Influential Conservative Leaders Quietly Fanning The Flames Of Protesters’ Shut-Down Anger
FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots, groups that played pivotal roles in the beginning of Tea Party protests starting more than a decade ago, are driving turnout to current protests over states' stay-at-home orders. Even though polls show a majority of Americans are more concerned about reopening the country too quickly than they are about the damage to the economy, the protests have been grabbing national attention and tend to break along partisan lines.
The New York Times:
The Quiet Hand Of Conservative Groups In The Anti-Lockdown Protests
An informal coalition of influential conservative leaders and groups, some with close connections to the White House, has been quietly working to nurture protests and apply political and legal pressure to overturn state and local orders intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The groups have tapped their networks to drive up turnout at recent rallies in state capitals, dispatched their lawyers to file lawsuits, and paid for polling and research to undercut the arguments behind restrictions that have closed businesses and limited the movement of most Americans. (Vogel, Rutenberg and Lerer, 4/21)
Politico:
Trump Allies Have Their Fingerprints On Lockdown Protests
While FreedomWorks and other conservative groups are pushing to amplify the protests, others have declined to get involved. For example, Americans for Prosperity, the flagship nonprofit of Charles Koch’s political network which helped organize the tea party movement a decade ago, is not involved this time, though the group is pushing for the country to reopen, said Tim Phillips, the group’s president. And David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth, a national network of 250,000 pro-growth, limited government Americans, said his group is focused on pushing Trump to slash regulations for businesses to boost the economy after it restarts. (Kumar, 4/21)
Reuters:
How Trump Allies Have Organized And Promoted Anti-Lockdown Protests
Republican politicians and individuals affiliated with President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign are organizing or promoting anti-lockdown protests across key electoral battleground states, despite the White House’s own cautious guidance on relaxing restrictions, interviews with two dozen people involved show. (Martina, Renshaw and Reid, 4/21)
The Associated Press:
Analysis: Pandemic Fallout Tracks Nation's Political Divide
America’s entrenched political divide is now playing out over matters of life and death. Republican governors, urged on by President Donald Trump, are taking the first steps toward reopening parts of their states’ economies in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and without adhering to the president’s own guidelines. Democratic governors are largely keeping strict stay-at-home orders and nonessential business closures in place, resisting small pockets of Trump-aligned protesters and public pressure from the president. (Pace, 4/22)
CNN:
Trump And Southern States Push Opening As Divisions On Battling Coronavirus Deepen
The fragile American consensus on battling the coronavirus is fracturing along bitter political fault lines, as early state openings threaten to undermine the nationwide effort to slow the pandemic. Divisions have emerged along a timeworn North vs. South divide, on ideological and geographical grounds nationally and within states, and on the level of respect accorded by political leaders to epidemiological science. (Collinson, 4/22)
NPR:
America Weighs Health Versus Economy, As Divide Grows On When To Reopen
The tension in America between the national government and states' rights is as old as the republic itself. That tension is about to play out in a starkly political way and on a grand scale over the next several weeks, as states consider how to reopen their states in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. President Trump seems to be itching for states to reopen — frankly, faster than his own administration's guidelines recommend. (Montanaro and Wise, 4/22)
