"Deep-Seated Fear of Demographic Change Rather Than Abstract Constitutional or Economic Principles"

"When the tea party appeared on the scene in 2009, an intense partisan dispute broke out as to just what this movement represented. Conservatives insisted that what spurred protesters into streets and town halls were the timeless principles of conservative movement thought: advocacy of balanced budgets, adherence to a strict constructionist version of the Constitution, opposition to 'crony capitalism,' and skepticism of Keynesian economics. Liberals suggested a different explanation. The tea party was an expression of ethno-nationalist rage centered around a black president and the belief that his coalition stood for redistribution from older, white America to its younger, more diverse supporters."

Jonathan Chait at New York argues that "One could not have devised a sequence of events more perfectly designed to prove the liberal theory" of the rise of the Tea Party "than the election of Donald Trump."