How to beat MAGA in 2026, 2028, and Beyond

As you read this, I'm asking one question: Is this a plan you would put your name on?

Friends,

A debate is raging for the future of the Democratic party, and the wrong side is winning. We are flooded with timid solutions from pundits and consultants: moderate, move right, and abandon our principles. Avoid the bold platform people are desperate for.

They fundamentally misunderstand the political moment. Voters didn’t embrace disruption because the party was “too liberal”; they embraced it because “normal” had become a crisis. A crisis of affordability of moral failure, of accountability, and a broken democracy. Following their advice is a path to irrelevance. You cannot beat a powerful ideology with surrender.

This document is our proposed alternative. But it is also a test. It is a binding pledge and governing plan designed to be a foundation we can all stand on. As you read, we ask you to consider one question above all else: “Is this something I would be willing to put my name on?”

Because only a movement people will truly commit to has the power to unite a coalition of Independents and Democrats, make life affordable, hold the powerful accountable, and win the future. This is that plan.

A Coalition of Independents and Democrats

To make life affordable, hold the powerful accountable, and secure democracy and real independence for the American people, we are uniting congressional candidates nationwide around a common pledge and governing plan. We offer a clear alternative to the demolition and authoritarianism offered by MAGA and the inadequate “return to normal” from corporate Democrats. Our mission is to reclaim the promise of American independence, which requires economic security for all. Economic security is freedom; poverty is a prison.

Too often, good candidates run isolated campaigns, making systemic change feel impossible. This plan unites them into a powerful, coordinated movement aligned around a shared understanding of the problems we face and a clear plan to address them.

Ten Truths

To fix our country, we must first accept the reality of our situation.

1. The economic experiment of the past 50 years has failed. America became dependent on China and others. Unions were broken, jobs shipped overseas, and corporations wrote the rules. The results are rising authoritarianism and economic uncertainty.

2. We measure the wrong things. You make what you measure. We celebrate record GDP and stock markets while hundreds of millions live paycheck to paycheck.

3. We have a massive supply crisis. America doesn’t have enough of what people actually need: homes, doctors, teachers, engineers, and domestic manufacturing.

4. Essential needs became Wall Street profit centers. Housing, healthcare, and education now exist to generate financial returns, not to serve human needs.

5. Money owns our government. Corporations write the bills, lobbyists staff the agencies, and the candidate with more money wins 91% of the time. The system is rigged.

6. Economic desperation fuels authoritarianism. When people can’t afford to live, authoritarians give them someone to blame.

7. The market alone can’t fix what is broken. Decades of deregulation led to monopolies, offshoring, and the treatment of our economy as a Wall Street casino where the house always wins. Markets are tools, not masters, and we must take back control.

8. The system is designed to block change. The filibuster, gerrymandering, and packed courts are built to stop progress. Only an overwhelming democratic force can break through.

9. Technology must serve everyone. The immense gains from AI and automation must build prosperity for all, not just the owners of the machines.

10. American independence requires self-sufficiency. True freedom means having the economic capacity to use it. As a nation, it means having independence in our energy, supply chains, and industry.

The Reconstruction Plan: A Three-Pillar Strategy

We will rebuild America by focusing on three core pillars: Affordability, Accountability, and Democracy.

1. Restore Affordability Through Supply and Competition

The problem isn’t just high prices; it’s artificial scarcity created by massive corporations and monopolies. For decades, they’ve used their power to limit supply and extract wealth. We can break their stranglehold by rebuilding the supply side of our economy and using public power to restore competition.

• Build at Scale Again: Create federal authorities with emergency powers to cut through red tape and rapidly build public housing, next-generation infrastructure, and domestic manufacturing, just as we did to win WWII.

• Embrace Public Competition: Launch public alternatives in broken markets—like government-produced generic drugs, public banking, and public housing—to force private companies to compete on price and quality.

• Capture the Gains of Technology: Ensure the immense wealth created by AI and automation is shared with the public through dividends, public ownership of foundational models, or a shortened work week.

• Rebuild Our Industrial Base: Use targeted public investment, not just tariffs, to rebuild our nation’s capacity to make what we and the world need. This means new factories, new training programs, and secure supply chains.

2. Restore Shared Accountability

Our government must serve all the people, not just the powerful. We will end the two-tiered justice system and prove that our government can be competent and trustworthy.

• End Elite Corruption: There cannot be two sets of laws in this country—one for the powerful and one for the rest of us. We must end the culture of elite impunity, starting with a full investigation into the Epstein network. We will demand the prosecution of every single client, trafficker, and enabler. It also means banning congressional stock trading, closing the revolving door to lobbying, and ensuring that white-collar criminals face real consequences. No one is above the law.

• Prove Competence: Show Americans that our government can build things on time and on budget. Every successful project builds the trust we need for the next fight.

