53 pages • 1 hour read
Nancy PelosiThe Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaParts 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: “Leadership in a Time of Crisis” - Part 6: “Leading for the People”
Part 5, Chapter 7 Summary: “That Our Flag Is Still There”
Pelosi describes events before, during, and after the January 6th, 2021 attack on the US Capitol during the certification of the 2020 election. She blames then-President Donald Trump’s claims that the election was “stolen” from him for the violence that day. She argues that the fact the country’s democracy survived that day is a testament to the patriotism of many, but especially Democrats in the House.
Due to her experiences with Trump in the lead-up to the riots, Pelosi wasn’t shocked when Trump committed offenses that were impeachable. She says of Trump that she “was already deeply aware of how dangerous Donald Trump was. He continues to be dangerous” and that she believes his behavior is possibly due to the “willful blindness, money, prestige, or greed” (245) which prevented his staff and family from staging an intervention to stop him.
About a year prior, Pelosi shepherded articles of impeachment through the House after Trump pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to provide damning information on Hunter Biden, the son of then-candidate Joseph Biden, who worked on the board of a Ukrainian company. When Trump delayed the release of aid earmarked for Ukraine by Congress, Pelosi believed the implication was that the aid would only be released if Zelenskyy helped Trump. Pelosi argues that this action met the definition of an impeachable offense because it involved asking a foreign country to involve itself in a US election. That impeachment effort failed because of a Republican Senate.
About a year later, Pelosi and her peers in the House and the Senate noted with alarm Trump’s increasingly strident claims that the election had been “stolen” from him. They acted by preparing legal teams to counter likely objections to certifications of the ballots of key states on January 6th. Although she was by then accustomed to receiving death threats, she never anticipated the violence that would erupt in the Capitol after Trump encouraged his adherents to come to the Capitol during the certification process.
The US has a strong tradition of the peaceful transfer of power. On the day of the certification, however, a mob of Trump supporters tried to interrupt that process. Pelosi describes the terrors she, other members, senators, and staff experienced as they realized the mob was coming for them. The mob was particularly interested in hurting or killing her and hanging Vice President Mike Pence, inspired in part by violent political rhetoric. Complicating matters was that the administration initially refused to call up the National Guard to restore order, even as the president tweeted to apply pressure on Mike Pence—whose role in certifying the election ballots was merely ceremonial—to refuse to certify the election results. The mob overran and so brutalized police officers surrounding the Capitol that many suffered injuries and some subsequently died.
When order was finally restored, Pelosi insisted that they would reconvene to certify the election that night. She notes with sadness that even after the devastating attack on the Capitol, some Republicans voted against certifying the election. Democrats and several brave Republicans overruled them.
Pelosi and other Congressional leaders were discussing impeachment even as they hid, and she followed through. Trump escaped accountability for his dereliction of duty once again because Republicans in the Senate voted to acquit him. Pelosi continued to push for accountability by establishing a select committee on the events of January 6th. She and her peers used firsthand video, extant messages, and firsthand testimony that even included Trump loyalists, to paint a picture for the American people of how irresponsible the president had been.
In the aftermath of January 6th, Pelosi notes that the young staffers who were there that day are traumatized. The rioters also destroyed priceless parts of the Capitol, and some even defecated on the House floor. Still worse was that some of the rioters had walked through the Capitol with a Confederate flag and Nazi-inspired flags. Pelosi recalls the line from “The Star-Spangled Banner” “that our flag was still there” to explain how she felt about democracy surviving January 6th, despite the actions of Trump and some members of the Republican Party.
Part 6, Chapter 8 Summary: “Why I Love the House”
Pelosi describes the start of Joe Biden’s presidency as a difficult one. She and her peers got to work immediately with legislation to address those challenges, many of them the result of the COVID pandemic. The American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure bills were designed to address the worst of these effects, while other bills addressed the US need for silicon chips, safety from gun violence, action on climate change, and funds to address harms to members of the military by open pit fires. The Senate blocked passage of the original Build Back Better bill, agreeing to pass it only once it was watered down. There is much work to be done, so she supports Biden’s slogan that it is time to “finish the job” of addressing important priorities.
Pelosi believes she has fulfilled most of her legislative priorities and that it is just a matter of time before two Acts designed to address issues with US democracy—For the People Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—are able to overcome filibusters in the Senate. The filibuster is an old rule that should end, and Shelby County v. Holder (2013) has done great damage to civil rights legislation designed to protect the vote, especially for racial minorities. She points out the hypocrisy of Republicans walking with the civil rights icon at the commemoration of Bloody Sunday but refusing to sign these Acts. The For the People Act is designed to address problems caused by all the dark money Citizens United has brought into politics.
Pelosi also presents herself as a staunch ally of the LGBQT community. She is an ally of long standing. She recounts using her inaugural House speech by saying her task was to help address the AIDS/HIV epidemic. Other members explained to her that this was a mistake, given the stigma around the disease at the time. Pelosi recounts her work in contributing to the AIDS quilt organized by Cleve Jones, a gay rights activist. Pelosi also recounts legislative victories with hate crime, healthcare for treatment of AIDS, and anti-LGBQT discrimination bills.
