Thursday 23 February 2017

Protesters are confronting members of Congress in a way not seen since the Tea Party’s rise

IF THE gravest threat to democracy is indifference, have some faith in Donald Trump’s America. For the president is not just good at rallying throngs of his own supporters. He is also firing up his critics in a way that offers some echoes of the Tea Party movement that sprang up to oppose Barack Obama in 2009.

Consider the long lines of constituents wrapped around a high school in Virginia Beach on February 20th, sacrificing their time on a public holiday to meet their Republican congressman, Scott Taylor. Undistracted by a mild, golden-hued evening worthy of early summer, almost 1,000 locals waited in line for seats. A minority were conservatives, wearing the Make America Great Again hats that signal Trump-allegiance or carrying signs demanding that Mr Taylor—a 37-year-old former Navy SEAL commando, elected to Congress for the first time last year—should vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. A larger number carried home-made signs that spoke of “resistance” to Mr Trump or demanded that Mr Taylor “Choose our Country over your Party!” Some were old hands at activism, alerted to attend by the local Democratic...Continue reading

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