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FreedomWorks was a central organ in the tea party. The group held rallies that flexed and motivated its grassroots supporters. Upstart conservatives courted the group and relied on its money. The establishment of the GOP feared and resented FreedomWorks.

Now FreedomWorks is no more. FreedomWorks dissolved on May 8.

Politicos story on the late groups tumultuous final years frames it as a clash of ideologies, a dissonance between the libertarian principles of FreedomWorks leadership and the MAGA-style populism of its members.

Former FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon also used this terminology, saying he did my best to balance the two competing ideologies, which Politico describes as libertarianism vs. populism.

This is a standard framing in Washington, where insiders tend to see things in terms of policy preferences, principles, and beliefs. But if were being more precise, the tension here wasnt a clash between ideologies.

Some questions:

While the folks at the head of FreedomWorks tended to be libertarian, was libertarianism really what the group embodied and advanced?

Likewise, does it make sense to characterize, as Politico does, populism as the anti-libertarian force within FreedomWorks and the broader Right?

It doesnt, I believe.

Heres a more telling quote from that same article: A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist, Brandon said. So you look at the base and that just kind of shifted.

Again, I think Brandon is mostly but not entirely correct here. The key point is that the new activists came in with Donald Trump. Thats important because of what the former president represents.

And what does Trump represent? Its not exactly populism. It would be more precise to say Trump represents Trump.

Our staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions, Brandon wrote in one internal memo.

Thats more accurate, and its more telling. This isnt really about ideas and policies as much as its about personalities. And this is the key to understanding the transition from the tea party era to the Trump Era.

The tea party era was characterized by candidates who were free market ideologues, but the wave they rode into power was mostly an anti-establishment wave. In the days after the Wall Street bailout, Obamacare, and the porky stimulus, anti-establishment meant anti-big government, and so it played nicely with libertarianism.

In other words, you could call 2010-era FreedomWorks a populist force.

FreedomWorks and the somewhat similar Club for Growth were mostly arrayed against big business and K Street lobbyists back in 2010. In contested primaries, the establishment candidates had lobbyist and big business funding, while the tea party candidates had FreedomWorks and Club for Growth funding.

Mike Lee, one of the marquee tea party insurgents in 2010, defeated Bob Bennett, who was branded Bailout Bob.

Back then, a few of us touted a libertarian populism as the central ideology of the tea party. FreedomWorks was with us in this populist stance.

Well, come 2016, GOP populism looked different, and we gained a more refined understanding of the energy behind the tea party. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) put it best:

All this time, Massie explained, I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans. But after some soul searching, I realized when they voted for Rand and Ron [Paul] and me in these primaries, they werent voting for libertarian ideas they were voting for the craziest son of a bitch in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class.

Real leaders dont merely ride waves; they direct the forces. Trump rode in a populist wave, and he steered American conservatism and populism toward a very specific cause: himself.

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This left the erstwhile libertarian populists saddled with a base that didnt care about lower taxes or taking on cronyism but instead cared about supporting Trump and punching the media in the face.

There are plenty of organizations that could do that better than FreedomWorks. The groups time had come and gone.

See the article here:
What was the tea party? What is Trumpism?: On populism and FreedomWorks - Washington Examiner