradictory, ironic and quite useless. I think that if voters don’t see this sudden change of heart and change of attitudes towards Pelosi as an election tactic then there’s a problem. A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee expresses my exact beliefs saying how these representatives are, “running from their records of supporting her [Pelosi’s] agenda” and they should, “…apologize to Alabama voters for voting to make her the Speaker in the first place”, since now they seem to be completely against her, her beliefs and everything she represents.