With Biden In Place, The ‘Resistance’ Tries To Pivot From Defense To Offense – By Danielle Kurtzleben (NPR) / January 22 2021
When Ezra Levin and his wife founded the progressive group Indivisible in 2016, they widely circulated a handbook on “resisting the Trump agenda.” It took tactical lessons in grassroots politics from the Tea Party, which had prominently resisted President Barack Obama’s agenda.
There’s another lesson Levin now thinks progressives can take from the conservative Tea Party: that it’s easier to oppose a policy than to advance one.
“We saw this from the Tea Party themselves during the Obama years,” he said. “After Obama lost his House majority and then the Senate majority, the House passed a repeal of the Affordable Care Act literally dozens of times.”
Then in 2016, Republicans won the House, the Senate and the presidency and still couldn’t pass an Obamacare replacement — a loss for the GOP and a win for groups like Indivisible that opposed it.
“They were met by Indivisible groups and others pushing back against it, making it as difficult as possible to do politically, and they ultimately failed,” Levin said.
