Pelosi book promotion disrupted, or how I gave up on liberal pseudo-feminism

On Thursday, august the 14, Nancy Pelosi came to San Francisco’s Cowell Theatre to promote her new book “Know Your Power- a Message to America’s Daughter.” Many groups came to the event to disrupt Pelosi’s talk and to hold Pelosi accountable for her support of torture and war. Pelosi started by describing her life, upbringing, and motivation to make it in a man’s world. She spoke of how hard it was to raise kids and to run for office, but one person pointed out, “its not feminism to keep silent in the face of atrocities and war crimes.” Pelosi kept trying to describe her life history, but shouts from the crowds were interrupting her constantly. “Why did you not impeach the president?” and “you are a traitor Pelosi,” were among the numerous statements from the crowd. Pelosi asked the crowed to be civil, and a response was shouted immediately: “torture is not civil, Pelosi.” Pelosi kept trying to keep talking and pushing her message of liberal pseudo-feminism. When yells kept coming at her accusing her of supporting torture and funneling money to the war, Pelosi replied, “You know you should take all this energy and channel it to get Obama elected so we can end the war.” A shout followed: “but this is what we elected you to do.”
Pelosi kept trying to maintain her image as progressive and a feminist in the face of endless shouts and disruption from the crowd. She kept telling people to take all their energy and get Obama elected. At the end of the event questions were taken from the crowd; obviously no questions were read that mentioned Pelosi’s complicity in war crimes and torture. One question that attracted my attention was Pelosi’s stance regarding reproductive rights. Pelosi did not see any contradiction between her supporting the right of women to have control over their bodies and her call to support Obama, who said many times he will support a ban on abortions.