It's Time for a Democratic Tea Party
Enough is enough. We need leaders capable of resisting the rising tide of fascism.
The 2009 Tea Party Movement was not large in absolute terms. Of the local rallies, Atlanta was the largest, at an estimated 15,000. The overall movement ended up drawing in around 300,000 overall. That sounds big, but consider that the Women’s March in 2017 drew some 3 million protesters, and the George Floyd protests brought perhaps 15 million to the streets. The Tea Party was too large to be called a niche ideological movement, but it was also far too small to be called a mass movement.
And yet the Tea Party transformed the Republican Party forever, laying the foundations for it to eventually become the party of Trump. It turns out that “It is simply far easier to maintain ideological and emotional cohesion in small groups than in chaotic masses.” The Tea Party had a weak hand and they played it well, with Republican-aligned organizations helping to call up individual figures out of the movement to take office.
It is high time we had a Tea Party of our own. It’s time we started organizing local protests to register our rejection of fascism and our dissatisfaction with the response of Democrats, corporate leadership, and media organizations to the brazen actions of the Musk-Trump regime. It’s time for you, yes you, reader of Liberal Currents, to find people in your community who are just as pissed off as you are and in whom you recognize the qualities of leadership and encourage them to reach out to Run For Something to begin to step up. If you even halfway believe you yourself have what it takes, reach out yourself!
The Democratic Party needs new blood, people willing to actually stand up and fight with every tool we’ve got. People willing to do what it takes to address the chronic failures of Democratic governance at the state and local level, who are not afraid to use institutional power to promote good, liberal outcomes. And the old blood, the elder statesmen riding their incumbency advantage and sitting in office right now—they need to be made aware that unless they wake up and face our moment squarely, they will very soon find themselves replaced.
We don’t need a mass movement. We just need enough people who are willing to step up, change the narrative, and help to create the opposition party we so desperately need.
Featured image is #StoptheShutdown Press Conference with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer, by AFGE
