A liberal grassroots movement that is mobilized in opposition to President Donald Trump has Democratic Party officials drawing comparisons with the rise of the Tea Party after President Barack Obama's election.
But the "resisters," as they are known, also have some Democrats worried they could fracture the Democratic Party just like the Tea Party turned on the GOP establishment, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"The goal of this tactic isn't just to target Republicans; it's to stiffen the spines of Democrats," president of the Indivisible Project, which helped fuel the movement by posting online a how-to organizing guide that borrows heavily from the Tea Party, Ezra Levin, told the Times.
The fissures are already apparent.
According to the LA Times, wounds from the 2016 primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are evident in the ongoing friction among moderates and progressives.
"No party is safe," said Jeanne Peters of West Virginia, whose Indivisible chapter has started calling its House member and both its Republican and Democratic senator every weekday with a coordinated message, the Times reported.
According to the Times, a new political action committee, #WeWillReplaceYou, is raising money to back primary campaigns against Democrats they view as insufficiently progressive — much the way outside conservative groups targeted the "Republicans In Name Only."
Voters who are "fed up with the Democratic Party at every level want to see their Democratic representatives stand up and fight Trump," Claire Sandberg, a former Sanders organizer who is a cofounder of the PAC, told the Times.
Another group run by former Sanders allies, Brand New Congress, is recruiting challengers for every single House district — Democrats and Republicans alike — in 2018.
The groups make it no secret they are using the Tea Party playbook to fight Trump, the Times reported.
"The Tea Party had a method of organizing that works," Hillary Shields, whose Indivisible group drew nearly 150 to a Saturday spring training for activists in Kansas City, Mo., told the Times. "Why reinvent the wheel?"
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