Poor Nancy Pelosi.
She probably went to the Oxford Union debate hoping she could get away with her tirades last April 25 against Americans but was mercilessly torched by Winston Marshall.
Pelosi, who claims she was a “devout” Catholic, referred to voters who consider themselves part of the populist movement as “poor souls who are looking for some answers” and blasted them for refusing to accept the “answers” given to them by the Democrats because of their beliefs about “guns, gays, [and] God.”
Marshall, a musician and host of the “Marshall Matters” podcast for The Spectator, opposed Pelosi’s Oxford Union motion, “This House Believes Populism is a Threat to Democracy.”
The Oxford Union proudly presents itself as a defender of free speech and occasionally welcomes US politicians for their debates, including former Republican House Speakers Newt Gingrich and Kevin McCarthy.
Marshall lambasted Pelosi’s claims and said that the word “populist” was radically changed by the “elites who] have failed” to align with their own narrative.
“Populism has become a word used synonymously with racism; we’ve heard ethno-nationalist; we’ve heard bigot, with hillbilly, red neck, with deplorable. Elites use it to show their contempt for ordinary people,” the podcaster quipped.
Marshall pointed out how then-president Barack Obama “took umbrage with the notion that Trump be called 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.”
Pelosi consistently interrupted his speech, constantly trying to distract Marshall from his point.
Pelosi justified, “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.”
Marshall countered, “My point, though, is that all political movements are susceptible to violence and, indeed, insurrection.”
“Populism is not a threat to democracy. Populism is democracy. And why else have universal suffrage if not to keep elites in check?”
He went on to condemn the left for becoming the “establishment,” and remarked, “I’m actually rather surprised that our esteemed opposition, Congressman Pelosi, is on that side of the motion. I thought the left was supposed to be anti-elite.”
“Today, particularly in America, the globalist left have become the establishment. I suppose for Ms. Pelosi to have taken this side of the motion, she’d be arguing herself out of a job.”
Marshall’s argument shook Pelosi’s motion, saying that “populism is the voice of the voiceless” and that the “real threat to democracy is from the elites.”
“Populism is not a threat to democracy, but I’ll tell you what is: It’s elites ordering social media to censor political opponents.”
