On April 25, 2024 the Oxford Union held a debate on the motion that "This House Believes Populism is a Threat to Democracy." And who better to argue the case than former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)? The only disappointment was that Our Nance did not once utter the words “Our Democracy.”

The reports all tell us that Winston Marshall, one-time musician, absolutely nailed Pelosi, beginning with his remark that “Populism is not a threat to democracy. Populism is democracy.”

But I listened carefully to Pelosi’s speech. She spoke without notes, which sometimes means that the speaker will fail to craft the narrative as precisely as she would wish. In other words, I hoped there might be “tells” about what a tippy-top elitist like Pelosi really thinks. And I was not disappointed. Said she:

What is democracy? Let’s define democracy. Democracy is the rule of law. Democracy is free and fair elections. Democracy is about an independent judiciary. It’s about freedom of the press, to have transparency and to have accountability of elected officials to the people.

Gag me with a spoon! In the season of Democrat prosecutors elected to “Get Trump,” Nancy Pelosi is expatiating on the rule of law, and free and fair elections, and an independent judiciary. In the aftermath of the COVID censorship swamp, she tells us that democracy is about freedom of the press. Bless her heart! But there’s more:

It’s about all of that, and that is what this populist regime in Washington DC is against…

Er. What “populist regime in Washington D.C.” would that be? Would it be about Republican judges putting Democrats in jail? Would it be a veto-proof Republican Congress cutting Social Security? Inquiring minds would like to know!

Populism is about fighting, ethno-nationalist populism -- as is the threat to democracy -- is about threatening what they call the elites.

Nancy tripped over her words a bit there. I think what she meant to say is “Populism, or ethno-nationalist populism -- the threat to democracy we are debating -- is about threatening what they call the elites.”

Do you see the point? Nancy Pelosi really wants to call the populists “Nazis” but she knows that would be a bridge too far at an Oxford Union debate. So she uses the code word “ethno-nationalist.”

To me, her choice of words is amusing, because I would say that the hated Trump is anything but an “ethno-nationalist.” Maybe I am missing something, but I experience Trump not as a race warrior but as a class warrior, fighting for all Americans that think of themselves as ordinary patriotic middle-class Americans. That’s why he is reaching out to Hispanics and why YouTube had to take down a Trump campaign video of a patronizing educated Democrat phone-bank woman talking down to a male black caller. Because we cannot allow Trump operatives to make fun of patronizing educated-class white women!

Now for the real “tell.”

We’ve seen demagogues come down the pike, destroy the press. What do Republicans say? “Fake news.”

So, Donald Trump has destroyed the press? Hello Nancy? Are you talking about the press that has had “fact-checkers” searching out and counting Trump lies since 2016? Of course, the press has seemed reluctant to call out President Biden on his lies. No doubt that is the fault of Trump coming down the pike.

Alas, said Pelosi, Trump’s attack on “fake news” has had a sad effect on the voters:

So [the demagogues] are diminishing this in the eyes of these poor souls who are looking for some answers. We’ve given [answers] to them but they are blocked by some of their views on guns – they have the three Gs, guns, gays, God, that would be a womanś right to choose. And their cultural issues cloud some of their reception of an argument that really is in their interests.

Yes, Nancy, I get it. If it weren’t for Trump and his vile calumnies against our noble journalists and the blight of the “three Gs,” the people would understand the “answers.” Clearly, their telescreens have been scrambled by the cunning Trump and The Party can’t always get the message through.

But the fact is that using ethno -- where it’s people different from me -- populist nationalism is a very dangerous threat to democracy.

You can see the point. If Trump has scrambled George Orwell’s telescreens, then our ruling class is forced to push a little and make sure that “our communities” get the right message.

Here’s the pièce de resistance. Nancy whispers about

...the role of the big dark rich billionaire donors who don’t want to pay taxes, suffocating the air waves from the fossil fuel industry and the gun industry and the rest of that. So money and populism sadly have gone together with this ethno-nationalist…

Hey there Nancy! You got the name of a billionaire that wants to fight the Climate Industrial Complex? I’d like to send him a thank-you note.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: Gage Skidmore