Who Does This System Work For?

"This Isn't About Socialism. It's About a System That's Breaking Americans"

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This Isn’t About Socialism. It’s About People.

I’ve been stumbling into a realization today that completely changed how I think about what’s happening inside the Democratic Party. Like many of you, I watched articles pile up over the past few weeks.

“Centrist Democrats launch new pledge: We are capitalists, not socialists.”

“Socialist earthquake.” “Democrats reeling.” “The left is taking over.”

The implication was obvious: The fight the Democrats think they are having is about socialism.

What happens when we test that assumption based on all the available data? Speeches, campaigns, policies, and actual bills that get passed. What happens if we go back a decade and look at campaign promises? What happens if we go back and look at the healthcare numbers, housing numbers, and wages?

The establishment side’s argument is simple: “America is a capitalist country, and it should stay that way.” Tom Suozzi

What is the Establishment wing of the party actually defending? Is it seniors paying the highest prescription prices in the world? Is it, healthcare so expensive that your insurance company, which you’ve been paying into for a decade, denies you the medical care you need without seeing you in person? Are Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders threatening to burn down the stock market? Are Bernie and Graham Platner yelling about abolishing enterprise inside the U.S.?

So again, what if a working-class American construction worker with a union job can’t afford his medication? What exactly is the establishment defending here?

“If banks receive extraordinary public support during a financial crisis, corporations receive tax incentives to build factories, farmers receive subsidies, defense contractors receive public contracts, and entire industries receive government assistance...then why does the conversation suddenly become about socialism” when the beneficiary is an ordinary family?

Because it’s bullshit, that’s why. These elected leaders are not working for you. They work for donors; that’s why Tom Suozzi and Jamie Harrison and others are complaining. These establishment leaders only need you to elect them so they can help their donors pass bill provisions and policies that help them. Meanwhile, helping you is only talked about every 2 to 4 years. Anything different, is socialism. Be ready, they are coming and they will use every tool in the tool box to keep Americans from gaining a single edge. They will do this while asking you to vote.

The Wrong Conversation

For months we have all watched the Democratic establishment respond to insurgent candidates by arguing over labels. Using the full force of the consultant-strategist-donor arm of the party, firing off these labels to every single media platform imaginable.

Capitalist.

Socialist.

Moderate.

Progressive.

Electable.

Extreme.

When you hear progressives speak, they are talking and speaking about your life. The labels listed above are coming from people who have nothing at stake but an opinion or a seat or a bill that benefits their business or donors. Most Americans don’t wake up wondering, “Um, I wonder if America is a capitalist country.” “Everyone knows already; we live this shit every day. Americans all over the country, from TX to NYC, are waking up wondering whether they can afford groceries. Whether they will ever own a home. Whether they will be able to retire. Whether they can pay for medicine. Or whether some unexpected emergency will wipe out everything they have built. These are the questions Americans are asking. They are life questions, not ideological questions. And so when Americans hear someone like Bernie, Platner, AOC, and Talarico speak, these leaders are talking about life.

America Already Has Markets and Public Institutions.

Let’s be real here; America has never been a purely hands-off market economy. We have private enterprise, entrepreneurship, competition, and innovation. We also have public schools, public roads, police and fire departments, social security and Medicare, disaster relief, government-backed mortgages, research funded by taxpayers, defense procurement, farm programs, and tax incentives for favored industries. Infrastructure investments that private businesses depend on. Every single business Elon Musk owns depends on the federal government & state government for something. And we can debate each of these policies individually; I’d be happy to run through the facts with some idiot who believes none of these programs fall into the socialist category. Some of these programs should be expanded. Some should probably be reformed. And some of them belong in the dumpster.

This is the problem. By pretending that the United States operates without government shaping markets is crazy talk and not based in reality at all. It absolutely does, entire sectors, actually.

But the real question here is not whether public policy influences the economy, because it does; the question is, “Where should it?”

My Mother’s Prescription

Last year my mother asked me to pick up one of her prescriptions. The pharmacist told me it would be more than $700. I actually thought he had made a mistake.

He hadn’t.

My mother simply plans for it every year because that’s what she’s learned to do.

She doesn’t spend her evenings reading economic theory. She isn’t trying to overthrow capitalism. She just needs medication her doctor says she needs. She is retired from the school district and on Medicare and some supplemental programs, I think? She is not thinking, “I need to call and find out why.” She did not say, “Anthony, you find out why my insurance does not cover this.” She just pays it and thinks, “That’s how life is,” and one day we were talking and she says, “Why is my prescription so high?” I told her, “Trump,” and she said, “But it was the same under Biden too?” So then I had to explained why her insurance does not cover that drug. And she simply took that on the chin and moved on.

Listen, you get my point here. These stories are all over the country in every state. Only way worse. Millions upon millions of Americans cannot afford that kind of hit once a year, let alone every 30 to 90 days. But that’s capitalism right? This is what the establishment is trying to defend.

So when we hear leaders like Platner and Talarico ask, “There has to be a better way.”

Everyone knows that James Talarico is not rolling into the Senate saying, “I’m here now; let’s get shit done and pass all this stuff. Everyone knows this already. All the leaders understand the fight ahead. The difference now is instead of fighting MAGA, we are fighting the establishment wing of the party that got us here. The elected leaders are so off base, they don’t even know how to speak to the communities they come from. Think about that for a moment: a local elected leader elected by a district and who has been in office for over a decade. Does not know how to communicate with the people he represents. Same tired old slogans. Same tired old language.

Why Some Candidates Are Connecting

Over the past year I’ve spent a seriously unhealthy amount of time listening to speeches and town halls and watching videos from GOP leaders, progressives, moderates, governors, mayors, consultants, party leaders, and independent candidates.

So it’s not surprising that the candidates generating enthusiasm do not begin with ideology. They begin with life. With rent, childcare, healthcare, wages, housing, groceries, and debt.

When they describe the world Americans already recognize. It’s a campaign; it does not matter if their proposed solutions can work or if they are even a possibility or subject for debate. The point here is they start in the right place. The Democratic establishment starts somewhere else. It begins by defending the institution that made life harder to begin with. Defending the economic system we have, reassuring donors. Or trying to explain that their philosophy is correct.

All while the voter is still standing in the pharmacy line wondering why a prescription costs more than their retirement check.

Can you see how those conversations never meet?

This Isn’t About Socialism

What should not surprise you at all is the blowback from the Establishment wing of the party. They love socialism; it gives them something they can point to and talk about. They will spend millions and millions of dollars and use every single resource and tool they have to stop this movement and keep the status quo. These people use the term “grassroots” in their marketing; that alone should tell you where the struggle is. They have to pretend they work for you to get you to vote.

This argument is not about socialism. Instead it’s about people, and the argument is simple: “We need a system that still works for ordinary Americans.” That’s not the same thing.

There are plenty of market economies around the world that combine private enterprise with strong public institutions. There are countless ways to debate healthcare, housing, competition policy, drugs, taxes, and education. It’s reasonable to disagree.

But reducing every single debate to “capitalism versus socialism” skips over the question Americans are asking, “Can I build and keep a stable life?”

And right now, there is only one group trying to answer that question. And the establishment will continue trying to persuade

I believe in markets. I believe in entrepreneurship. I believe people should be rewarded for taking risks. I don’t resent success. I admire people who create value.

But I’ve also seen what happens when incentives become detached from people. And that’s where we live now. A country where the political incentives & business incentives have stopped working for Americans. But sure, go ahead, call it socialism. The rest will call it resistance.

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