Could Progressives Find Allies in the Tea Party?

Could Progressives Find Allies in the Tea Party?

Could Progressives Find Allies in the Tea Party?

How do we have a sane conversation about taxes, the proper role of government and how to rebuild our economy?

Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Pocket
Email

Editor’s Note: Katrina vanden Heuvel writes a weekly column at WashingtonPost.com. Read an excerpt here at TheNation.com.

This Thursday, thousands of Tea Partyers will mass in Washington and across the country. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) and others will sound strident alarms about government overreach. There will be no shortage of fury about the debt, deficits and taxes.

So how do we move beyond this mud fight and have a sane conversation about taxes, the proper role of government and how to rebuild our economy?

We certainly won’t get there with the extremes of the Tea Party dominating the already suffocatingly narrow media conversation with a message of "shrink government, cut taxes and President Obama is taking your freedom."

Read the rest of Katrina’s column at WashingtonPost.com.

Disobey authoritarians, support The Nation

Over the past year you’ve read Nation writers like Elie Mystal, Kaveh Akbar, John Nichols, Joan Walsh, Bryce Covert, Dave Zirin, Jeet Heer, Michael T. Klare, Katha Pollitt, Amy Littlefield, Gregg Gonsalves, and Sasha Abramsky take on the Trump family’s corruption, set the record straight about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s catastrophic Make America Healthy Again movement, survey the fallout and human cost of the DOGE wrecking ball, anticipate the Supreme Court’s dangerous antidemocratic rulings, and amplify successful tactics of resistance on the streets and in Congress.

We publish these stories because when members of our communities are being abducted, household debt is climbing, and AI data centers are causing water and electricity shortages, we have a duty as journalists to do all we can to inform the public.

In 2026, our aim is to do more than ever before—but we need your support to make that happen. 

Through December 31, a generous donor will match all donations up to $75,000. That means that your contribution will be doubled, dollar for dollar. If we hit the full match, we’ll be starting 2026 with $150,000 to invest in the stories that impact real people’s lives—the kinds of stories that billionaire-owned, corporate-backed outlets aren’t covering. 

With your support, our team will publish major stories that the president and his allies won’t want you to read. We’ll cover the emerging military-tech industrial complex and matters of war, peace, and surveillance, as well as the affordability crisis, hunger, housing, healthcare, the environment, attacks on reproductive rights, and much more. At the same time, we’ll imagine alternatives to Trumpian rule and uplift efforts to create a better world, here and now. 

While your gift has twice the impact, I’m asking you to support The Nation with a donation today. You’ll empower the journalists, editors, and fact-checkers best equipped to hold this authoritarian administration to account. 

I hope you won’t miss this moment—donate to The Nation today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel 

Editor and publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x