Lessons from the Tea Party: What to Do and What Not To

 

Hurray!  Congratulations to the Democrats on their big win!  And congratulation to all activists who made it possible.

But can we now consider what the Republican activists -- the Tea Party and MAGA -- have done and learn some lessons from them, both in what to do and in what not to do?

Do's:

• Do feel free to start your movement on the streets, marching and protesting.  You feel strongly and it is a good place to start.

Do bring your movement in off the streets and start organizing.

Do vote, become an electoral force, and build a presence in the corridors of power.  That was where Occupy Wallstreet and (ultimately) Black Lives Matter went wrong.  They never moved past the street stage.

But the Tea Party and MAGA have also fallen short in ways and for reasons that seem obvious to us as outsiders.  So why are we doing the same thing now?  Here are some don's that we should have learned but apparently haven't.

Don't:

Don't mistake the voice of the activists for the voice of the people.  Activists see themselves as political outsiders and believe that since they are new to elective office, they must be closer to the Will of the People.  They invariably see the act of winning the votes of your fellow citizens as something dirty that makes you a sell-out, and elitist, and out of touch.  But in fact, fellow citizens do tend to elect people who agree with them, and elective officials tend to understand that staying in touch with the wishes of their constituents is the key to staying in office.  Activists, in the meantime, tend to associate with other activists and lose touch with the views of ordinary low-information voters.  They tend to assume that they speak with the Voice of the People by virtue of not being contaminated by the vote of their fellow citizens.  On serious reflection, this is a strange view, regardless of which side it comes from.

Don't mistake intensity of belief for ubiquity of belief.  Right wing activists were just sure that because they were passionately opposed to abortion, or Planned Parenthood, or determined to repeal Obamacare, everyone else must share their beliefs and the secret to electoral success must be to be as hardcore on these issues as possible.  And we all know how that turned out for them.  Well, in place of abortion or Planned Parenthood, or government spending, try wokeness or transgender issues or opposition to Israel or whatever the latest progressive cause is.  Just because you feel strongly about a cause does not mean that everyone shares your belief.  And to be fair, Democrats are doing this to some degree -- focusing on economic issues and fighting corruption that everyone seems to agree on and setting the more controversial issues aside -- for now.

Don't be lemmings with suicide vests.  In other words, don't insist on taking your entire party over the cliff for some cause that you consider important but that is not widely popular.  The Freedom Caucus kept pulling crazy stunts like shutting down the government to force a repeal of Obamacare, or trying to force an overnight one-third cut in government spending by refusing the raise the debt ceiling no matter what.  Not only did they fail to achieve any of these goals, but the Freedom Caucus ended up getting less than they otherwise might have because the rest of the party was forced to cut deals with the Democrats to essential things like reopen the government or avoid a global financial crisis caused by a debt ceiling breach.  This put Democrats in a position to drive a hard bargain and leave Republicans with less than they would have gotten if the Freedom Caucus had been less dogmatic and more willing to cut a deal.  Democrats have a large enough majority now to make that less of an issue, but that large majority won't last forever.

Don't think that changing leaders will change the overall makeup of the party caucus.  Remember how Republicans kept going through one Speaker after another because none of them were able to deliver the repeal of Obamacare and whatever other cause the activists demanded?  Remember how Congress was brought to a complete halt as Republicans couldn't muster a majority for any Speaker and finally ended up setting for Mike Johnson?  Remember how ridiculous they looked doing that and all the laughs our side got at their expense?  So why on God's green earth do we want to do exactly the same thing now?  Party leaders have to hold together the various factions of their party and get enough votes to pass legislation.  If the overall party membership is too moderate to pass what the activists want, changing leaders will not change the minds of the members.  There is no shortcut by choosing the right leaders.  In the end, to get what you want, you will have to change the minds of the more moderate members.  And to change the minds of the more moderate members, we will have to convince the general public.  

And finally, don't forget the underlying differences between the parties.  Republicans can get by with a suicide caucus because in the end Republicans don't really want to govern.  We do.  So let's act like it.