And Kevin knows there is a history. This has happened in 1992 when Carol Moseley Braun challenged Alan Dixon after he voted for Thomas. Democrats have more enforcement mechanisms to prevent insurgent challenges than the GOP did with the Tea Party. But someone usually caught napping. - ThreadSky

ericmgarcia.bsky.social • 10 days ago

And Kevin knows there is a history. This has happened in 1992 when Carol Moseley Braun challenged Alan Dixon after he voted for Thomas. Democrats have more enforcement mechanisms to prevent insurgent challenges than the GOP did with the Tea Party. But someone usually caught napping.

Reposted from Kevin M. Kruse

Just saw a post screenshotting this & saying they’d unfollowed me over it.

Some Dems are responding well, but some aren’t and the base is clearly mad about it. There *will* be primary challenges, and just like AOC in 2018, a few of them will be successful.

So … sorry for saying that out loud?

Comments

drewmelbourne.com•10 days ago

For me, the part that bonkers is equating the radical right Tea Party with an insurgency of... people who want to stand up to the radical right?

It's not a Bizarro Tea Party that centrist Dems need to worry about. It's the party base.

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

I think it's important to remember the Tea Party represented the base of the GOP voters at the time. Ironically, I think a Tea Party-type movement on the Dem side is even more astounding because the Democratic Party base is much more moderate (as we learned in 2020).

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

Republicans voters are trained to vote for, as Thomas Massie said, "the craziest son of a bitch in the race." The Democratic Party typically doesn't operate that way. There isn't an outrage machine like Fox or talk radio. But Democratic primary voters, even normie ones, are pissed off right now.

okiefrommuskogee.bsky.social•10 days ago

Incumbents sitting on their hands collecting that money. Time for fighters to call for ban on stock trading and other anti corruption efforts. Dem base is hungry and we want to eat the rich.

badassmimi.bsky.social•10 days ago

The Dem Party is currently a bunch of feckless keystone cops without a complete spine amongst them!!

fromthedeskof.bsky.social•10 days ago

This NYC resident will bring the scones. Starting with Adams. Let’s tea party it up.

k8c.bsky.social•10 days ago

I... do not want Shannon Watts annoyed with me, is one observation I have. She knows how to get things done.

tbyrne75.bsky.social•10 days ago

It's slightly depressing that the only way to make most Democrats oppose a totalitarian government takeover is to appeal to their self-interest.

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

Politicians are creatures of habit. They need to be pushed. The American right learned this decades ago when it created its various advocacy apparatuses and media organizations.

crutchingreader.bsky.social•10 days ago

A lot will come down to affect more than policy, as befits our age of vibes. *Sounding* moderate or talking about bipartisanship in this moment, for a lot of Dems, is coming across as being unconcerned. Or maybe it’s just me being a Philly resident who is annoyed at Fetterman and missing Casey.

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

Right. We are a vibes-based people. As @daveweigel.bsky.social wrote, the #Resistance is actually working in terms of courts and attorneys general. But people want to see a shift in rhetoric and posturing.
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/12/2025/actually-the-resistance-is-working

ravens-dance.bsky.social•10 days ago

let's start wit the ever-absent #MariaCantwell who does not represent her constituency and is ALWAYS silent in the face of tirany

shepherdone.bsky.social•10 days ago

Democrats refusing to vote for the Democrat because they didn't get their own particular pony? Oh nos, imagine what might happen.

gx86.bsky.social•10 days ago

I’m one of the pissed who wants fighters. WTAF is going on with the democratic “leadership”?

phildicarlo.bsky.social•9 days ago

Someone please primary my Congressman Steven F Lynch.

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

The Democratic Party doesn't have the same incentives for a Tea Party-style movement. The base of the Democratic Party is decidedly more moderate. There isn't a Fox News equivalent or a talk radio equivalent that motivates voters to be angry. Democrats don't have a Heritage Scorecard.

jewishwonk.bsky.social•10 days ago

Dems are also small c conservative. Most believe in incremental change. But the rank and file do want to see people fighting for the Republic right now.

