Throughout the Tea Party years and the Republican Party's descent into unprincipled populism under Donald Trump, Michigan Democrats masqueraded as the adults in the room. They promised stability and a platform that didn't involve blowing up the established political order.

But Democrats are normal no more.

Tuesday's nomination of the apparent socialist Abdul El-Sayed as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, and gains by far-left candidates in other races, are political lunacy on a scale to match anything Republicans have done over the past two decades. And it will do to Democrats what the GOP's fascination with the fringes did to that party — make it unpalatable to a wide segment of the electorate.

Just like with the Republicans, the blame for the corruption of the Democratic Party rests with its failure to deliver for its loyal base. When voters can't find what they're looking for at the center of the party, they go searching for it on the seductive edges.

"The problem on the Democratic side is less about the Democratic Socialist wave rising and more that the center of the party, the establishment, is collapsing," says former Republican Congressman Peter Meijer, whose political career was ended by Trump's purge of the GOP. "For the better part of a decade there hasn't been a cohesive Democratic platform other than an opposition to Trump."

Meijer's critique is similar to that of his former colleague in Congress, Andy Levin. "We're in the biggest crisis of wealth and income inequality in 100 years," Levin says. "Our voters, Democratic voters, look at that and say, 'Well, gee, the Democratic Party is as bought and paid for as any other party, and what do you even stand for?

"And I think that is what this moment is all about: People crying out for someone who is not just going along to be part of the system."

Levin says Democrats went to the polls in this primary looking for three things: "One is authenticity. Another is truth-telling and the third is bold policies and action that will actually change their lives. The Democrats have failed at this."

Republicans who turned on their establishment in 2016 and turned over their party to Trump were looking for the same thing: A leader whom they believed would turn promises into action.

But whether this becomes a movement, as MAGA did, or is simply a moment, depends on whether El-Sayed and other hard progressives on the ballot, including Garlin Gilchrist for secretary of state, Eli Savit for attorney general, and Will Lawrence the socialist who won the Democratic nomination in the 7th Congressional District, can broaden their appeal to the independents who decide most elections.

Just like Trump, El-Sayed defeated an opponent who outspent him by a margin of 13.5 to one. Rep. Haley Stevens ran on cash and competence; El-Sayed ran on charisma, proving again that passion can be more valuable as political capital than money.

"People power beats the power of money," says Lawrence, who defeated two pop-up Democrats with tenuous ties to the 7th Congressional District. "This is about a movement that can restore the soul of a nation."'

Or tear it apart. There's no glossing over that this movement is deeply rooted in the anti-Israel campus protests that rose out of Hamas' brutal Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, and the war that followed. That often has devolved into antisemitism and has become a major dividing line between Democrats who stand with the Jewish state, as Stevens does, and those such as El-Sayed who blame Israel.

"If you can't say what happened in Gaza was genocide, with 72,000 people killed, most hospitals, university buildings houses of worship destroyed, then you're just bought and paid for by somebody," Levin says.

Meijer fears the success of El-Sayed and others of his ilk will make Democrats in Congress hesitant to support legislation to protect Israel.

"What's been so bewildering to me is the Gaza component of all this has really ramped up and become a massively effective political organizing tool," Meijer says.

As for November, Candice Miller, the Macomb County public works director and former congresswoman, says she'll be "watching what Duggan Democrats do." Will those moderates stick with their party, even if it means voting for a Senate candidate whose positions they abhor, or will they drift over to the GOP and vote for Mike Rogers? Or just sit out the election?

Already, some high-profile Democrats say they'll skip this month's party convention to avoid confrontations with the ultra progressives.

Pollster Steve Mitchell notes the socialists are the only element of the electorate enthusiastic about voting for a candidate, rather than against one.

"Progressives are fired up, in much the way the Tea Party was," he says. "That kind of passion can win elections."

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