An opinion piece in The Washington Post urged Democrats to avoid making the same mistakes conservative Republicans did when they created the Tea Party in the 2000s to take on what they saw as spineless congressional leadership during the Obama administration.
Today, Democratic anger is at its own boiling point after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) voted with Republicans to pass the recent funding bill. Since then, both Republican and Democratic town halls across the country have been packed with constituents demanding answers about the actions of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, among other issues.
In his WaPo opinion piece, columnist Ramesh Ponnuru wrote, "In 2009, Democrats controlled a unified government, and many conservatives were disgusted by what they viewed as their party’s spinelessness — much like progressives feel today."
The Tea Party "propelled strictly conservative, anti-establishment candidates to victory in numerous Republican primaries" but lost others because some of their candidates were seen as being too extreme.
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"The last thing Democrats need is a left-wing Tea Party," Ponnuru argued.
Ponnuru wrote that Tea Party-era Republicans "deluded themselves" into thinking "that their party had lost its popular mandate by spending too much money and compromising too much with Democrats. They mistook voters’ unhappiness with liberal government and a weak economy in 2010 for a deep desire to slash government. The Tea Party gave Republicans a burst of energy but not a solution to their estrangement from the public."
Instead of going the same way as the Republicans, Ponnuru argued that what Democrats really need is a strong leader -- a "very different, Donald Trump," if you will.
"The lack of an unquestioned leader is something Democrats can’t fix immediately," Ponnuru wrote. "In the meantime, they need to cultivate and assess new leaders. But not having anyone who matches Trump in stature comes with a silver lining: It deprives him of a foil, and in the past the public has wearied of Trump when given time to dwell exclusively on him."