David A. Graham: What Would a Liberal Tea Party Look Like?

"A new president has taken office, elected in response to widespread economic dissatisfaction. Now he’s trying to make big changes to the government, and some voters are upset. They’re angry at the president’s party for backing the changes, and they’re angry at the opposition party for not doing more to stop it.

That’s a fitting description of what’s going on now, but I was thinking of 2009, when the Tea Party movement erupted amid Barack Obama’s attempt to pass major health-care reform. Over the past week, some signs have emerged of a shift in the national mood that feels similar to what the country experienced back then. As the effects of Elon Musk’s rampage through the federal government are starting to be felt, some people are getting angry. Trump’s net approval rating is slipping slightly. Americans are upset that he’s not doing more to fight inflation. A small number of Republican elected officials are timidly voicing their concerns about certain Trump moves. And at town halls across the country, members of Congress are getting earfuls.

“How can you tell me that DOGE, with some college whiz kids from a computer terminal in Washington, D.C., without even getting into the field, after about a week or maybe two, have determined that it’s OK to cut veterans’ benefits?” a man who described himself as a Republican and an Army veteran asked Representative Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma.

“Why is the supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?” a man asked Representative Rich McCormick of Georgia. (He’s the congressman who recently suggested that students should work to earn school lunches.)

“The executive can only enforce laws passed by Congress; they cannot make laws,” a lawyer from Huntsville, Texas, chided Representative Pete Sessions. “When are you going to wrest control back from the executive and stop hurting your constituents?”

All three of these districts are strongly Republican, but Republicans aren’t the only ones taking flak. Democratic voters’ frustration with their party’s leaders, who are widely seen as either flat-footed or acquiescent, is growing. At a town hall in New York, a man told Democratic Representative Paul Tonko that he was happy to see him demonstrating outside the Department of Education, but he wanted more. “I thought about Jimmy Carter and I thought about John Lewis, and I know what John Lewis would have done. He would have gotten arrested that day,” the man said. “Make them outlaw you. We will stand behind you; we will be there with you. I will get arrested with you.”

For anyone who was paying attention during the rise of the Tea Party, the echoes are unmistakable, although the screen resolution on cellphone videos of these encounters has improved in the past 16 years. With Democrats out of the White House and the minority in the House and Senate (and with a conservative majority on the Supreme Court), many on the left have been wallowing in despair. Now some are seeing signs of hope. The Tea Party helped Republicans gain six seats in the Senate and 63 seats in the House in the 2010 election. It changed the trajectory of Obama’s presidency, launched the careers of current GOP stars including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and paved the way for Donald Trump.

If this is progressives’ 2009 moment, though, what would a Tea Party of the left look like? Simply attempting to create an inverse of the original Tea Party seems to me like a fairly obvious loser—no one wants a cheap dupe. In 2010, liberal activists formed something they called the “Coffee Party USA.” That got plenty of press attention but didn’t have nearly the impact (or organic reach) of the Tea Party.

To recover their mojo, Democrats need some sort of organizing principle, real or purported. The Tea Party claimed to be concerned with fiscal discipline and limited government—activists organized around the Affordable Care Act. In retrospect, that premise is hard to take at face value. Many Tea Party supporters and prominent politicians ended up being Trump supporters, even though he blew up the national deficit and has made dubious promises not to cut social-insurance programs. (More interesting are figures such as Senator Rand Paul, an early Tea Party star who continues to sometimes clash with Trump on topics including foreign policy, spending, and intelligence.) What connects the Tea Party and Trump is racial backlash to Obama, the first Black president. Polls and studies found a connection between Tea Party support and racial-status anxiety, resentment, and prejudice.

One challenge of creating a liberal version of the Tea Party is that what liberals want right now is so basic. The opposite of what Trump has done in his first month in office is good governance—careful, measured administration. But that doesn’t make a good bumper sticker, and it doesn’t inspire crowds.

Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat, has warned against Democrats trying to offer voters a “Diet Coke” version of Trumpian populism. “Voters who ordered a Coca-Cola don’t want a Diet Coke,” he told the New York Times columnist Ezra Klein recently. “There are two different parties. We have to start by understanding who our voters are not and then understanding who our voters could be—and go and try to win them over. If you’re walking to the polls and your No. 1 issue is guns, immigration, or trans participation in sports, you’re probably not going to be a Democratic voter.” Auchincloss said Democrats need to focus instead on voters who are worried about the cost of living.

One possible rallying point for progressives is Elon Musk. Unlike Trump, he has no voter constituency, and polls show that he’s unpopular. Watching the world’s richest man sack park rangers, firefighters, and veterans in the name of bureaucratic efficiency is ripe for political messaging. Anecdotal evidence from town halls suggests widespread anger at Musk. But there are risks to homing in on Musk. Democrats’ attempts to paint Trump as a plutocrat haven’t done much to blunt his populist appeal. Besides, if Musk gets bored or Trump tires of him and pushes him out, the movement will have lost its focal point.

