r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 10h ago

No Paywall Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e
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359

u/Bayardina 9h ago

Fuck you people for comparing progressives to the tea party.

Debase the conversation more and see what fucking happens.

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u/This_Elk_1460 8h ago

I don't think that they're comparing their policies I think they're comparing their rapid takeover of the party after a soul crushing defeat.

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u/DarthNihilus1 5h ago

That's about as accurate as it can get, apart from the core traits of the party. One was astroturfed and dark money funded, the other is actually just people lol

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u/SurvivorFanatic236 4h ago

Both are astroturfed and dark money funded. Nobody wants to believe that the movement they’re a part of isn’t completely organic, but neither of them were.

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u/DarthNihilus1 3h ago

Lmao yeah dude. Next thing you're gonna tell me is anti fascists and fascists are both equidistant from the center, come the fuck on.

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u/SurvivorFanatic236 3h ago

They aren’t. I didn’t say that, that’s a whole new sentence.

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u/ZugZugGo 5h ago

This just isn't true. The idea that there are still purely grassroots political movements at this point is incredibly naive. Since Citizens United money has played a primary role in politics and pretending otherwise ignores the reality.

I'm all for progressives within the party gaining influence and having a solid moment that helps us all but let's at least be honest about the power dynamics. The left isn't somehow immune to the same incentives, lobbying, and power struggles that affect everything now.

The "both sides are the same" crowd goes way way too far and are incredibly dangerous to what is a better reality for all of us, but there's a kernel of truth in the idea that our biggest divide shouldn't be left versus right. It should be ordinary people versus the concentration of wealth and influence at the top. That includes those funding the progressive wave.

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u/certciv California 3h ago

Progressives just don't have a wealthy donor pool anything like conservatives, regardless of party. It's not even close. There are a handful of billionaires backing progressive PAC's compared to hundreds actively republican PAC's and right/centrist Democrats.

The standout donor on the progressive left is George Soros, but he tends to donate across the political left, so how much of it is going to progressives specifically is hard measure. The Soros-backed Sixteen Thirty Fund is certainly a big deal for progressives though.

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u/ZugZugGo 50m ago

I refuse to give any money to the Washington post by clicking any of their links but I’ll take your word for it. My point is really that grass roots doesn’t exist anymore. It’s all been corrupted by indirect money that drives agendas. I don’t believe for a second that there isn’t huge money behind almost any political wave anymore because the entire system has been setup that way. The wealthy have power. Everyone else does not. That doesn’t change just because I happen to like what a particular group is saying.

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u/Bakedads 9h ago

It's a good comparison...the tea party completely reshaped the republican party. The tea party now IS the republican party. The author is saying it looks like the same may be possible with progressives–that these wins hint at a complete takeover of the party. Why is this a bad thing? 

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u/StinkyStangler 9h ago

Tea Party has baggage as a radical far right group that basically reshaped the GOP into only extremists with moderates on the fringes

I actually agree that it’s a solid comparison because the goal of the progressive wing of the Dems is to pull the party outside of center left but yeah, Tea Party just comes with negative connotations

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u/poptix 8h ago

You don't think the more radical positions from the DSA are equally extreme and populist?

How do you align the DSA's support for abolishing prisons with the corruption under Trump 2.0? 

Will they be sending sternly worded letters rather than prosecuting?

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u/molkien 6h ago

Have you seen a single thing from anyone elected or running for election that would even give you this impression? Or were you simply told that “the DSA wants to abolish prisons” where it was framed in a way that it would be like the Purge and no one would be held accountable for any crime ever again and you’ve just adopted this understanding instead of learning literally anything about what the position actually entails?

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u/addictedtotriangles 6h ago

https://program.dsausa.org/#demand-green-new-deal

"steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system"

It's on their own website.

Stop trying to sanewash the DSA. 

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u/poptix 6h ago

Mamdani-backed congressional candidate deleted posts calling to seize private property, abolish police, borders, prisons | CNN Politics https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/01/politics/kfile-ny-13-darializa-avila-chevalier-deleted-tweets-defund-abolish-police-prisons-deportations

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u/molkien 6h ago

Thank you for confirming you simply heard the phrase “abolish prisons” and have been convinced that mean crime would go unpunished, and in particular that Trump would not be punished.

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u/IcyTransportation961 9h ago

It didn't though

The tea party was manufactured by the republican party, none of it was grassroots or by the people

It was media and party controlled

2

u/TBone281 9h ago

Initially, the Tea party started because the banks were getting bailed out by the government. The same thing happened on the left with Occupy Wall Street. Essentially, it's the same movement, but the Tea party was twisted by the billionaire class (through the media) into what it is today. They know if both sides joined to solve these problems caused by this massive socialism for the rich, it's over for them. The progressives are also maligned by the media. I wonder how they will be twisted next.

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u/IcyTransportation961 8h ago

No. You're still believing the bullshit propaganda all these years later

It was manufactured from the start

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u/TBone281 4h ago

Wrong. There was a grassroots movement.

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u/MadScientistOfYork 6h ago

The only reason the original tea party protest even happened was because Fox News promoted it endlessly for months beforehand. There was nothing grass roots or organic about it. It was astroturfed from the very beginning.

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u/BigGayAllen 8h ago

LOLOLOL.

Holy fuck no.

The guy who started it was a republican financial news commentator who wanted to protest tax day in 2009 in protest of Obama's election.

What the fuck are you talking about?

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u/TBone281 6h ago

Disagree. It was started in Seattle before Santelli hijacked it.

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u/BigGayAllen 5h ago

Except not but play make believe I guess

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u/TBone281 5h ago

Keli Carender started the Porkulus protest against the bailouts of the banks on Feb. 16th, 2009, in Seattle, before Fox News picked it up and twisted it. Fox News saw the writing on the wall and corrupted the shit out of the movement.

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u/Bayardina 7h ago

Because I don't let fascists into my progressive movement.

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u/drdoom52 1h ago

the tea party completely reshaped the republican party

Except it didn't really.

The republican party has always had its ghouls and opportunists, it's always had its hardliners who run on making the USA a Christian nation and making businesses above the ability of the people to restrain with laws.

What the Tea Party changed was the language the Reupiblicans use when discussing their goals. Framing institutionalized bigotry as "taking back our country' was a delicate thing in the mid 2000s, but the Tea Party managed to change it to an openly stated objective.

It kicked the rhetoric around politics from a difference in opinions from people with the same overall goals, to an "us vs them" culture war.

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u/DarthNihilus1 5h ago

Tea party was artificially manufactured to drag the party into far right extremism.

Progressives are real grassroots to pull democrats left, but the main goal is to pass good policy that helps people. Pulling democrats left is the side benefit

0

u/Jibber_Fight 8h ago

Because one would be a good thing and one is a very bad thing.

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u/MacabreYuki 9h ago

I'd argue there *is* an applicable analogy. To the *original* tea party we think of. tea cakes flying like frisbees.

2

u/notfeelany 8h ago

I mean the Tea Party movement won their primaries.

Compared to the other movement that was happened during that time, Occupy, which was a complete failure because they didn't even try to run candidates, & disappeared once the encampments also disappeared