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Write to us at startingpoint@globe.com. To subscribe, sign up here. Back in 2009, the Republican Party seemed adrift. It had just lost a big presidential election. Its leaders were unpopular and its base restive. Conservative voters protested, demanded their elected officials fight back, and threatened to replace them if they didn’t. What followed became known as the Tea Party, an organized movement that inspired a wave of further-right, anti-establishment candidates to challenge sitting Republican lawmakers. That wave transformed the party, creating fertile ground for an outsider like Donald Trump to take it over. The Democratic Party may now be undergoing similar paroxysms. Many liberal voters are disappointed with their party’s leaders and want them to more vigorously oppose Trump. Longtime politicians are attracting primary challengers. The infighting that followed a handful of Senate Democrats’ decision to cut a deal to reopen the federal government is the latest example. But if Democrats are at the start of their own Tea Party moment, some Democrats say it’s about time. One of them is Amanda Litman, who co-founded Run for Something, a group that recruits Democratic candidates in local races. Litman argues that the party needs new leaders — and should mimic some of the Tea Party’s tactics to get there. “The Tea Party’s basically in charge of the government now,” Litman told me while in town for a recent event. “So yeah, it seems like it works.” Part of the transformation Litman envisions is generational. The average age of a US senator is 65, the average House member is 58, and Litman thinks Joe Biden’s age contributed to Democrats’ failure to beat Trump last year. “Boomers” and the “dinosaurs of the past” need to make way for younger leaders, she says — language that’s “intentionally provocative,” she concedes, but is meant to prove a point. “We have to have a blunt-force conversation about it.” But age can also be a proxy for the kinds of tactics Litman thinks a changed political environment demands. Younger candidates are digital natives comfortable reaching voters via podcasts and social media, which Litman sees as a requirement for today’s politics. When Litman asks older elected Democrats about their TikTok algorithm, she says, many don’t understand the question. Litman also sees “the gerontocracy,” as she puts it, as a problem that spans the ideological spectrum. She criticizes progressive icon Bernie Sanders, 84, for seeking another term last year and praises Seth Moulton, the 46-year-old moderate Massachusetts congressman challenging Senator Ed Markey, for saying that Markey shouldn’t be running again at 79. Another change is geographic. Some Democrats have hailed the various winners of last week’s elections as ideological standard-bearers for the party’s future. Litman, whose group recruits Democrats in all 50 states, argues for fielding candidates who fit the places they’re running. “It’s not even purely moderate or centrist or progressive,” she said. “A pro-choice candidate in Alaska can talk about it, think about it, want to legislate on it very differently than one in New York.” Right now, the Democratic primary in Maine to take on Republican Senator Susan Collins seems like ground zero for what a liberal Tea Party might look like in practice. Graham Platner, a progressive 41-year-old oyster farmer and political outsider, is running against Janet Mills, 77, the state’s establishment-backed governor. But Platner’s bid has been rocked by now-deleted online posts that downplayed sexual assault and called rural white people “racist and stupid,” and by revelations that he got a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol years ago. Litman has been sympathetic to Platner but called that behavior disappointing. “There’s a lot of people without Nazi tattoos that we could elect to the United States Senate,” she said. With younger candidates, Litman argues, “we have to be comfortable with there being documentation of people’s personal growth, that what you said online 10 years ago does not mean that’s who you are today.” (Platner apologized, said his views have changed, and has covered the tattoo.) Primaries also give voters a chance to decide what matters to them. “I’m not saying that everything can be forgiven,” Litman said. “But some things can.” 🧩 2 Across: Scoundrel | 🌡️ 42° Raw and blustery Operation Stonegarden: A federal program that funds and equips local police who help protect the US-Canada border is under new scrutiny as the Trump administration ramps up deportations — especially around New England, where laws limit such cooperation. ICE in Massachusetts: A woman from Ecuador whom immigration agents violently detained in Fitchburg last week has been reunited with her daughter after a judge ordered her release, the woman’s lawyer said. Video of her arrest, which also showed her husband suffering an apparent seizure, went viral. Child exploitation investigation: The Massachusetts State Police arrested 56 suspects — 55 of them men — for possessing child pornography, enticing children, and other crimes. Life updates: Gabriela