‘You Slap Me in the Face, I’ll Slap You Right Back’

Republicans fall in line. Or at least that’s the old joke.The quote, often attributed to Bill Clinton, spoke to a political reality. After all, in a contest of tradition versus change, it’s no surprise that the party of tradition more easily comes to consensus than the one seeking change.But where the “falling in love” of politics once implied progressive dreams of one change figure or another, it now seems to apply most to the cult of personality around President Trump. And the passion on the right has led to a kind of pragmatism on the left. In a world where Democrats fall in line, few people have been more successful at making that happen than Nancy Pelosi.The longtime California member of Congress is the only woman to ever serve as speaker of the House. And her tenure was marked by uncommon party unity, even before Trump became the party foil he is. She says she did this with consensus, listening rather than telling.“Democrats know what they have to be, and that is we are not a monolith,” she told the Radio Atlantic host Hanna Rosin earlier this month at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, in Seattle. “I can’t go in there and say, Everybody should be like me because I’m from San Francisco, and this is the right thing to do. We have to listen to other people’s views and, hopefully, across the aisle.”On this week’s episode of Radio Atlantic, that live conversation with Pelosi. She shares her thoughts on gerrymandering, the midterms, the progressive wing of the party, and her 39 years in Congress.The following is a transcript of the episode:Hanna Rosin: Hey. Before we get started today, we have an announcement. This show is adding three new dimensions. Number one, episodes now every Monday in addition to the Thursday episode. Number two, we have a new host, Adam Harris. You have probably heard him on the show. He’s co-hosted. He’s also been a guest on the show. And numbe