By Erika D. Smith
The Philadelphia Tribune
https://www.phillytrib.com/
By now, the packed town halls roiling America have become somewhat predictable. For the most part, Democratic politicians show up in Republican congressional districts, only to be interrogated by angry Democratic voters.
As one of those voters recently asked California Rep. Ro Khanna, “When is the Democratic Party going to set aside its peacetime leaders and bring up some wartime leaders?”
“I want to know why in the world the Democratic Party hasn’t fought yet!” said another.
The public squabbling is driving speculation that the party is on the verge of a populist revolt akin to the Tea Party movement that shook the Republican Party after Barack Obama was elected president in 2009.
It’s something that certainly seems possible, especially when reading polls, like the recent one from CNN that found 52% of Democrats and independents believe the party is headed in the wrong direction and 57% think party leaders should be focusing far more of their energy on “stopping the Republican agenda.” Or one from Quinnipiac, showing that most Democrats disapprove of their representatives in Congress — for the first time in the history of that poll, which stretches back 16 years.
Or when watching fed-up Democrats stand in line for hours to see the “Fighting Oligarchy Tour” of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, both unapologetically pugilistic.
But if such a Tea Party-like revolt were to actually happen, what would it look like for Democrats? What do voters want?
Less civility? More cursing? No bipartisanship?
Or maybe an expedited way to revitalize and grow the party by ousting decorum-loving, older members from Congress, and bringing a new generation into leadership? The GOP’s Tea Party did this, picking up seats in the House and Senate in the 2010 midterm elections while pushing out establishment types in the process, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
At the very least, Democrats seem to be looking to replicate the anger-fueled energy (but without the racist conspiracy theories) that the Tea Party movement brought to Republicans who were as lost and demoralized in 2009 as Democrats are today.
It’s a fine line, though, as Khanna is well-aware. The 48-year-old son of Indian immigrants represents Silicon Valley and was co-chair of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
He has hosted some of the largest town halls by a Democrat to date, most recently under the banner of “Benefits over Billionaires.” During three recent stops in Republican-led House districts, he got an earful from about 3,000 voters, mostly Democrats.
Khanna made a particular point of criticizing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is still taking heat for working with Republicans to avert a government shutdown. “The old guard isn’t cutting it,” Khanna, who calls himself a “populist capitalist,” acknowledged.
He also repeatedly, if gently, reminded voters that Democrats don’t have much power in Washington. “We can point fingers, but what we need to do is figure out, how are we going to get past this? What are we going to do to actually stop Musk and Trump and prevent these cuts?” Khanna said. “And the only thing I can think of is to organize like we’re doing here in every red district in this country.”
Most of all, though, he spent a lot of time speaking to the fear and desperation emanating from those who showed up. Voters didn’t just come to complain. They wanted to know the plan. They wanted direction on what they should be doing to stop what they see as the shredding of democracy under President Donald Trump.
For example, one man said of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, “they’re getting secret information. Tell me how we’re going to stop it.”
This means that, as angry as voters are at the Democratic Party — and they are angry — they haven’t given up yet. They are still looking for members of Congress to get it together and lead.
This also means that any Tea Party-style revolt doesn’t have to repeat the destructive mistakes of the 2009-2016 Republican Party, which ultimately laid the groundwork for Trump and his band of nativist, antigovernment, election-denying reactionaries. Similar pitfalls today can and must — for the health of US democracy — be avoided.
Perhaps this is why, when Khanna was asked directly if a Tea Party-esque rebellion was brewing for his party, he pushed back. “The Tea Party wanted to basically destroy the government,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash. “(With) many Democrats, there’s anger. But there’s also aspiration. We want to build things.”
Or as Khanna wrote for the New York Times last month: “Either the country will continue to succumb to a burn-it-all-down political nihilism and disillusionment, or Democrats can use this moment of crisis to reframe the terms of the debate.”
Anger can be motivating, at least for a time. But anger doesn’t make for good policy.
Erika D. Smith is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. She is a former Los Angeles Times columnist and Sacramento Bee editorial board member.
