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Demonstrators protest on the National Mall in Washington, DC, for the Womens march on January 21, 2017. Andrew Caballero-reynolds / AFP / Getty Images

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WASHINGTON Since President Donald Trumps election, massive protests have sprung up around the country and factions of the Democratic party have demanded that elected officials obstruct any and all of the presidents nominees and policies.

If that sounds familiar, its because the story resembles that of how the tea party came to be, loathe though Democrats may be to admit it. And while they bristle at the comparison, the similarities are striking enough that some members of the party say they could stand to take a page out of the tea partys playbook.

Especially appealing is the tea partys bottom-up approach to organizing and challenging the status quo, leading some Democrats to push for a renewed grassroots effort within the party one that appears to be occurring organically and, potentially changes in leadership.

Most notably, one progressive group is threatening to primary more establishment Democrats, a move used with great effect by tea party groups for years. Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said that is what the public can expect to see from progressives in future elections.

Its time for progressives and the grassroots to take matters into our own hands and craft the winning strategy, Green said, adding that progressives will not hesitate to make an example of some establishment Democrats particularly those facing reelection in red states, who may be incentivized to vote with the Trump administration on some issues.

There are others on the same page.

There is a growing divide in the party between those who want to echo the tea party by aggressively opposing Republicans proposals in order to capitalize on the obvious energy among liberals in the wake of Trumps inauguration and those who want to work with Republicans where they can to avoid bringing government to a screeching halt. The latter group fears earning the obstructionist label theyve often pinned on the tea party.

But for years the party has been consistently losing ground on the local, state and federal levels, and some Democrats say enough is enough.

What the tea party did to its credit is they organized. They went and got involved in school board elections, local select board elections, mayoral elections, so they organized at the local level, and that energy helped them win some successes a few years ago at the congressional and even senate level, Vermont Rep. Peter Welch told BuzzFeed News. Thats essential for us in the Democratic party to get back to our roots.

Others, including those in Democratic leadership, argue that their policies are in fact winning, pointing to Hillary Clintons popular vote victory as proof. The policies that we have promoted and pursued were supported by more Americans in this last election than supported Donald Trump. Period, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said. Sowe dont have to be concerned our policies did not enjoy the majority support.

If substantial party changes do not end up coming from the top down, there are signs that it will still come from within. Rep. Ruben Gallego told BuzzFeed News that he expects and hopes there will be more aggression from Democrats on policy moving forward, marrying everyday government functions to the partys election strategy.

We do not, as Democrats, receive any credit for half-measures. And I think the half-measures that weve done on policies for the last eight years for President Obamas tenure hasnt been rewarded politically. So doing a middle-of-the-road for the sake of doing middle-of-the-road legislation and policy is not recognized and does not end up being politically fruitful, Gallego told BuzzFeed News.

In no way should we be participating in anything that is just for the sake of for us to say that we are bipartisan. Those days are done.

South Carolina state Senator Vincent Sheheen, who ran his first failed bid for governor in 2010 against Nikki Haley, argued that now that Democrats have lost the White House, the inner rot of the party is more evident.

I think that nationally the party is disconnected from real America, and I dont think nationally the leadership has learned, and if it had, it would have changed, Sheheen said. Its an opportunity for the party to change now that the presidency is controlled by Republicans because before the problem for the party was really masked or hidden by the fact that a Democrat was the president.

Sheheen added that he thinks there is room for Democrats to learn from the tea party movement, particularly the idea that voters lose faith when the same people continue to be in charge.

Following the 2016 election, the top Democrats in Congress are now essentially the same: Sen. Chuck Schumer from New York and California Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi has been the top House Democrat since 2002 and Schumer, new to his position as Senate Minority Leader, has also long held leadership roles within the party. He was third in Senate leadership until the last Democratic leader, Harry Reid, retired at the end of 2016.

While Democrats have given progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders a seat at the table and opened up leadership opportunities in the House for some of the less-experienced politicians, only the chairmanship of Democratic National Committee, which is up for grabs, remains a seat where the party could see drastic change in leadership.

Even if Democratic elected officials are resistant to change, they may still be pulled further to the left by their base and peripheral organizations like PCCC in the vein of the ones the tea party used to fund and promote its brand.

Like many tea party groups early on in the movement, the PCCC has earned the ire of Washington Democrats, who often dismiss it as a loud voice thats too focused on causing a fuss and raising money than actually succeeding in shifting policy or electing Democrats.

PCCCs Green pointed to the Virginia gubernatorial primary later this year as a high-profile test. Former Rep. Tom Perriello, a one-term congressman, is running a populist campaign against a better-established opponent, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who has the backing of current Gov. Terry McAuliffe and both of the states senators. The primary will take place in June.

