Is the Anti-Trump 'Resistance' the New Tea Party?

[Chris]

Is the Anti-Trump 'Resistance' the New Tea Party?

...Today, a new movement—loosely dubbed “the resistance”—has suddenly arisen in visceral reaction to Donald Trump’s election as president, with thousands taking to the streets. For those who remember the Tea Party, it feels like deja vu.

The parallels are striking: a massive grassroots movement, many of its members new to activism, that feeds primarily off fear and reaction. Misunderstood by the media and both parties, it wreaks havoc on its ostensible allies, even as it reenergizes their moribund political prospects; they can ride the wave, but they cannot control it, and they are often at the mercy of its most unreasonable fringe.

There’s no telling, in these early days, where the anti-Trump resistance will lead. But looking back at the Tea Party may hold a clue to what lies ahead, for both the president and his opponents. It burned hot and, in a few years, burned out, without leaving much in the way of lasting institutions—but not before it had reordered Washington and changed the DNA of the political party in its sights....

Don't think so because...

As mad as they were at Obama, the Tea Partiers were really mad at Republicans, who claimed to believe the things they did, but seemed to be just letting the president do whatever he wanted. If the president couldn’t be stopped, they reasoned, it must be because no one was trying hard enough to stop him. Their ostensible allies were selling them out.

[HawkTheSlayer]

Some similarities in assembly are shared but the values and reasons for taking to the streets are vastly different. Tea partiers never used violence or destruction as a useless message.

Taxed Enough Already did indeed have its birth in the resistance to RINO defection and their unwillingness to work for the constituents that elected them.

The organized TEA Party has fizzled but the message is stronger than ever and comes directly from the people. Many RINO's have paid the price and those that remain(far too many IMO) in congress in the trump era will tow the line or be replaced.

The protests didn't work in the 60's or seventies and will have little impact today.

[HawkTheSlayer]

Is the Anti-Trump 'Resistance' the New Tea Party?



Don't think so because...

i see the point your making about the the difference in protest situations between the two groups. Don't fool yourself. There is a very large contingency of Bernie supporters who got screwed royally by the DNC in rigged primaries. As was the TEA Party, they are not happy with how their party has reponded to their voice, either. The head prospect for the new DNC chair admitted yesterday that the primaries were rigged and had to quickly retract the statement.

There is little party unity in the democrat party at the moment. It will take a strong uniter to coordinate a viable coalition.

[Chris]

i see the point your making about the the difference in protest situations between the two groups. Don't fool yourself. There is a very large contingency of Bernie supporters who got screwed royally by the DNC in rigged primaries. As was the TEA Party, they are not happy with how their party has reponded to their voice, either. The head prospect for the new DNC chair admitted yesterday that the primaries were rigged and had to quickly retract the statement.

There is little party unity in the democrat party at the moment. It will take a strong uniter to coordinate a viable coalition.

True, but the "resistance" doesn't seem to be coming from the Sander's camp, more the Hillary camp still sore at losing an upset. I would be more supportive of a Sander's resistance that aimed primarily at Democrats.


You make good points in your first post here. Especially I think with differences in values between the right and the left. There's liberty vs security (dependence) from the government, but deeper in base values, or what Jonathan Haidt calls the moral roots of liberals and conservatives.

[Peter1469]

Fiscal conservatives have reasons to complain. The Trump administration is not going to cut spending over all. Even if they slash some of the more useless agencies- they will increase spending elsewhere.

[Chris]

Here's another difference, one that sees in the resistance very much a Sanders influence, contrary to my view.

Why The ‘Resistance’ Won’t Be The New Tea Party

Democrats never really understood the Tea Party. In fact, they avoided understanding it because they preferred their own narrative to the facts. Most of them remain convinced, for example, that the Tea Party was not a real “grassroots” movement but was “astroturfed” with money from the Koch Brothers. I saw my local Tea Party on the ground level, and nothing could be further from the truth. Most of our local organizers were people who were not highly politically engaged before 2009, and there was nary a Koch dollar in sight, which is why everything was done with volunteer labor on a shoestring budget. It’s the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to the Norman Rockwell vision of old-fashioned town hall politics.

But if the Left still thinks the Tea Party was all just astroturfed, then they’re going to think that they can astroturf their own movement. That’s what strikes me about all this talk about “The Resistance.” It’s still early, but so far, a lot of this seems to be coming from people who were already activists, who were already highly politically engaged. It’s not spontaneous grassroots outrage. It’s the revolutionary vanguard trying to herd the proletariat into following them.

More fundamentally, in trying to make the revolution happen, they’re actually taking the political imbalance that produced the Tea Party movement (and, to some extent, the Trump campaign) and they’re making it worse. They are trying to build their own movement to serve a political agenda that is even more out of step with the voters they need to win back.

A very interesting election analysis at RealClearPolitics concluded that by moving farther to the left—farther toward the politics of Bernie Sander and Elizabeth Warren—Democrats have managed to build up their majorities in urban and coastal enclaves, at the expense of wiping themselves out everywhere else. “This hurts the Democrats’ chances in the Electoral College, and kills them in the House and Senate.” The only way to reverse this is the way Rahm Emanuel did it: revive the conservative Democrat....

In short, it's not really grassroots.

[HawkTheSlayer]

True, but the "resistance" doesn't seem to be coming from the Sander's camp, more the Hillary camp still sore at losing an upset. I would be more supportive of a Sander's resistance that aimed primarily at Democrats.


You make good points in your first post here. Especially I think with differences in values between the right and the left. There's liberty vs security (dependence) from the government, but deeper in base values, or what Jonathan Haidt calls the moral roots of liberals and conservatives.

Absolutely. There is no resistance from the sanders camp. These folks should be furious at the dnc and should be working(protesting) to have their voices heard.

Government is out of control in both size and scope.
One philosophy says we need big government for a multitude of reasons suitable for another thread. Everything from agriculture to Firearms must be subsidized or regulated.
Social programs that require no work for compensation and government jobs that require unionization seem to be a perpetual demand for and from the same ideological group.
Hence you have 'dependence' on the government.

Ive always advocated for smaller government. I never relied on government either. Even when I was unemployed. I spent 25years in the family business after college. When my father retired , I worked in the glass business for nine years, in the refineries and chemical plants as a craftsman after that and when I wasn't Working turnarounds in the refineries(unemployed by choice. Lol) I fished crawfish commercially in the Atchafalaya Basin on and off for twenty years.

There are definitely two vastly different philosophies.
I prefer to be dependent from the government.

At least until my social security arrives in a few years. I know I will never recieve what I have contributed but I'll gladly accept whatever I deserve before the illegals get it all.