So, I ask myself, why did this smart woman do dumb things at the SOTU, things she knew would offend all Republicans, most independents, and more than a few Democrats? Things that would damage her reputation and show her behaving as abnormally, as impetuously as the orange man she despises, and behind whom she sat?
The answer almost has to be “fear.” She’s afraid of losing her Speakership, afraid there are enough crazies in her caucus to vote for a ‘bomb-thrower’ as Speaker. She felt, I suppose, she had to pander to them to keep her job, to stay in the limelight.
So she pandered, she kept her job, and damaged her reputation and legacy. That is rather sad, isn’t it?
It is also a tangential commentary on our modern political culture. Echoing in the back of my mind are two lines from a Yeats poem.
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