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

Precisely. Democrats have been cautious about doing radical or rapid change ever since nominating McGovern (and even since the 1960s). Then in the 1980s, Reagan wiped the floor with them. Democrats created super delegates specifically as a guardrail.

mdasilva.bsky.social•10 days ago

There’s Indivisible and BlueSky though…

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

This is what makes Democratic voters' fury with their own party so astounding. Even with all these mechanisms, the party activists, donors and voters are done. @shannonrwatts.bsky.social told me this a few weeks ago.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/democrats-activists-congress-elon-musk-b2691519.html

speakercode.bsky.social•10 days ago

For the last 3 weeks I've called my Senators' offices multiple times a week, and over the past 10 days I've expressed that I've supported them for 25+ years, canvassed, phone banked, etc but I was DONE. And they still keep voting for nominees! This is what the party base is seeing

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

This also feels very different from the kind of anger progressives felt that led to AOC challenging and beating Crowley. That was an outspring of Bernie Sanders' campaign. This is more than just progressives. It seems like other wings of the party are BIG MAD.

intense.wiggling.me•10 days ago

At what point do these groups realise the dem party isn't something that can be fixed? I honestly don't see anyone being able to subsume it the way maga has with the republican party.

The party cares way more about protecting its institution than it does about everything else.

intense.wiggling.me•10 days ago

There's also the fact that there's so much stink and baggage on the democratic party, both legit and malicious heaped on by the right.

That to a lot of politically apathetic and moderate right leaning folks just the idea of ever voting for someone in the dem party is unthinkable.

intense.wiggling.me•10 days ago

That state makes ever being able to compromise to the left even a little almost impossible.

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

Edpol also plays a huge role in this. The Democratic Party is now a party of college-educated voters. And guess what? Voters with degrees are more likely not only to vote, but be more politically engaged and involved. This can create the environment for a type of Democratic Tea Party.

beachylinda.bsky.social•10 days ago

I'm big mad at dems right now. They got caught flat footed and have a TERRIBLE communication strategy. I'm never voting for another republican up and down the ticket, and am having a hard time justifying right now why I would vote for a democrat.

prasad.bsky.social•10 days ago

feels like there's a row of houses burning and people are too timid to pull the alarm, grab an extinguisher, and actually do something right and good to the best of their ability

findingtangle.bsky.social•10 days ago

When I called Senator Bennet’s office today this is what I tried to stress. I am suburban lib wine mom, a former republican, and I don’t watch cable news. I have only called my reps a handful of times in the past and now I’ve been calling nearly every day for weeks. I don’t think they get it at all.

themistocleswall.bsky.social•10 days ago

keep calling

they will get it

or be tossed out

keep calling

chicyph80.bsky.social•10 days ago

I just continue to ask people like Shannon, what specifically would you have them do?

jeninmotion.bsky.social•10 days ago

Now? Nothing. In retrospect we needed to start the Trump prosecutions day 1, say any GOP Congressman in Jan 6 wasn't getting seated include Alito and Thomas in ptosec, and not have Garland slow walk them. They needed a loud AG and to show Chris Wray the door.

jeninmotion.bsky.social•10 days ago

I guess what people want is "so here is the list of people we will be sending to jail and that includes judges who did crimes for Trump and media guys who did in kind campaign stuff for him"

electricmayhem.bsky.social•10 days ago

The DNC being broken by design is what got with Trump elected.

Twice.

https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2025-01-10-smoke-filled-room-where-it-happens-dinosaurs-2f4090052e3e

kevinmkruse.bsky.social•10 days ago

Absolutely right, but like you said — as we saw with Braun and AOC it can still happen

ericmgarcia.bsky.social•10 days ago

Precisely. And the thing is, as you said, it's no longer just the progressives who are mad. It's other parts of the coalition. It's the #Resisters / Wine Moms (who are college-educated and more politically engaged). It's Black voters and normies. All the legs of the stool are mad.

gchernack.bsky.social•10 days ago

Big difference between Thomas vote and Dems voting for same cabinet noms: Thomas needed dem votes to be confirmed.

gchernack.bsky.social•10 days ago

Same = some

gchernack.bsky.social•10 days ago

Not that some Dems shouldn’t be replaced but I don’t think voting for some Trump nominees is a reason to go after them.

somanymonkeys.bsky.social•10 days ago

Having voted for Braun in 92, I think you're overlooking the role Al Hofeld played in splitting the votes of less liberal minded white voters with Dixon. Also, not sure a Senator who wound up losing to a Republican after one term is a good example of the direction I'd like to go.

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