Amy Walter:
Well, it’s interesting. This is less ideological than it is stylistic.
It is about the fight itself, not over the issues that they’re fighting for. As Tam said, it is correct. What you’re hearing from Chuck Schumer and what you’re hearing from Bernie Sanders on making the economy the centerpiece, and specifically holding the Trump administration responsible for many of the policies they want to put forward and may ultimately put forward, that’s going to be similar.
It’s the way in which they go about making the case. And I think we will see whether what is going on right now at these town halls is a sign of broader dissatisfaction with Democratic voters at the way that the leadership in Washington is handling Donald Trump. It will show up, I think, first and foremost, in party primaries.
We’re going to start to see folks announce for congressional seats soon enough. And will these primaries, much like we saw when Republicans were in — they were not in the White House, they were trying to get back in the White House, will we see something similar where we will have something of a Tea Party?
We saw back in those days in the 2009, 2010, and of course, with Trump, this idea, the same thing. We need to see people fight more. In many cases, some of those fighters turned out not to be great general election candidates. That’s a big question going forward, I think, for Democrats in this next few months.
