Source: Politico
Even as they publicly condemn Tea Party Republicans as hostage-taking legislative thugs, the truth is that some Democrats are quietly jealous of them. Think of it: The Tea Party gang gets to intimidate party leaders, threaten legislation, block nominees, shut down the government and default on the debt if they don’t get their way. They cause major trouble.
 Boy, does that sound good.
The extreme right has power, and that’s something the left hasn’t had much of for a long time. But in the aftermath of the party’s disastrous midterm performance, it’s very possible that the Democratic Party leadership will be facing its own Tea Party-style insurgency from the other side of the spectrum. “You’re going to get a fight within the Democratic Party. There is a substantial disagreement coming up,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, an outspoken Congressional Progressive Caucus member, recently told the Wall Street Journal.
The only question is, how serious a fight will it be? Will it be a polite spat that results in what has happened most often before—the fast marginalization of the left, with the best elements of the various critiques being stitched together by a centrist Hillary Clinton, or whoever is the nominee in 2016? Or are the populists ready to stage their own grass-roots rebellion, setting their sights on eradicating all corporate influence from the Democrats and undermining any attempt by President Barack Obama to compromise with Republicans by any means necessary?
Progressive activists such as the feisty Progressive Change Campaign Committee would love to be able to instill some of their own intraparty fear, sharpen their populist pitchforks and prod Democratic leaders leftward. And there is reason to believe this could be their moment.
The rebels offer a message about the chronic unfairness of the system so potent that even the Koch brothers aren’t above poaching it (a recent ad from the Kochs’ political arm chastised newly deposed Sen. Mary Landrieu for flying in private jets, even though the brothers have a few of their own). The new liberal insurgency is savvy enough to stress issues that poll well and relate to the economic anxieties gripping the electorate, such as increasing Social Security benefits and shrinking the size of Wall Street, instead of chasing stale leftist pipe dreams like nationalizing the health insurance industry. And they have the good fortune of going up against rivals unable to match the intensity of their focus, with a sitting president managing a never-ending list of crises, a 2016 Democratic front-runner who is congenitally cautious, and an incoming Republican majority distracted with figuring out how to keep a government open.
With progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s ascension to the Senate Democratic leadership, momentum would appear to be with the populists, and they will likely have multiple opportunities in the next Congress to plant their flag. Already Warren—who often refrains from personal attacks against leaders of the Democratic establishment—is turning opposition to Obama’s Treasury undersecretary nomination of Wall Street investment banker Antonio Weiss into a populist rallying cry.
And despite the recent jousting between the White House and the Republican leadership (not to mention the White House and the Senate Democratic leadership), there are several policy matters on the horizon where the interests of Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could converge. But since most areas of potential compromise will likely fail to unify the Republican caucus, congressional Democrats will have leverage to shape deals, or sabotage them.
Another potential flashpoint for populists is a budget deal. Any bill passed this month to keep the government open will only run as long as the end of the fiscal year in September, if not earlier. (Also of note, last year’s debt ceiling suspension is up in three months.) At some point in 2015, Obama and the Republican majority are going to have to reach agreements on spending levels if government agencies are to stay open. With discretionary social spending already cut by 15 percent since Republicans took over the House in 2011, any additional cuts will be hard for Democrats to swallow. If Obama chooses to trade additional cuts to win something else, congressional Democrats could opt to play their own shutdown card.
Also on tap is surveillance reform, an issue that animates liberals as much as civil libertarians of the Tea Party. If no bill is passed by June 1, the PATRIOT Act sections that provide the legal basis for the controversial metadata collection program and the “roving” wiretap program will expire. As libertarian-minded Republicans have already balked at the mild NSA reform that passed the House (but failed to clear the Senate) earlier this year, Democratic votes will likely be needed, and could be withheld.
***
If a Tea Party of the left rises, it will be something that we haven’t experienced on the national scene for a long time. Ever since Bill Clinton moved the Democratic Party to the center in the early 1990s, and certainly through much of the Obama era, most elected Democrats were reluctant to play hardball.
Bill Scher is the senior writer at the Campaign for America’s Future, and co-host of the Bloggingheads.tv show “The DMZ” along with the Daily Caller’s Matt Lewis.