Democratic Party Retooling is Coming

NPI Chief of Research David Byler recently weighed in on the debate over whether there’s a Democratic Tea Party in a piece for MSNBC - A painful retooling is coming for the Democratic Party. Are AOC and Bernie Sanders the faces of a Democratic tea party movement?

Here are Byler's thoughts:

• There is real unrest in the Democratic electorate, but it’s not a Tea Party yet.

• During the Bush and Obama years, the Tea Party had clear policy disagreements with the establishment GOP (e.g. immigration, entitlement reform). It’s hard to see similar divides between the Democratic base and their leaders

• So far, upstart primary challengers on the left have stayed in blue districts. Tea Party Era Republicans famously challenged establishment Republicans everywhere – and threw winnable elections in the process.

• There are politicians and institutions who want to capitalize on voter anger and seem equipped to do so. This was less true of Establishment Republicans during the Tea Party’s rise.

Read the whole piece on MSNBC here.

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