It isn’t often that we see someone artfully ripping Nancy Pelosi’s haughty arrogance to shreds to her face but when it happens it is a sight to be seen.
That is what happened when Pelosi participated in a debate at Oxford University. The Oxford Union holds itself as a defender of free speech. Past debates have included American politicians like Newt Gingrich and Kevin McCarthy.
Pelosi debated Winston Marshall, a former Mumford and Sons band member. He now hosts a podcast. He spoke in opposition to the debate topic “This House Believes Populism is a Threat to Democracy.”
The debate was held on April 25. Video of the event was posted on social media this weekend. Marshall did well, I thought.
Nancy Pelosi did not like what I had to say…
Populism is not a threat to democracy.
Democrat elites like her are.
Watch my full Oxford Union speech from the debate with her: pic.twitter.com/ZNm8maNZjy
— Winston Marshall (@MrWinMarshall) May 10, 2024
The core of Marshall’s argument was that political elites have changed the meaning of the word “populist.”
“‘Populism’ has become a word used synonymously with ‘racist.’ We’ve heard ‘ethno-nationalist,’ we have ‘bigot,’ we have ‘hillbilly,’ ‘redneck,’ we have ‘deplorable,’” Marshall said. Pelosi had argued in her remarks that contemporary American populism currently had an ethno-nationalist character.
“Elites use it to show their contempt for ordinary people,” Marshall said.
He’s right. Since the Tea Party movement took hold and then when Trump ran for president, populism has been debated. What the rise of populism on the right has shown is that the left has contempt for everyday people, especially for voters.
The Democrat Party used to be considered the party of working people, defenders of the underdogs, supporters of free speech, and political inclusiveness. That is all gone now. The win by Trump in 2016 exposed the Democrats for what they are – they are the racists and bigots that they claimed Republicans are.
The same happens in England and other parts of Europe. The left is jailing those who speak out. Social media is used against its participants. This is a dangerous trend.
Marshall referenced a speech by Barack Obama in 2016. He denied that Trump is a populist.
“If anything, Obama argued that he was the populist. If anything, Obama argued that Bernie was the populist,” he said. “Something curious happens. If you watch Obama’s speeches after that point, more and more recently, he uses the word ‘populist’ interchangeably with ‘strong man,’ ‘authoritarian.’ The word changes meaning. It becomes a negative, a pejorative, a slur.”
Marshall pointed out that one person’s insurrection is another person’s mostly peaceful protest.
Highlighting the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, which he believed to be “a dark day for America, indeed,” Marshall said: “I’m sure Congresswoman Pelosi will agree that the entire month of June 2020, when the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, was under siege and under insurrection by radical progressives, those, too, were dark days for America.”
We know the left in America was complicit during the Summer of Love. They remained silent as the violence escalated. Kamala Harris shared a link on social media for people to contribute money for bail for the rioters. I’d argue that the BLM protests that turned into riots were a template for the pro-Hamas protests now held on college campuses and disrupting major cities. The BLM protests didn’t bring many arrests. The rioters weren’t held accountable. Instead, major city officials joined the marches, including police chiefs and sheriffs. The same can be seen on college campuses as professors and staff join the student protests.
At that point, Pelosi raised her hand and said: “There is no equivalence there. . . . It is not like what happened on January 6th, which was an insurrection incited by the President of the United States.”
“My point, though, is that all political movements are susceptible to violence and, indeed, insurrection,” Marshall said. “Populism is not a threat to democracy. Populism is democracy. And why else have universal suffrage if not to keep elites in check?”
Marshall said that “the globalist left have become the establishment.” The left is the threat to democracy, not populists who speak for the voiceless.
Then he took a shot at Biden’s dementia and Pelosi’s record as an election denier.
Now, don’t get me wrong, we need elites. If President Biden has shown us anything, we need someone to run the countries,” he said. “When the president has severe dementia, it’s not just America that crumbles, the whole world burns.”
Marshal shifted his focus to examining the elites, saying he believes that Trump should have accepted the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“So should Hillary in 2016, so should Brussels and Westminster in 2016, and so, too, should Congresswoman Pelosi instead of saying the 2016 election was, quote, ‘hijacked.’”
“It was,” Pelosi interjected, drawing laughter from those in attendance.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t accept the results of it,” she added.
Ouch. The audience was laughing at San Fran Gran’s hypocrisy, not laughing with her.
It’s good to see Pelosi exposed for her hypocrisy. In America, the left and the right have flipped sides. Marshall effectively made his points and Pelosi had to sit there and listen, though she did interrupt him once or twice. Rules don’t apply to Pelosi and her fellow travelers on the left.