Challenging wealth

America is not going back. That is, first and foremost, the reality that we all need to recognize as we seek to understand our current political moment.
We are either moving forward toward a future of greater democratic political engagement, or we will continue to descend into an increasingly authoritarian version of America where decisions are made by those with wealth, in the interests of those with wealth, with an increasingly oppressive reality for the rest of us.
We are living today in an authoritarian version of America, but it didn’t start with President Trump, who is not the ultimate cause of our democratic rot. Americans seem to understand that our problems are more fundamental than that. Polling is consistently showing that vast majorities (about two-thirds) in most surveys believe that America is on the wrong track, and that’s regardless of which party controls Washington. For too long, we have had a conservative minority in control in Washington, D.C., that is furthering the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of a few, with a feckless opposition that is either incapable or complicit.
As the Democratic Party looks to rebuild from 2024, it would be an error to believe that the next election should be about “affordability.” It’s an issue, just not one that will be solved by the minor tweaks at the political margins envisioned by most Democratic politicians, especially those browbeaten into submission by political consultants.
Life is becoming increasingly unaffordable for Americans because politicians have either forgotten or abandoned the lessons we learned more than one hundred years ago, back when progressive Republican leaders, like Teddy Roosevelt, broke up the big monopolies and championed the inheritance tax and the income tax to bring the power of what were then known as the Big Trusts to heel.
Today, those big trusts, now based mostly in Silicon Valley, sit at the right hand of a president who has no intention of challenging their power or using any portion of their vast wealth to advance the interests of the American people.
And until the Democrats show they’re willing to take up that mantle and fight the power of the tech and media billionaires through aggressive anti-trust enforcement, it’s difficult to take them seriously.
In an America where we face severe shortages of housing, where our infrastructure is falling drastically behind the standards of most of the developed world, where our health care system is twice as expensive as the next closest country and offers middling outcomes, we have real needs. And far from addressing those needs, those with the means to make a difference are pouring unimaginable sums into a wasteful, ego-driven race to develop artificial intelligence, a technology that threatens to destroy millions of American jobs and further consolidate power in the tech oligarchy.
That we have allowed this disconnect between the needs of the country and the priorities of our investment is yet another sign of the dysfunction of our political system. The U.S. Constitution was drafted to serve as a roadmap for a government to understand the needs and interests of its people and act accordingly. While reaching that ideal has long been a work in progress, it seems recently we have given up even trying.
While a Democratic Congress could provide a much-needed check on an out-of-control president, we cannot accept a return to the status quo. This isn’t about the price of eggs or a gallon of gas. A tax credit here or a subsidy there won’t address the scale of the change necessary to restore a fundamental faith in self-government.
We need political leaders from top to bottom who are ready to take on the oligarchy, ready to break up their market power, and use the vast wealth they seem all too happy to squander on their vanity projects to invest in America’s future. We need politicians who never let us forget about one of the most corrupt acts in American history, the 2010 Citizens United abomination issued by the John Roberts Supreme Court. We need Democrats who won’t just talk about campaign finance reform, but who will actually pass legislation to render that abhorrent decision moot.
Whether the Democrats are up to that task remains to be seen.
That’s unfortunate, because there is justified populist anger all over the country, anger that could, with the right leadership, fuel a productive political movement that could build a country where we invest in the right things and use the power of politics to foster community rather than division.
If Democrats don’t speak to this moment in a way that challenges the power of vast wealth while protecting the interests of those without, Republicans will continue to use the rhetoric of populism to divide and conquer.