For much of our history, the American Dream was defined by a strong, thriving middle class. The ability to buy a home, raise a family, and retire comfortably was once within reach for the average American. From the time of Alexander Hamilton, who advocated for tariffs and protectionist policies to nurture American manufacturing, to the post-World War II boom, we saw how government action could create conditions for middle-class prosperity.

As I explore in my book, the middle class peaked during the post-war period, when policies like high unionization rates, affordable education, and government investment in infrastructure supported widespread economic mobility. By 1980, two-thirds of Americans were classified as middle class. But that all started to unravel with Ronald Reagan’s election.

Reagan’s presidency marked the beginning of a seismic shift in American economic policy, driven by neoliberal principles that favored deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, and the weakening of labor unions. His administration’s assault on unions, beginning with the firing of air traffic controllers in 1981, sent a clear message to corporate America: workers’ bargaining power would no longer be protected. This was followed by free trade agreements and policies encouraging the outsourcing of millions of good-paying, unionized manufacturing jobs. The consequences have been devastating. Over the last 40 years, we’ve seen the hollowing out of the middle class and an unprecedented concentration of wealth at the top.

This economic shift didn’t just come from Republicans — Democrats like Bill Clinton embraced many of these neoliberal policies as well, mainly through trade agreements like NAFTA. These agreements promised prosperity but led to the decimation of our industrial base and the rise of low-wage service jobs. Today, the wealthiest 1% of Americans hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, while working-class families struggle to make ends meet.

Thom Hartmann, The Hidden History of the American Dream: The Demise of the Middle Class—and How to Rescue Our Future. Click here to buy.

The election of Donald Trump in 2016 brought many of these issues to the forefront. Trump’s populist rhetoric tapped into the deep dissatisfaction many working-class Americans felt after decades of being ignored by both parties. He criticized free trade, imposed tariffs, and promised to return jobs to America. While I acknowledge that Trump’s critique of neoliberalism resonated with many voters, his execution was deeply flawed. His tariffs on Chinese goods were haphazard, and they backfired without a comprehensive plan to rebuild American manufacturing. Instead of restoring the middle class, his policies further enriched corporate interests while forcing the federal government to bail out farmers and other industries hurt by the tariffs.

As I argue in The Hidden History of the American Dream, the real solution lies in returning to the progressive values that once defined the Democratic Party. We need to look back to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies and the New Deal, which created the most prosperous middle class in world history. By investing in infrastructure, implementing progressive taxation, and protecting workers’ rights, FDR’s administration built an economy that worked for everyone, not just the wealthy elite.

Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads. We must commit to a comprehensive industrial policy revitalizing American manufacturing to rebuild the American Dream. I advocate for reintroducing tariffs and other protectionist measures, not as punitive measures against foreign nations but as a way to incentivize domestic production. Unlike Trump’s tariffs, which were politically motivated and poorly executed, we need a strategic, long-term approach that ensures economic stability while rebuilding our industrial base.

In addition to tariffs, we need a return to Keynesian economics, where the government actively ensures economic fairness. President Biden has quietly implemented policies, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and efforts to break up monopolies. These are steps in the right direction, but more needs to be done to reverse the damage wrought by neoliberalism over the past four decades.

Healthcare, education, and housing must be treated as public goods, not commodities to be exploited by profit-driven corporations. Our housing market, for example, has been overrun by speculators who treat homes as financial assets rather than places where people live. We need policies that make housing affordable and accessible to all Americans, not just the wealthy few. Similarly, the privatization of education and healthcare has left millions of Americans in debt and without access to essential services. Progressive taxation, along with increased public investment in these areas, can help create a more equitable society where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

The American Dream isn’t dead—but it’s on life support. To revive it, we must reject neoliberalism’s failed policies and embrace a new economic vision rooted in fairness, opportunity, and shared prosperity. This election season allows us to set the country on a new path, one where the middle class can thrive once again. It’s time to take action and reclaim the American Dream for future generations.

Learn more about the Hidden History Series.

Probably the most under-reported story of the year has been how Mitch McConnell is holding Americans hostage in exchange for letting big corporations kill Americans without any consequence.

Mitch took you and me hostage back in May, when the House of Representatives passed the HEROES act that would have funded state and local governments and provided unemployed workers with an ongoing weekly payment.

Mitch refused to even allow the Senate to discuss the HEROES Act until or unless the legislation also legalized corporations killing their workers and customers. That is, McConnell wants to make it impossible to hold corporations legally accountable for COVID-19 infections caused by poor safety practices.

To this day, McConnell refuses to let the HEROES Act even be discussed in the Senate.

Meanwhile we’ve seen companies firing people for refusing to take their lives in their hands, executives organizing real-life betting pools on which employees are going to die first, and companies lying openly to their workers and customers about the dangers of COVID-19.

Mitch McConnell wants to protect them all. Even worse, his immunity can extend well beyond the pandemic and sets up a process that could put corporations above the law permanently, across every community in America, in ways that state and local governments can never defy.

While Republicans have fought against raising the minimum wage or letting workers unionize for over 100 years, what McConnell is doing now is giving corporations the ultimate right: the right to kill their employees and customers with impunity.

And McConnell’s holding your local police and fire departments, public schools, and state health care programs hostage in exchange for his corporate immunity.

This is beyond immoral. This is ghastly, and should have been at the top of every news story in America for the past six months. But many of the corporations that are looking forward to complete supremacy over their workers include the giant corporations that own our media.

America has suffered for over 40 years under Reaganism’s mantra, picked up from Milton Friedman, that when corporations focus exclusively on profit an “invisible hand” will guide them to do what’s best for people and communities. It’s a lie.

This is an assault on workers’ rights. But even greater, it’s a corporate assault on human rights. McConnell is saying that a corporation’s right to kill its workers and customers is more important than the lives of human beings.

As unemployment benefits are running out, evictions loom, small businesses are dying left and right, millions of families have been thrown into crisis, and more than 10 million Americans have lost their health insurance, McConnell continues to hold us all hostage.

It’s time to fight back. If corporate media continues to refuse to discuss McConnell’s blackmail, we must individually speak up among friends and communities, and also let our lawmakers know what we think. It’s time to raise some hell.

Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream. This op-ed was adapted from CommonDreams.org and distributed by OtherWords.org.

Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream. This op-ed was adapted from CommonDreams.org and distributed by OtherWords.org.

Via Otherwords.org , adapted from Commondreams.org.

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Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

The Ring of Fire: “Mitch McConnell Won’t Stop Sabotaging Stimulus Talks”