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On Monday, the Hill reported that the Tea Party group FreedomWorks is planning to counter the surge in liberal activism with new rallies and appearances at town halls where constituents angry about the potential repeal of Obamacare have confronted Republican members of Congress in recent weeks. From the Hill:

FreedomWorks, a nonprofit with a network of 6 million members, is best remembered as one of the groups responsible for organizing and coordinating the original Tea Party protests of 2009 and 2010, then under the leadership of lobbyist and former congressman Dick Armey. Their work was derided by some as astroturfing designed to make highly planned events look like spontaneous, grassroots protests. From ThinkProgress:

So why is FreedomWorks waiting until March to get started this time around? Because, after years of decrying the Affordable Care Act, Republicans still haven't figured out what they want to do about it. The reason FreedomWorks is waiting until mid-March to ramp up its grassroots engagement on ObamaCare, the Hill writes, is that by then, Brandon said, GOP leaders will have a better idea of which path they are taking on replacement. The GOPs cluelessness about the path forward was on display at a town hall held by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., on Monday and attended by Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times:

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Tea Party Activists Are Planning a Comeback - Slate Magazine (blog)

It's not often that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer sounds like his Obama predecessor Robert Gibbs, but on this, he might as well be reading leftover talking points. Gibbs dismissed the Tea Party town-hall agitation eight years ago as "manufactured anger" reflecting "the Astro-turf nature of grassroots lobbying." Spicer says of the town-hall protests, "It's not these organic uprisings that we've seen through the last several decades the Tea Party was a very organic movement this has become a very paid, Astro-turf-type movement."

What was true in 2009 is true today: In the normal course of things, it's not easy even for a well-funded and -organized group to get people to spend an evening at a school auditorium hooting at their congressman. If these demonstrations are happening in districts around the country, attention must be paid.

This is not to condone the more rancid elements of the Left's ferment (blocking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from entering a Washington, D.C., school was petty thuggishness), nor is it to consider what is happening as nearly as significant as the Tea Party yet.

To become the Left's equivalent of the Tea Party, the protestors will have to persist despite the inevitable legislative defeats on the horizon; organize at the grass-roots level; play in Democratic primaries; make their own party's establishment miserable; and pick off a significant Republican seat in what seems like impossible territory the way Scott Brown did in the Massachusetts special election after the death of Ted Kennedy.

None of this is certain, or necessarily likely. But Democrats deluded themselves in 2009 by disregarding the early signs of fierce resistance to their agenda, and paid the price over and over again for their heedless high-handedness. Republicans shouldn't make the same mistake.

There is nothing to suggest that the Left's town-hall protestors represent anything like a majority of the country. Even an impassioned plurality can make a big impact, though. And if we have learned anything from the Obamacare debate, it is that disturbing the status quo in American health care carries significant downside political risk. Democrats were in that position in 2009; Republicans are now.

The GOP can't and shouldn't back off their promise to repeal Obamacare. But the party should re-double its commitment to do as much as it can to replace the law simultaneously with its repeal. At the prodding of President Donald Trump, congressional Republicans have been moving in this direction. It behooves the party as a policy and political matter to show that its legislation won't lead to millions of people losing their insurance and won't return to the pre-Obamacare status quo for people with pre-existing conditions.

With a consensus on replacement, Republicans would be much better equipped to push back at contentious town halls, and to potentially defuse at least some of the fear and anger engendered by their health-care agenda. The alternative is to look the other way, avoid town halls, and hope that after the repeal passes everything calms down. This was essentially the Democratic tack in 2009, and how did that work out?

comments.lowry@nationalreview.com

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Rich Lowry: Today's protests aren't the Tea Party yet - Salt Lake Tribune

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This broadcast is a part of the#OnPoint100 Day Spotlight.

Democrats take a page from the Tea Party, as grassroots resistance to President Trump grows. Well look at the movement.

There were plenty of digs at President Trump at last nights Grammy Awards. And A Tribe Called Quest full on chanting for resistance. But Hollywood doesnt win elections or stop policies people do. Right now a lot of Democrats are looking to what may seem an unlikely model: the Tea Party. It roared to life in opposition to Barack Obama. Now progressives are taking a Tea Party page to Donald Trump. Will it work for the left? This hour On Point, well ask them. And well ask the Tea Party. Tom Ashbrook

Ezra Levin, president of the board of Indivisible, a grassrootspolitical organization. Also author of the group's guide to resisting President Donald Trump's agenda. (@ezralevin)

John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. (@NicholsUprising)

Vanessa Williamson, fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. Co-author, with Theda Skocpol, of the book, "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism." (@V_Williamson)

Taylor Budowich, executive director of the grassroots political organization, the Tea Party Express. (@taylorbudowich)

Associated Press:For Trump, a solitary start to life in the White House "Around 6:30 each evening, Secret Service agents gather in the dim hallways of the West Wing to escort Donald Trump home.For some presidents, the short walk between the Oval Office and the White House residence upstairs is a lifeline to family and a semblance of normal life. Others have used the grand residence for late night entertaining and deal-making with lawmakers. For Trump, life in the White House residence is so far a largely solitary existence."

New York Times: To Stop Trump, Democrats Can Learn From the Tea Party "The Tea Partys ideas were wrong, and their often racist rhetoric and physical threats were unacceptable. But they understood how to wield political power and made two critical strategic decisions. First, they organized locally, focusing on their own members of Congress. Second, they played defense, sticking together to aggressively resist anything with President Obamas support. With this playbook, they rattled our elected officials, targeting Democrats and Republicans alike."

POLITICO:Inside the protest movement that has Republicans reeling -- "The group isnt planning to limit itself to the town-hall resistance to repealing Obamacare that its becoming known for. Indivisible has marshaled demonstrations against Trumps Cabinet nominees and his immigration order, and its partnering with the organizers of the Jan. 21 Womens March for a new action next week."

This program aired on February 13, 2017.

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An Indivisible Democratic Tea Party - WBUR

Politics Podcast: Tea Party Parallels FiveThirtyEight As anti-Trump protesters flock to congressional town halls around the country, lots of political observers are drawing parallels to the tea party protests of 2009. But are they accurate? The New York Times's Kate Zernike joins the FiveThirtyEight ...

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Politics Podcast: Tea Party Parallels - FiveThirtyEight

New York Post

A liberal Tea Party, the pope helps spring a terrorist and other notable commentary New York Post The Washington Post's Paul Kane suggests the tide of anti-Trump protests may be the germ of a new, liberal tea party that Democrats hope will do for them what the populist Tea Party did for Republicans. But he also warns that grass-roots movements can ... Anti-Trump fervor sparks a new, liberal kind of tea party activismDetroit Free Press all 2 news articles »

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A liberal Tea Party, the pope helps spring a terrorist and other notable commentary - New York Post