Pelosi wants to continue her goal of fighting discrimination through passage of the Equality Act, which (among other things) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Equality Act did not pass. It will take “a strong Democratic Senate majority, an end to the Senate filibuster as well as a Democratic House and president to pass it,” but Pelosi holds out hope because “leadership means never being content with history, when you can and must make progress” (302-303).
Pelosi shifts gears by explaining why she loves the House. She loves it because of its diverse members, because it allows one to have relationships with constituents, and because it allows one the ability to get things done as a rank-and-file member. She points out she was a rank-and-file member when she secured funding for the establishment of the Presidio Public Park in San Francisco, now realized as a sparkling national park that only came into being because of bipartisan work—part of what Pelosi most enjoys in the House. She adds that Donald Trump has damaged the ability of Congress to work in the spirit of bipartisanship, however.
Pelosi is most proud of having passed the Affordable Care Act on behalf of the people of the United States. She closes with an anecdote in which a nun gave her a prayer during the struggles to pass and save the ACA. The prayer said, “When I die and happily meet my Creator, He will ask me to show Him my wounds. If I tell Him that I have no wounds, my Creator will ask: Was nothing worth fighting for?” (308). Pelosi ends by saying, “I am proud of my wounds, For the Children” (308).
Appended to the book are photos of Pelosi throughout her career. Among these are one of her surrounded by children as she is sworn in as speaker, several with foreign dignitaries (including the Dalai Lama), another in which she stares down and points a finger at Donald Trump, still another in which she shreds his State of the Union address, another in which she pointedly claps toward Trump, and some of her with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Parts 5-6 Analysis
Two underlying questions Pelosi raises about The Nature of Leadership and Power are: How do unethical people gain power, and what can one do when an unethical person gets power? Throughout the book, Pelosi uses Donald Trump as a symbol of people who have power but no moral compass. Trump is a man, she contends, who is all about self-interest and who lack self-discipline. His actions before and during January 6th show what happens when such a person manages to gain power—he does immeasurable damage to the institutions that underwrite that power and to the people over whom he exercises power. Pelosi’s descriptions of the injured and killed law enforcement officers and traumatized staffers are appeals to emotion (pathos) that make visceral her belief about the harms of irresponsible use of power.
Pelosi opens the chapter on January 6th with a theory of how unethical people get power, namely, because the people around them—Trump’s family, staff, and the Republican Party, in this case—do nothing to restrain them. She contends that part of the art of the ethical use of power is having a team of people around you who are willing to be truthful with you about the import of your actions. Pelosi contends Trump was also able to act without restraint because the Republican Party refused both times to impeach him. Rigid, unquestioning partisanship can thus be an impediment to the ethical use of power.
Pelosi uses an account of the impeachment process to show how one can attempt to restrain the abuse of power. Her description of the process involved in impeaching Trump allows her to portray herself and her Democratic peers as legislators who relied on the law—specifically the Constitution—and discipline to hold the president to account. Pelosi appeals to emotion again when she quotes from “The Star-Spangled Banner” and describes her joy at the American flag still flying after the insurrection. She implies that love of country is, or ought to be, woven into the American way of wielding power.
The law wasn’t enough on the day of January 6th, however. Pelosi’s description of legislators’ actions at the Capitol shows that it sometimes takes physical bravery to face down powerful people who abuse power as well. Her description of herself and her peers planning out impeachment during the riots harks back to the bravery of Chinese dissidents who protested in the face of physical threats to their safety.
Beyond offering lessons about using power to constrain bad actors, Pelosi offers to the readers the idea that power used responsibly is a joyful thing. Her account of how she felt seeing the flag as a girl and, later, after the riots, drives home the point that power can be an affirming force for good. Pelosi’s account of why she loves the House and what she has been able to accomplish in its halls is a celebration of what power wielded rightly can do.
The Art of Power is first and foremost a political memoir, and these two chapters and appended photographs are Pelosi’s last opportunity to use the memoir to shore up her legacy. The photographs appended to the text show Pelosi in all her stages as a person who wields her power responsibly and reinforces important points Pelosi has made throughout the book. The photograph of her with the children (coupled with the last lines of Chapter 8) remind readers that Pelosi sees herself as an altruistic leader who uses her power to protect the innocent and powerless. The photographs with powerful dignitaries highlight that Pelosi belongs among such people; these photographs are thus a kind of credential that enhance her persona as a powerful person.
The photos of her pointing the finger at Trump, ripping up his State of the Union Speech, and smirking at him as he gives a speech are reminders of the many ways one can stand up to powerful people who are self-interested. The photos of her with President Zelenskyy reflect her recent activities as both speaker and a rank-and-file member. Also notable is that Pelosi is just among a handful of women in these photos—a final reminder of The Challenges of Navigating Gender Norms. To the end, she reminds the reader of how unusual it was to be a woman in the halls of power.
