Democrats, either get behind Nancy Pelosi or be quiet – there’s no better candidate for Speaker of the House

This is crunch time, and Democrats need to stop mumbling and get their ducks in a row now, or they could have another four years of Donald Trump on their conscience

Nancy Pelosi has always pissed off America’s down-home conservatives. Zero exaggeration. They absolutely despise her, and it’s not that hard to see why.

Pelosi is a city slicker from the poncey bit of California. She’s pro-choice, pro-immigration and pro-trees. She wants schools to have more money, oil companies to have less and supports LGBT and civil rights. But more than anything, conservatives just can’t stand to see a powerful woman who knows how to sway minds without the help of libellous, late-night Twitter tantrums.

Those are just a few reasons the GOP hates the House minority leader and soon-to-be-reinstated Speaker of the House Pelosi. She’s basically the living embodiment of the Democratic Party, circa 1997. Pelosi is a Clinton-era all-rounder who believes in compromise – and believe it or not, that’s actually why some Democrats are starting to hate her, too.

On Monday, 16 Democrats submitted a letter declaring their opposition to Pelosi’s re-election as Speaker of the House. For reference, that’s basically just the fancy title they give to the leader of the biggest party in Congress – who then gets to create loads of committees and hit a gavel whenever politicians start kicking off.

But it’s also a hugely important role, because the next Speaker will effectively be the Democrats’ sole rallying figure to help them unite and frustrate Donald Trump’s self-serving and sadomasochistic agenda. Up until this year’s midterms, the Democrats were fragmented and utterly powerless. Now, they’ve got the chance to elect a strong leader and re-establish their dominance over an undeniably regressive and spiteful political foe.

So, a question begs the answer: if you’re going into battle against a big orange ape and his clan of kooky, cult-like worshippers, why wouldn’t you rally behind the overqualified 25-year political veteran? Just like every other question about American politics, the answer rests with Hillary Clinton, Trump and that increasingly arbitrary concept of “political change”.

According to the 16 representatives (several of which are political virgins) who signed Monday’s letter challenging Pelosi, it’s time for the formidable political giant to step down. They argue that although she’s proven an amazing leader in the past, Democrats now thirst for a leader of the future. These so-called “Never-Nancys” say they were voted into office upon platforms of change – and with a Clinton-era leader, Americans will just get landed with a whole lot more of the same.

God, two weeks in and the Democrats are already at each other’s throats. But the worst part of this stupid, self-destructive infighting is that the Never-Nancys are actually right. By sticking with the devil they know, it’s not hard to see Democrats pissing away their newfound Congressional authority, accomplishing nothing and then getting walloped again in 2020.

After all, if there’s anything the Democrats are good at, it’s taking the path of least resistance. That’s what happened in 2016 with another overqualified political candidate, and it’s how we ended up with a caricature cartoon villain in the Oval Office. So, maybe – just maybe – the Democrats do need a bit of fresh blood to embolden lawmakers and inspire grassroots supporters.

But then again, maybe not – because against all odds (and in true Democratic fashion), none of these progressive Never Nancys have actually offered to run against Pelosi. She’s currently 100 per cent unopposed, and so you can’t help but wonder if there’s any point having a moan and creating fresh fissures in the party without proposing any sort of alternative path forward.

This is the problem with America’s fragmented left, and it’s a problem that needs fixed ASAP. Democrats love to talk about everything that’s wrong with the status quo, but when you ask them what they’d replace that status quo with, they just mumble a bunch of liberal buzzwords back at you. But this is crunch time, and Democrats need to stop mumbling and get their ducks in a row now.

Pelosi is a leader of yesteryear, and the Democrats could do with fresh blood. But if they can’t find anybody else, it’s time to shut up, unite behind Pelosi and start figuring out how to govern. Otherwise, we’ve got four more years of Trump looming on the horizon – and if that happens, the Democrats will have nobody to blame but themselves.