Thats going to become a proxy battle versus the Democratic establishment and the new emboldened progressive movement within the Democratic party, Green said.

Green also put Democrats in red states on notice, saying that those with upcoming re-elections stand to lose if they do not vote against Trumps agenda and nominees.

Blue state Democrats may not escape the PCCCs ire either. The group put out a statement criticizing Delaware Sen. Chris Coons for saying that Trumps Supreme Court nominee should get a hearing and a vote in the Senate, calling on Democrats to call his office and let Coons know this is NOT what Democratic backbone needs to look like.

The PCCC did not respond to multiple requests for comment, however, on if theyd do the same to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom the group has labeled their North Star in the past. Warren has been criticized by liberals on social media for voting for another Trump nominee Ben Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi insists there is not a division within the party between establishment Democrats who want to play ball with Republicans where they can and progressives who want push further to the left.

Obviously we pledged to the American people a responsibility to find common ground with the Republicans as we did with President Bush, Pelosi said at a press conference, adding that Democrats stand ready to do so with Republicans. When we dont find common ground, well stand our ground. On the Affordable Care Act, we are standing our ground. But theres no division, no.

For very different reasons, like President Obama did for the tea party, President Trump has given liberals a cause to unite against. Democrats rush to point to the Womens March on Washington, one of the largest protests in DCs history, as a sign that their voters have been set in motion. Since the march, protesters have continued to gather across the country to rail against Trump and his administration.

House Democrats will continue to discuss how we can harness the energy we saw on Saturday, and we are unified in representing the plurality of Americans who did not vote for Donald Trump and his agenda, Hoyer said in a statement to BuzzFeed News after the march took place.

Even before the inauguration and the march, constituents have been showing up to representatives district offices and events to protest the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Tyler Law, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that they are working to harness and sustain that energy ahead of the 2018 elections.

The DCCC is focused on engaging voters on the importance of the midterms, so that we get people to channel their energy and organizing abilities towards wins at the ballot box in 2018, Law said.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

Were not going to oppose something just because the name Trump is on it, Schumer said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. But when he proposes things that are against our values and there are many different issues where that will be the case then we will oppose him tooth and nail.

Many Democrats are game to stick to that strategy, in part because they fear the outcome of what a full-blown tea party movement of the left would bring.

There is a strong temptation to take exactly the same path. But I would submit to you that that path got us to Donald Trump, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro said in a BuzzFeed Brews interview. I believe that we should resist his bad policies, we should strongly resist them, but whatever course we take, we cant end up with a counterpart on the left like him.

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Democrats Consider Whether To Take A Page From The Tea Party's Playbook - BuzzFeed News

The State

Letters: Who defended tea party protesters? The State You could have fooled me. I don't remember all of the First Amendment advocates coming out of the woodwork back when people were criticizing tea party members who were assembling to protest during the Obama administration. Obviously, some people ...

See more here:
Letters: Who defended tea party protesters? - The State

Let the Democrats form a tea party-type group

After reading Froma Harrop's column, "Democrats must protest by vote," (R&L, Feb. 1) I was left with a question.

She states, Many Democrats hope the massive demonstrations against Donald Trump will evolve into a Democratic tea party. Isnt her idea of forming a tea party to get votes the same idea conservative Republicans had?

I wonder if she remembers what happened to the tea party back then. Remember Lois Lerner and the IRS? Harrop may think a tea party-type group could win votes for Democrats in 2018. I say that is a wonderful idea. Form a Democratic Tea Party!

But then, I ask myself if she remembers what happened to the conservative tea party in 2013. The IRS was directed to play games using government departments to work against the tea party's request for tax-exempt status.

The Democratic Tea Party might have to go through same process? Oh, can you hear the squeals all across the media? My sweet tea would taste a little sweeter if they decide to form a Democratic Tea Party.

See the rest here:
LETTER: Let the Democrats form a tea party-type group - Statesville Record & Landmark

The Tea Party, which began in the early years of the Obamas administration, had a lot less support than todays anti-Trump Womens marches.

You can see that in this graph of data from the Washington Post, which in late January 2017 asked about support for the Womens marches, and earlier queried about Tea Party support in April 2010.

The difference is substantial 60% support for the Womens marches and just 27% for the Tea Party.

Do the popularity of these protests matter? Yes.

Tea Party activities ramped up in opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Repealing the ACA, even if theres some sort of substitute (which would cover fewer people with weaker coverage), will cause further protests.

The Womens marches were remarkable, with millions gathered through the country and the world. More participated in Washington, D.C. than attended the Trump inaugural.