Coletta Zapata says she has the votes to become the Boston City Council’s next president when its term begins in January. She’ll also welcome her first child in May. Old playbook: The former Stoughton deputy policy chief facing scrutiny in the Sandra Birchmore case has reached for a familiar defense in sexual misconduct cases — blaming the victim and calling her a liar. Long con: A career criminal named Shaka Stayman stole $1.1 million in unclaimed property in Massachusetts, authorities said, in a yearslong scheme that involved forgery, impersonation, and burner phones. He’s also been accused of crimes in other states. Veterans Day: Friends of a Navy SEAL from Scituate killed decades ago in Panama are raising money for a statue in his memory. And this year, it’s not just veterans asking Globe Santa, which provides holiday gifts to families in need, for help. Struggling families of current service members are, too. Trump pardons: Pardoning Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and dozens of other Republicans accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election are Trump’s latest effort to rewrite the history of his loss. (AP) And a felon whose sentence Trump commuted during his first term was sentenced to 27 months in prison yesterday after prosecutors said he’d sexually assaulted a nanny, attacked a nurse, and dodged tolls in luxury cars since his release. (NYT 🎁) Women’s health: The FDA will remove warning labels from pills, patches, and other medications that treat menopause symptoms. Agency officials said the warnings were based on outdated science and had discouraged women from seeking treatment. (NBC) SCOTUS: The Supreme Court declined to hear a case that sought to overturn its 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. But the justices will hear a Republican-backed case about whether federal law requires election officials to receive mail-in ballots by Election Day for them to count. (SCOTUSBlog) By David Beard 💃 ‘Get Happy’: That’s just one of Odie Henderson’s 11 favorite movie musical numbers, which draw from classic shows like “Stormy Weather” to the more modern “All That Jazz,” “Chicago” and “School Daze.” 💍 The growl: Was it a cougar descending upon a romantic couple on a New Hampshire hillside? A deer? The bride-to-be thrust her hands high above her frame to scare it away. No way, she thought, was this animal going to wreck her engagement. 🛂 Want to get away? Here’s how most Americans can renew their passports in 15 minutes — or less. (Afar) 🏞️ Best Places to Travel 2026: Hong Kong made this list, but have you heard of Jane Goodall’s Arusha? Or Minas Gerais, Naoshima, or Oulu? (Conde Nast Traveler) 🍾 Jinxed: Maybe it was the champagne her husband put in the fridge when Eugenia Schraa Huh was unofficially named a winner in a Cambridge School Committee race. Later results had the former teacher losing to an incumbent. Upside: They didn’t pop it. Yet. 🤝 Deal! You watch my doggie and I’ll shovel your driveway? Yes, barter trades are on the rise in this economy. 🐕 In other doggie news: Boston and New England aren’t among this list of the 10 most expensive places to raise pups. Maybe it’s one of these “less-expensive” places your neighbors moved to. (Mental Floss) We were swamped with your responses on how to fix daylight saving time, with a plurality ready to push the clock forward permanently to Atlantic Standard Time, used by Bermuda, Martinique, and Puerto Rico. These readers gave us plenty of ideas: The Rein’s Deli solution: “Most of New England should change to Atlantic Time with the border with Eastern Time being the Red Sox-Yankees fandom border, which is roughly a north south line centered on West Hartford. Think about it!” — Mike Nogrady, Brookline What would King Solomon do? “With roughly half the population wanting DST and the other half wanting standard time, perhaps it’s time to just split the difference. There is no good reason why we have to be a full integer number of hours different from UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) ... Already, India is half an hour off of the integer hour differences. That’s convenient for them and it could also be for us.” — Gordon Weast Remember history: “Evidently you weren’t born until after 1974, the year the no-turning-the-clock-back experiment was attempted. It was during the gas crisis of that year. ... The results were a disaster! Daylight didn’t occur until after 8 am. Kids were walking to school in the pitch dark. The experiment was canceled after a few months. Check it out.” — Hollie Blaustein, Canton C’est la vie: “As far as I can tell, residents and visitors to Paris, France, have been living with interesting seasonal time differences for years. ... To me, it seems like we could be a lot more adaptable in the Eastern USA.” — John Gamel (a former Springfield, Worcester, Needham, and Brookline resident) Thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by David Beard. ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at startingpoint@globe.com. ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can sign up for your own copy. 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday.
