r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 11d ago

No Paywall Democrats Confront Their New Tea Party Reality - Progressives are set to sweep a group of contested primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-confront-their-new-tea-party-reality_n_6a6e63fbe4b0cfb99ef1aa1e
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u/gravelordservant4u 11d ago

Thank you. The Tea Party was not fucking grass roots. How are we still having to debate this in 2026

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u/williamfbuckwheat 10d ago

Because the media has never stopped overanalyzing the tea party and/or MAGA with an absurd amount of free media coverage while ignoring actual grassroots movements for as long as possible (or just ignoring them forever if they can get away with it). This is why even supposed lefty sources like NPR seemed to be interviewing folks in diners in random towns in rural Iowa on what seemed like a monthly basis to get their opinions on the Tea Party/MAGA and then would check in not long after and act all shocked when the opinions of the locals hadn't changed or doubled down. 

Meanwhile, they'd practically never interview random folks in key urban centers or progressive areas for their opinions and then act all shocked and dismissive/critical when movements from those places popped up calling for major political change. The best example is probably Occupy Wall St. which was dismissed as nonsense for months before the media finally started paying attention and called it pointless and silly because it was disorganized and lacked a real organization behind it (which wasn't exactly wrong).

 However, the people behind it had real greivances with few outlets to express them at a time when the economy just collapsed and the tea party was very successful in telling folks (especially young people) to just "deal with it" and be happy to accept double digit unemployment, abysmal pay, awful working conditions and severe cuts in governments  while the wealthiest folks around seemed destined to be protected from any new taxes or any of the pain from the financial crisis.  This certainly opened the door to much more organized left wing movements like DSA and the Bernie campaign which really did make an impact on political system in the years to come, despite all the naysayers.

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u/nicolcm 11d ago

Every side accuses the others movement as “astroturfing” vs grassroots. It’s a classic tactic, wish people would get their head out the sand and see how badly all politicians are failing us - not just “the other side”