Its increasingly easy to organize events via text message and social media. Just look at what happened last weekend as people quickly gathered all around the country to protest Trumps Executive Order on refugees and immigrants.

The Tea Party had an impact on the 2010 midterm elections, which then limited what President Obama was able to accomplish. Its focused energy influenced Republican legislators to oppose Obama administration policy and brought voters to the polls.

If these early anti-Trump protests and associated political activities letter-writing campaigns and the like continue, remain highly popular and even grow, they will likely make a real political difference.

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Protests against Trump are far more popular than the Tea Party ever - Bangor Daily News

At the red-hot center of President Trump's first 10 days in office has been his strategist Stephen Bannon, who proclaims a global populist movement for "Judeo-Christian" values and against radical Islam.

Bannon is a passionate ideologue who is the intellectual center of the new administration. For nearly a decade he has been advertising his desire to turn America and the world upside down. He's now doing exactly that. Trump's "America First" trade policies and his anti-refugee travel ban are early glimmers of the revolution Bannon has long been advocating.

As the uproar over Trump's actions grows, it's important to distinguish between policies that are politically controversial and those that actually undermine the country's foundations. The haphazard executive order banning travel by people from seven Muslim-majority countries seems to be the latter: It strikes at America's core values.

The folly of the travel ban is that it is producing the opposite of what Trump says he wanted. It weakens America's alliances, emboldens our adversaries and puts the country at greater risk. It's not just misguided and heartless; it's dangerous. It affirms the Islamic State's narrative that it's at war with an anti-Muslim America.

The weakness of Bannon's strategy in these first days of Trump's presidency has been its impatience and disorganization. The White House's opening salvoes have been rushed, poorly planned shots that resulted in what Sen. John McCain called a "self-inflicted wound." In his seeming counsel to Trump, Bannon appears to have overlooked Benjamin Franklin's famous advice: "Haste makes waste."

Some critics have argued that Bannon is a white nationalist and, even, a neo-Nazi. What follows is a more measured account, sticking to his own explanations of how he sees the world and seeks to overturn the establishment's network of trade and security policies.

As with many revolutionaries, Bannon's story is that of a wealthy man who came to see himself as a vanguard for the masses. He rose from a middle-class life in Richmond, Virginia, through an uneventful stint with the Navy; but his life changed after he enrolled at Harvard Business School, joined Goldman Sachs, founded an investment firm, and made a fortune. He began directing conservative agitprop documentaries in 2004, but the 2008 financial crisis was a turning point. Bannon saw it as a betrayal of working people, and he embraced the tea party's conservative revolt against Republican and Democratic elites.

Bannon gained a powerful platform in 2012 when he became chairman of the hard-right Breitbart.com after the death of its founder, Andrew Breitbart. In an April 2010 speech to a tea party gathering in New York that was posted on YouTube, Bannon's radical rhetoric evoked the 1960s and fused left and right: "It doesn't take a weatherman to tell you which way the wind blows, and the wind blows off the high plains of the country through the prairie, and lighting a fire that's going to burn all the way to Washington."

By 2014, Bannon saw himself leading what he called a "global tea party movement" against a financial elite that he described as "the party of Davos." In a summer 2014 speech broadcast to a conference inside the Vatican, he railed against Wall Street bailouts and "crony capitalists." Racists and anti-Semites might get attracted to this movement, he said, "but there's always elements who turn up at these things, whether it's militia guys or whatever . . . it all gets kind of washed out, right?"

The rise of the Islamic State in 2014 gave Bannon a new rallying cry: "We are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism," he told the Vatican audience. "I believe you should take a very, very, very aggressive stance against radical Islam."

Breitbart's London branch became a leading advocate of "Brexit," and on the day Britain voted to leave the European Union, it thundered: "There's panic in the skyscrapers. A popular revolution against globalism is underway." Bannon pressed that theme after Trump's victory, telling Breitbart's radio show on Dec. 30 it was only the "top of the first inning."

Last Friday's travel ban echoed themes Bannon has developed over a half-dozen years. It brought cheers from the right-wing parties in Europe that are Bannon's allies. "Well done," tweeted Dutch populist Geert Wilders. "What annoys the media and the politicians is that Trump honors his campaign promises," tweeted French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen.

Bannon undeniably has a powerful radical vision. But this time, he may have blundered. The travel ban has triggered a counter-revolt among millions of Americans who saw his target as the Statue of Liberty.

David Ignatius writes a foreign affairs column. He has also written eight spy novels. "Body of Lies" was made into a 2008 film starring Leonard DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. He began writing his column in 1998. To read more of his reports, Click Here Now.

Washington Post Writers Group.

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Bannon Leading a 'Global Tea Party Movement' - Newsmax