Summary
Frustrated by Democratic leaders’ failure to counter Donald Trump’s swift policy changes, grassroots liberals are pushing for a Tea Party-style insurgency within their party.
Anger is mounting over leadership’s lack of urgency, ineffective messaging, and perceived disconnect from voters.
Activists and strategists argue Democrats must shift from defending institutions to telling human-centered stories that resonate emotionally.
Some are calling for primary challenges and new leadership to counter Trump’s influence. Reform efforts are already underway, as progressives seek a more aggressive and responsive Democratic Party.
By “near their Tea Party moment,” do you mean that a left-wing version of the Koch brothers is stirring the pot and quietly financing a bunch of organizations to pretend there’s a grassroots movement that will end up solely benefiting the people at the top of the food chain? Because that’s what the Tea Party was.
Hopefully, they mean the Boston one that happened 250 years ago.
Thats what I was thinking too
You forgot the bootstrapping from FauxNews
The aims of the tea party were bullshit, but you can’t argue with the effectiveness of their methods. The Democratic party needs to change direction, and the left can learn from how the tea party forced a change without being inauthentic political hacks.
“Activists and strategists argue Democrats must shift from defending institutions to telling human-centered stories that resonate emotionally.”
No, they need to actually defend institutions instead of just saying they are working on organizing themselves enough to start trying to defend institutions. We don’t want stories we want actions.
“Activists and strategists argue Democrats must shift from defending institutions to telling human-centered stories that resonate emotionally.”
First of all, this is Nü “newsweek” so fuck that - and secondly this is true-to-form Democratic consultant garbage.
Remember the first trump turd circus? Immediately after that kicked off Dems jumped into action with their new angle to attract voters: “Better Jobs”
Yeah not shitting, that was their genius retort to russian bombing of the presidential election. It reeked of 40 years of milquetoast.
I think their suggestion has merit. I think they’re basically suggesting a little of this.
The Tea Party movement was a hostile takeover of the Republican party be the far right that didn’t complete until Trump in 2016. They literally had a guy who created a pledge for Republicans to sign that said they’d never vote for new taxes.
Progressives and other democrats that are further left NEED a Tea Party moment. The base is done being taken advantage of and we need to reshape the party and do a country wide approach. And progressives and others on the left need to actually get out to vote in the primaries in 2026 to be able to do this. Kick out the old guard, they’ve repeatedly failed. We can do so much better
And for those that say go for a third party, it is far easier to remake the Democratic party, an existing party with an existing infrastructure, than it is to convince people to vote for a third party that is either new or has existed for a while and never been successful. The green party, the PLS, are distractions. Put that effort into changing the democratic party.
Always remember that the only time in American history the left had significant power was under FDR because we were consistent voters for the Democrats and voted for New Deal Democrats instead of the old guard. If we want to be taken seriously, pull a Tea party.
/Rant over
And for those that say go for a third party, it is far easier to remake the Democratic party, an existing party with an existing infrastructure, than it is to convince people to vote for a third party that is either new or has existed for a while and never been successful. The green party, the PLS, are distractions. Put that effort into changing the democratic party.
By my quick scanning of this page there’s are <45 members of state legislatures around the country, out of >7,500 total state legislators. And 2 out of 535 US Congress members.
45 members out of 7500 is .006%. While that is a tiny amount of success, increasing that to a majority will take decades. The “third parties” in Congress are Independents which is not a formed party like Greens or the PLS like I was talking about. No actual third party has been elected to congress since 1937, according to your very link you provided. Of course I’m not counting Lieberman because his “Third party” was the Connecticut for Lieberman which was literally just for him.
What this government is showing me is that there already a third party and they’re in control. They gave us the two party system so we can point fingers at each other and get tired trying to bring about change.
There is only one rule to follow these days and that’s FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Well I won’t really argue with that. But, which wing of which party is actually trying to use the powers of Congress to fight back against things like Citizens United? If we can all rise up and get more of them in Congress, then we can expect to see a shift away from the oligarchs.
I am WELL past that point personally. I’m past the point of insurrection. I’m to the point of just burn the whole mother fucker down pookie!
I just read The Tea Party - A Brief History by Ronald Formisano. It’s a fascinating read. He talks about the start of the Tea Party movement and how it grew to a political powerhouse by 2012.
It was written contemporaneously with the movement and before MAGA. He walks through how it started as a real grassroots movements that was co-opted and astroturfed by Billionaires. Reading it with a modern perspective, it’s almost quaint. Formisano (and may others) talk about how the movement is so unique because it doesn’t have any de facto leader.
It was primed and ready for the taking in 2016.
They not like us
They not like us
Dun dun dah dun…
