Mama Grizzlies and Guardians of the Republic: The Democratic and Intersectional Politics of Anger in the Tea Party Movement

Abstract

Tea Party activists have proudly embraced anger and outrage as a distinguishing mark of patriotic dissidence, and have successfully exploited the contemporary politics of anger in the United States. Although much democratic theory casts anger as a hazardous impediment to democratic politics, these theories and the progressive critiques based on them participate in troubling efforts to discipline or even expel anger from the public sphere. Instead this article theorizes public anger as an agonistic, performative, and intersectional practice. Drawing on feminist and queer theory, it also demonstrates how intersectional formations of gender, sexuality, and race have played a central role in making Tea Party performances of anger politically intelligible and powerful. The analysis highlights not just how white men and white women are able to enact public anger, but also how some Tea Party activists of color have surprisingly circumvented contemporary affective norms that usually render racial minorities' public anger politically suspect. The article concludes with a discussion of the democratic implications of an agonistic approach to anger for democratic theory and practice.