Nancy Pelosi Speaks Profound Truth

 By: Mildred Robertson

I watched Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi this morning on MSNBC, and she said something that to me was profound:  “Do the best you can, not the best you know how.”  It put into perspective the challenges faced by our congress, our country, and our individual selves.

Speaking from my personal life, I would rank myself an underachiever. I have many times said that, had my mother been given the opportunities I had, she would likely have achieved much more than I. I measure my God-given talent against my paltry accomplishments and think of all the missed opportunities in my life to just do better. Based upon my own measurement and my judgmental nature, I fall far short.

Speaker Pelosi’s words, however, gave me the opportunity to reassess and measure my life in terms of obstacles and opportunities. Just because you know what needs to be done in a particular situation does not mean that you have the wherewithal to do it. It may seem like giving yourself a pass; however those circumstances which block our way to success are sometimes out of our control. That does not mean that we don’t see and desire a particular goal. It just means we can’t access the necessary path to get there.

Case in point; the 117^th United States Congress. We celebrated the election of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to give congressional democrats the margin we needed to wrest power from the hands of Mitch McConnell. The majority of Americans recognized what was best for this country, and acted. Voters chose a progressive national agenda that would address voting rights, social justice, women’s issues, racial and economic disparity and a host of other issues that had suffered under the weight of oppressive Republican policies that made corporations people, and people less than human. While it was a major victory…there are obstacles.

The narrow margin that placed power in the hands of progressives is curated by Senator Joe Machin whose motivation is not yet clear. He, and his cohort, Sen. Kyrsten Senima have the power to deliver or deny democrats the vote on any particular initiative; and they have chosen to deny. They stand in the way of eliminating the filibuster which stymies the democrats’ efforts to go it alone to pass meaningful legislation opposed by intractable Republicans. You see, Nancy Pelosi and democratic senators know what’s best. It is just that obstacles deny them the opportunity to do what’s best.

The question is whether the obstacle is unmoved and unmovable. Are these two senators striving to do what’s best, or what’s best for themselves?

As we watch congressional leaders navigate the polluted waters of our nation’s politics we have to give them the leeway to address the obstacles. I do not know what it will take to persuade our two errant Senators to place the good of the nation above their own personal preferences and beliefs. I understand that that is a difficult ask. But in order for our nation to heal and move toward equality and prosperity for the masses, the progressive agenda must move forward.

I hope our leadership is fashioning a strategy to mitigate the obstacles to our recovery. I do not doubt that they are working diligently to eliminate opposition to the progressive agenda; whether it be disingenuous republicans, or stubborn democrats.  I am sure Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer know what is best; and they are trying to do the best they can.