With the retirement of three congressional titans, the belief in American global leadership takes a hit.
With the retirement of three congressional titans, the belief in American global leadership takes a hit.
A n overlooked story in the midterm elections is the retirement of three titans: Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Steny Hoyer. Come January, the former Senate majority leader, House speaker, and House majority leader will leave the hallowed halls of Congress, and with them will pass a cadre that championed American global leadership, American values, and a sense of American forged destiny no longer prevalent in either the Democratic or Republican parties.
McConnell, Pelosi, and Hoyer entered Congress in the 1980s, and all lent their not-inconsiderable support — occasional bouts of partisanship notwithstanding — to the muscular anti-communism that was the hallmark of the Ronald Reagan era. Like most Republicans of the period, McConnell voted for robust military budgets designed to counter Soviet power, but Democrats Hoyer and Pelosi were no less enthusiastic in their anti-communism. Hoyer served as chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, and, in his own words, “supported much of the Reagan [defense] build-up.” Pelosi, an ardent critic of the Chinese Communist Party, advocated a harsh U.S. response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and has supported Taiwan throughout her political career.
Although they often disagreed about how best to use it, Hoyer and Pelosi shared McConnell’s conviction that American power was a positive force in the world. They cheered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing disintegration of the Soviet empire. They joined with the GOP in supporting NATO expansion. They resolved to hunt down the architects of the September 11 attacks and other jihadi enemies of the United States. They saw allies like Israel as indispensable vessels of American influence.
Even as both the Republican and Democratic parties drifted toward self-abnegating isolationism in recent years, the three titans demanded action as dictators like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping menaced their neighbors. All the while, they believed fervently that the United States was a fundamentally noble project that should defend its interests and values where they were under attack.
Those views are no longer universal. In the Democratic Party, octogenarians Pelosi and Hoyer have given way to a new generation that has a decidedly different foreign-policy outlook. Just 36 percent of Democrats say they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be Americans, far below historical averages. Declining patriotism means fewer people convinced of America’s capacity for good.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris infamously warned that America was “about to take ourselves off the map as a role model” if a preferred bill didn’t pass. But for many politicians at the intersection of far left and right, the United States has increasingly been “off the map as a role model.” Like the fringe Tucker Carlson acolytes of the right, the ascendant Democratic Socialists of America are open in their hostility to the very values McConnell, Pelosi, and Hoyer spent a career seeking to export to the rest of the world.
Pelosi and Hoyer are also among the last of the pro-Israel Democrats. For many years, they were among its greatest friends in Congress and consistently supported pro-Israel policies. Much of that good will endures: Hoyer flies an Israeli flag outside his House office, while Pelosi in October said it was “wrong” to oppose Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. Given that 80 percent of Democrats now view Israel unfavorably, the future of the Democratic Party on this issue looks a lot more like Abdul El-Sayed and Ilhan Omar than Pelosi or Hoyer.
McConnell stands athwart similar currents in his party. Though far more supportive of Israel than Democrats, Republicans, especially younger ones, are losing their instinctive Zionism. Today’s GOP includes an arresting number of Americans who say they don’t care about the fate of Ukraine or Russia’s predations. Older Republicans may still favor passing large defense budgets and using force abroad, but the center of gravity is trending rapidly away from the interventionism of decades past.
It isn’t often that a trio as decorated as McConnell, Pelosi, and Hoyer, with 125 years of federal lawmaking combined, decides to exit Congress at the same time. They leave behind an indelible mark befitting their decades of service and legislative achievements. But it increasingly appears that when these statesmen exit in body, their spirit of proud American global leadership and commitment to democratic values will disappear with them.
Daniel Samet is a Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Danielle Pletka is a distinguished senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the host, with Marc Thiessen, of the podcast What the Hell Is Going On? and the related Substack.