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?

Katrina vanden Heuvel
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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.

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With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Katrina vanden Heuvel Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.


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