Nancy Pelosi Gets Her Own Institute at Berkeley Because Of Course She Does

Let’s get something straight right from the start. When UC Berkeley says it’s launching a nonpartisan democracy institute, you’d expect them to pick someone who at least pretends to see value in both sides of the aisle. Instead, they went with Nancy Pelosi. The same Nancy Pelosi who told reporters that Donald Trump’s name is like swearing. The same woman who theatrically ripped up a presidential State of the Union address on live television like she was auditioning for a daytime drama. The same politician who called the 45th president “a vile creature and the worst thing on the face of the earth.”

But sure, totally nonpartisan. We’re supposed to just nod along.

The university announced this week that the former House Speaker will lend her name to this new venture, which has already pulled in 35 million dollars from donors nobody wants to name. Pelosi herself, one of Congress’s wealthiest members thanks to some remarkably fortunate stock trades over the years, says she’ll contribute personally. Chancellor Richard Lyons stood there with a straight face and insisted Berkeley wasn’t aligning itself with Pelosi’s politics. He even mentioned that the UC system has policies against political indoctrination in classrooms.

You have to admire the audacity, honestly. This is the same campus currently under federal investigation for antisemitism and the chaos of recent protests. The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife.

Pelosi called her new academic role “almost an emancipation from partisanship.” Those words came from someone who impeached Trump twice and spent decades as one of the most partisan figures in American politics. She’s promising that Republican leaders will be invited to speak at the institute. Well, some Republicans anyway. The ones who pass her personal patriotism test, whatever that means. Good luck figuring out who makes that cut.

Here’s what bothers me about this whole thing. Universities used to be places where competing ideas fought it out in the open marketplace of thought. You’d hear from genuine conservatives and genuine progressives, and students would learn to think critically by wrestling with real disagreement. Now we get institutions that slap a “nonpartisan” label on something while naming it after someone whose daughter literally bragged about cutting people’s heads off without them knowing they’re bleeding. That’s not hyperbole, by the way. Christine Pelosi actually said that about her mother.

The problem isn’t that Nancy Pelosi exists or even that she has strong political views. The problem is the pretense. If Berkeley wanted to honor her Democratic leadership and create an institute reflecting progressive values, fine. Be honest about it. But don’t insult everyone’s intelligence by calling it nonpartisan when the woman at the helm once told reporters she’s “out to get” Republicans and that they’re “dead.”

This matters because it’s part of a larger pattern. Conservative students already feel like strangers on most major campuses. They keep their views quiet in seminars. They avoid certain topics in papers. They know the score. When universities then turn around and elevate the most partisan figures imaginable while claiming neutrality, it just confirms what those students already suspected. The game is rigged, and everyone knows it except the administrators pretending otherwise.

The real tragedy is what gets lost in all this. America genuinely needs better civic education. We need young people who understand how our system works, who appreciate the brilliance of the Constitution, who grasp why limited government and individual liberty matter. Instead, we’re getting Nancy Pelosi’s version of democracy, wrapped in academic language and funded by mystery donors.

Berkeley could have chosen someone with actual bipartisan credibility. Those people exist, even in California. Instead, they went with the safest possible choice for their ideological bubble and then asked us to pretend it’s something else entirely. That’s not education. That’s performance art.