Maybe she feels untouchable. Perchance her base will never leave and she’s courting others. Possibly she has just become tired of it all and no longer cares?

Whichever theory prevails here, there is a deep curiosity stirred when longtime fixture of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi says something that is sensible, steeped in logic, and rooted in the core values of this nation.

Surely some in her offices must have deep concerns about her faculties.

The former Speaker of The House was in a town hall setting, fielding questions from a room filled with predominantly millennial-aged individuals. She took a question from one member on stage with her who referenced the divisions in this country, and his question became pointed.

Mentioning how frequently people are shouted down, and speech they don’t like is silenced, he asked specifically: “How do you believe we can move forward as a nation, to heal this cultural division, and revive respect for free speech rights of political opponents?”

“Put me down as one who just says, ‘Don’t make a fuss – if somebody’s going to come and speak, let them speak.”

I know. Borderline jarring. Not the words, mind you — those are just fine and salient. But the fact they spewed forth from the maw of one of this country’s foreleast political figures is the shocker. Watch the video and see if you have the same unsettling feeling in trying to reconcile the paradox on display.

See, this display gives a similar sense of dysphoria that you get from the uncanny valley.

Pelosi even realized she had strayed afield from the borders of her usual agenda. She made mention how this position would not go over well in her home district of San Francisco, and on this note she is also correct. She may have let fly with this Constitutional pragmatism given she was safely in the confines of Georgetown University. (Thus, the tepid applause to her radical free speech views.)

It remains to be seen if she has a political price to pay for this controversial position, given the region from where she originates. After all, though just outside her district, Berkley has been the focal point of much of the campus hostility towards opposing viewpoints.

It was just last fall when tensions rose in the city when a group intended to stage what it dubbed a “free speech” rally. Counter protestors promised tensions until the day before the organizers called off the event. The counter-protesters in one area had a pinata made to look like Donald Trump that they set on fire.

This could serve as a harbinger of what may be ahead for Nancy Pelosi if her harsh support for the First Amendment becomes revealed in her district.