• Radical Transparency: Create real-time public dashboards for all federal spending, so every American can see exactly where their tax dollars are going.

3. Restore Democracy and Trust with Results

Democracy only works when it delivers for working people. We will protect the right to vote and prove that real freedom is impossible without economic security.

• Protect Free Elections: Pass federal voting rights legislation to end partisan gerrymandering, stop the flood of dark money into our politics, and ensure every American’s voice is heard.

• Deliver Real Freedom: You are not free if you can’t afford healthcare or if one job loss means homelessness. We will fight for the principle that economic security is freedom.

• Exercise Responsible Leadership: America’s moral authority has collapsed. We will end our active role in atrocities like Gaza, where U.S. weapons and vetoes sustain a campaign the UN and genocide scholars now recognize as genocide. This means an immediate halt to all weapons shipments and monetary support to Israel. True leadership is not measured by our weapons, but by our conscience.

The Pledge: A Binding Commitment

This is more than a platform; it is a pledge that binds a movement. It is a promise to the American people and to each other. Candidates who sign commit to rebuilding an America of Affordability, Accountability, and Democracy by standing on these principles:

1. Build Power Together, Not Alone:

• Coordinate votes on priority bills and on leadership positions that support our shared agenda.

• Refuse donations from corporate PACs and any organization working to undermine this agenda.

• Prioritize the Pledge Over Party Deference: Our loyalty is to this governing plan and the people it serves. We will support pledged candidates who champion this agenda, especially in primaries against entrenched incumbents who protect the failed status quo.

2. Restore Trust and Deliver Results:

• Commit to radical transparency in government, including real-time public spending dashboards.

• Fight for public options and direct government competition in every broken market, from housing and energy to healthcare and childcare.

• Strengthen worker power by making it easier to form unions and ensuring that public money creates public benefit and shared wealth.

3. Demand Equal Justice:

• Uphold equal protection for all Americans and resist cynical culture-war divisions.

• End elite immunity by holding the powerful accountable for their crimes and supporting the impeachment of any official who claims to be above the law.

• Ban congressional stock trading and permanently close the revolving door between public office and corporate lobbying.

A Movement to Win

The American people are with us. This is not a fringe idea; it is a mandate waiting to be claimed. The pundits who tell us to hug the “moderate middle” are reading from a playbook that is 50 years out of date, and the data proves it. The true center of the electorate is not a place of caution; it’s a place of deep, cross-partisan frustration with a system they know is rigged.

The evidence is not just clear; it’s a roar. A staggering 85% of Americans say our political system needs “major changes” or to be “completely reformed.” This isn’t a vague feeling. It’s a specific diagnosis: a massive 77% of the public believes that large corporations and the wealthy have too much power in our country today.

From this shared frustration comes a clear, common-sense mandate for a new economic populism:

• On Corporate Power: A huge 69% of Americans—including 83% of Democrats and a 62% majority of Republicans—support the government breaking up monopolies.

• On Worker Power: Support for labor unions is at a near 60-year high, with 68% of Americans approving of labor unions.

• On Public Competition: People don’t care about outdated arguments against government; they want what works. When private companies fail, a huge majority wants a government alternative to step in. 73% (75% Democrats, 80% Independents, 67% Republicans) of voters want healthcare radically overhauled and support government intervention, and 76% support the government manufacturing its own generic drugs to lower prices.

This is the winning coalition. The path forward isn’t to water down our beliefs, but to advance an economic platform so real and so popular that it eclipses the culture wars. The data shows this is what voters want. In the last national election, 40% of voters cited high prices as their single most important issue, dwarfing everything else.

History proves that bold action built on this kind of consensus is what works. FDR built a 40-year majority by delivering results, not by backing down from the powerful but by standing up. In contrast, the current approach, where good candidates run alone and are told to wait their turn, is a recipe for failure. We reject this culture of deference. Our power comes from uniting as a bloc and challenging the failed status quo wherever it exists, starting in Democratic primaries.

The rich and powerful want us to believe their power is inevitable. They are wrong. The people have broken the power of oligarchies before and we can do it again.

The choice, and the work, is ours. Will we accept a permanent slide into rule by a small elite, or will we unite to build a real American democracy? This pledge is our plan of action.

Now, I need to hear from you. This is where the conversation begins.

• First, in the comments below, tell me: Is this a foundation we can build on?

• Second, if you believe it is, please share this post. Email it. Text it. A plan is just an idea until we decide to give it power.

Here is how you can join the work:

Candidates: Take the pledge and join a coalition powerful enough to win. You are no longer running alone.

Organizations: Pool resources, share infrastructure, and coordinate.

Individuals: Support pledge candidates, spread the message, and hold all leaders accountable.