Another option is a revitalization of the anti-Trump resistance that defeated the president in 2020 and led to poor Republican performance in 2018 and 2022. Trump won the 2024 election not so much because the resistance failed but because it dissolved amid frustration with Joe Biden. Key constituencies—suburban white women, Latino voters—that moved toward Trump in the most recent election might turn back against him if they’re reminded of his flaws. Then again, voters who are disgusted with the Democratic Party aren’t guaranteed to return simply because they’re also disgusted with Trump.

Ultimately, Democrats will return to viability only if they’re able to learn from and absorb grassroots energy. One reason the Tea Party was so successful—electorally, at least—was that it capitalized on frustration with Republican leaders but ultimately became subsumed into the GOP. Old leaders such as House Speaker John Boehner were swept out; new candidates ran for offices from school board and dogcatcher up to senator, governor, and president. Democrats could certainly use an infusion of fresh ideas—and new leadership." 

Source:The Atlantic with a look at the opposition to Donald Trump/Elon Musk's form of government.

From The Atlantic

As my colleague Rik Schneider wrote on Friday: 

"If 2017-18 was the resistance where Democrats of all political backgrounds (except for Democrats who voted for Donald Trump) and Conservative Republicans really just donated their time and even careers, to oppose President Donald Trump on everything... (meaning everything that is bad) that movement is all but gone now. Those people, including The New Democrat are still around. But that movement which really just a pro-liberal democracy, Constitution, and rule of law party, ran its course. 

The American values that "The Resistance" were promoting, were not what Independent voters and unfortunately even a lot of mainstream Republicans, and even some blue-collar Democrats, were thinking about when they voted in 2024. The 3 election cycles before 24? Yes. What they were thinking about was, according to the polls: 

Milk, is too expensive, eggs are too expensive, and groceries and energy are too expensive in America, to allow for the Democrats to hang onto power. Or, that's what they were telling the pollsters. Those things are now more expensive than they were in October. But in Trump World, they don't allow facts to interfere into a political argument. 

So to go to what Tim Miller and Adam Kinzinger are talking about: we need a positive pro-democratic movement, that relates to the problems that the new Trump Administration is creating for America... 

From The New Democrat

Before I go much further into this, I want to lay out what Rik Schneider and I mean when the use the word "liberal", or "liberals". or "liberalism". Because we're not talking about mainstream media's (including The Atlantic's) definition of those terms. We mean it in the liberal democratic sense. We're talking about people who believe in liberal democracy. No some left-wing, big government approach to government, society, and culture, etc. But people who believe in the liberal values that come from liberal democracy: 

"Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy,[1] or substantive democracy,[2] is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal democracy are: elections between or among multiple distinct political parties; a separation of powers into different branches of government; the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society; a market economy with private property; universal suffrage; and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, and political freedoms for all citizens. Substantive democracy refers to substantive rights and substantive laws, which can include substantive equality,[2] the equality of outcome for subgroups in society.[3][4] Liberal democracy emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary, and a system of checks and balances between branches of government. Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies... 

From Wikipedia

So when The New Democrat is talking about a "Liberal Tea Party", we're actually not talking about a Tea Party. That's more of a right-wing populist political term. But we're sure as hell not talking about some socialist (or social democratic, if you prefer) political movement made up of political hipsters, yuppies, and the aging Hippies from the Boomer Generation.

What The New Democrat is talking about is a liberal opposition movement, to Donald Trump/Elon Musk's illiberal and anti-conservative oligarchic/monarch form of government . And the way we you do that is to explain, especially to the Independents, mainstream Republicans, and blue-collar Democrats (the so-called gettable's in politics) that even though Donald Trump and his political company ran on: 

Lowering the cost of living for average Americans, including groceries, energy, housing, etc... those things are actually more expensive now, then they were in October. 

The government jobs that Elon Musk's DOGE are eliminating, those are military jobs, those jobs are in law enforcement, prosecutors air traffic controllers, energy, including not just nuclear power, but our nuclear weapons as well. Remember, Donald Trump and his company also ran on "making America safe again". How you do that when you are firing people from the military, law enforcement, air traffic controllers, the scientists at our nuclear power labs, etc? And you are only firing these people because they might not be 100% loyal to Donald J. Trump, the wannabe king/dictator of America? 

So we're talking about a liberal (in the liberal democratic sense) opposition to Donald J. Trump and his company because of their illiberal and anti-conservative form of government and why their policies are bad for America. And explaining those things to the gettable voters who voted for him. As well as working to fundraise and organize resources for candidates who believe in American liberal democracy and want to conserve it. 

This is not about opposing Donald Trump/Elon Musk and their political company, simply to oppose them and they are part of the Republican Party and we want to put the Democrats back in power, at least in Congress. But to get the far-right in America out-of-power in the Federal Government and in many state and local government's as politically possible. 

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