The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House

On October 28th, 2022, a man broke into the Pelosi home in San Francisco and repeatedly struck Paul, Pelosi’s husband, with a hammer. The attacker later admitted that he was inspired in part by rhetoric that Republicans, such as the former president Donald Trump, used to demonize Pelosi. She also describes the insensitivity of the news coverage that followed the attack. Pelosi traces this demonization back to 2010, when Republicans began spending millions of dollars in political attacks against her. Pelosi sees a direct connection between this political violence and efforts of the insurrectionists on January 6th, 2021, to capture and harm her.

Pelosi pursued the permission of her husband and one of her daughters before she entered the political spotlight as a congresswoman for California, since she knew that becoming a politician and a public figure would place her family in the spotlight. She thought she understood the cost of such scrutiny on her, but she, like other political figures, thought politicians’ families were off-limits when it came to rhetorical attacks. Few people considered the attacks might extend to violence against political figures and their families. The attack on Paul changed all of that. Had she known about the cost to her family, she might not have gone into state and national politics.

Pelosi recounts finding out about the attack on Paul and the harm subsequent coverage did to her children and grandchildren. Journalists were so focused on getting a scoop on this sensational story that many of Pelosi’s children and grandchildren found out about the attack via newscast. She notes that “from the moment news of the attack was reported, it was like a second assault being waged on Paul and [her] family,” most especially because of the “lies and misrepresentations” that circulated about the attack (25). She focuses on Donald Trump and Republicans in particular as authors of crude jokes about the devastating attack on Paul. Pelosi not only sees such dehumanizing language as not befitting these public figures, but also believes the widespread nature of such verbal attacks says that something is wrong with the United States and its political culture.

Paul has made a partial recovery, but the family faces traumatizing reminders of the attack, such as the bloodstains on the floor of their home. Security for Pelosi, her family, and other politicians and their families has stepped up at great cost as a result of political rhetoric. There have also been more innocuous, but nevertheless frightening attacks, such as the defacement of their home with denigrating graffiti. 

The impact of such threats of violence is that people who would run for office have been dissuaded from doing so because of possible danger to themselves and their families. Dehumanizing political rhetoric has to stop if a culture of political violence is to be avoided in the United States.

Pelosi discusses her rise to power in the House, including her election to the speakership by her peers; the intricacies of passing legislation, given the distinct roles of the White House and the Senate; and how the presidency of Donald Trump marked a departure from the norms that allows the government to function effectively.

Pelosi rose to power as Democratic leader and Speaker of the House not because she was invited to enter the all-male Democratic leadership, but because she was assertive and ready for the opportunity. Getting into the race for leader and speaker required her to put herself up for these roles without the approval of the leadership, which thought she should wait her turn. She insisted that “women had been waiting for more than two hundred years” (39), but that she wanted people to neither support nor oppose her because she was a woman.

Pelosi was always good at counting votes—assessing whether she had the votes to pass a piece of legislation—so she ran only because she knew she could win and because she had prepared herself through taking on increasingly responsible positions. She made history by winning. Once in power, she worked on diversifying the makeup of the Democratic caucus and leadership, and she also supported reforms to make the House more inclusive.

Pelosi gives a detailed view of the important and complicated role of the Speaker of the House, which requires mediating intricate negotiations among the Senate, White House, and the House. She believes intuition, honed through experience and expertise, is the most important strength a speaker needs to be successful. Pelosi compares the speaker’s balancing of multiple interests to a weaver constructing cloth on a loom. Passing legislation with temporary alliances is like the spinning of a kaleidoscope. A good speaker knows what is in the legislation and who will support it before it goes to the floor. 

Members vote in accordance with the four Cs—adherence to the Constitution, representation of the interests of constituents, conscience, and courage, according to Pelosi. Pelosi cites the legislative process to pass the Affordable Care Act, stimulus during the economic crisis of 2007, and support for Ukraine in its war against Russia as examples of legislation that required all four Cs for individual members.

Pelosi shifts gears at one point to address the issue of Donald Trump. She is “still amazed by how many people [she] meet[s] who ask about only one topic: Donald Trump” (57). According to Pelosi, Donald Trump, then the 45th president of the United States, was a chaotic, self-important, ignorant, and dishonest president who upended the careful orchestration of power required to keep the government functioning. Pelosi complains that it was virtually impossible to negotiate with the president because he refused to allow his staff to interact without micromanaging them. He would capriciously make demands that undercut months of work when legislation was produced.

Trump was also dishonest in little things, like the number of popular votes he received in comparison to Hillary Clinton, and more consequential areas, such as what actually happened during his 2019 call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine. Trump allegedly asked Zelenskyy to aid him in finding out damaging information about the son of Joe Biden (then Trump’s opponent in the race for president) in exchange for receiving aid from the United States. His greatest failure was in his handling of the COVID epidemic; whereas President George H. W. Bush worked in a bipartisan fashion to address the AIDS epidemic of his time, Trump relied on denial and untruths, leading to the deaths of many.

Pelosi responded to Trump through comments in the press (e.g., promising to pray for him and America after his untruth-filled inauguration speech), public gestures such as ripping up his State of the Union speech one year, and advancing articles of impeachment when his actions violated his oath of office or the law. Pelosi argues that the problem with American politics today isn’t just about Trump; it is about “slowly metastasizing greed” (70) for power and money. This problem can only be addressed by “putting people—especially our children—over politics” (70).