The 2028 Election Starts Now

A Plan for Dismantling the Failed Status Quo

Prologue

Trump is tearing it all down—and weirdly, that might be the best shot we’ve had in decades.

When he signs orders to erase the Department of Education when Elon Musk fires federal workers by the tens of thousands, it’s not just horrifying—it’s clarifying. They’re doing us a favor. Not on purpose, of course. But by burning down these rotten institutions, they’re revealing how useless they already were.

The real scandal isn’t that Trump is wrecking the government. It’s that these institutions were already rotting from within—and Democrats like Schumer and Gillibrand were pretending it worked while defending the status quo behind the scenes. You’ve got Ruben Gallego out in Arizona holding $5,000-a-plate fundraisers while Bernie and AOC are packing arenas in the same state. No more hiding. No more pretending. The masks are off. Now we know who’s fighting for people—and who’s just trying to manage our decline.

I’m writing this because I’ve tried to fix it from every angle. I inherited a factory and watched it collapse after NAFTA. I went all in for Bernie, co-founded Justice Democrats, helped write the Green New Deal, and served as AOC’s comms director in Congress. I’ve organized in red states, walked the halls of power, and swung hammers in East Tennessee. And what I’ve seen—what I know—is that the system is not broken. It’s working exactly as designed: to block progress and protect power.

So if you’re thinking about running for president in 2028, or building any kind of serious movement to take this country back—this piece is for you.

TL;DR: 2028 isn’t about a savior candidate—it’s about building a movement to flood Congress with builders, not bureaucrats. The system’s already collapsing. Trump and Musk might be doing us the accidental favor of exposing how bad it really is. The only way forward is not messaging, branding, or hiring better consultants. It’s building real power—starting in 2026—not just to win the White House, but to overwhelm Congress with people ready to govern like builders, not pundits.

We don’t need tweaks. We need public competition—government alternatives to the private monopolies that are failing America in every sector: healthcare, housing, energy, space, broadband. That means rejecting the lies of the Chicago School, recruiting real candidates who aren’t afraid to take on corporate power, and facing the wrath of the establishment with open eyes.

If MAGA is selling fear and corporate Democrats are selling nothing, we damn well better be offering a real alternative: a government that works, institutions that build, and a movement rooted in the lives of people who’ve been screwed over for the past 40 years.

The 2028 Election Starts Now: A Plan for Dismantling the Failed Status Quo

Trump signing orders to eradicate the Department of Education while Musk gleefully fires tens of thousands of government workers might seem horrifying—but maybe, just maybe, they’re inadvertently doing us a favor.

Let me be clear: Trump isn’t fixing a damn thing. He’s enriching himself and blowing shit up for sport. But that destruction—ugly as it is—opens a door. Because what we had before? It wasn’t working. And now that the whole country can see the rot, there’s finally a window to rebuild something real. Not a better brand of consultant politics. Not a nicer capitalism. A new public infrastructure. A new movement.

You want to know how broken things already were? The FDA signed off on OxyContin as “less addictive” while it went on to kill tens of thousands. Wood pulp is legally sold to us as food. Members of Congress openly trade stocks using insider knowledge right under the SEC’s nose—and no one does a damn thing. These institutions weren’t hijacked by Trump. They were already corrupted beyond repair. Trump just stopped pretending.

At least he’s honest about whose side he’s on. Democrats like Schumer, Gillibrand, and Gallego still want to cosplay resistance while cashing corporate checks and slow-walking us off a cliff. You don’t get to talk about justice while charging five grand a plate. You don’t get to sneer at “the left” while offering voters nothing but vibes and platitudes.

The good news? The field’s wide open. MAGA has no vision. The Democratic Party has no spine. That leaves space for something bold, something useful, something worth building. But only if you start now.

Our current crisis isn't just about who's sitting in the White House. We're in systemic collapse—politically, economically, technologically, and culturally. Trump’s second administration isn't an anomaly; it's a symptom of a cancer metastasizing throughout American society.

The Hard Truth About 2028

If you're seriously considering running for president in 2028, here's my radical proposal: start running now. Not in 2027, not after the midterms. Now.

I know exactly what you're thinking: "Our elections are already unbearably long." But here’s the uncomfortable truth—winning decisively in 2028 means winning decisively in 2026, and we are not even close to being on track.

The Democratic Party's brand is circling the drain. Some consultants will push you to mimic Fetterman or Trump—to abandon marginalized communities or progressive values. That's not what I'm advocating. But we do need to abandon something: our blind devotion to economic myths rooted in the Chicago School of Economics, Milton Friedman's market fantasies, and the cruel idea that economic pain should always hit the poorest hardest.

We need aggressive, strategic economic planning: investments in domestic manufacturing, a full-scale rebuilding of American industry, and absolute priority for workers over shareholders. And about tariffs—let’s quit kidding ourselves. Tariffs protect industries; they don’t build them. We’re way past protectionism; we’re at the stage of wholesale reconstruction from the ground up of our institutions and our industries.

Politicians constantly ask me, "What three issues should we run on?" I despise that question because there aren't just three issues—there are hundreds. But none of them matter unless we fundamentally rebuild the Democratic Party and reclaim enough power to change things. All the great policy ideas in the world can’t fix a irreversibly broken system. You gotta fix the system first.

The Problem Isn't Just Policy—It's Power

Americans naturally pin their hopes on presidential elections. We’ve lost faith in Congress—it’s divided, dysfunctional, and polls worse than Nickelback albums. Whenever someone articulates our problems clearly, we immediately think, "They should run for president!" But electing presidents only to watch them struggle against entrenched resistance has become a sick cycle of disappointment.

Our fixation on the presidency while neglecting Congress is a recipe for disappointment. We elect presidents hoping they’ll fix decades of systemic problems, but we ignore the fundamental reality: the system is designed to resist rapid change without overwhelming legislative support. Look at history - the only periods of transformative progress in America came when one party held massive majorities in both houses of Congress. The New Deal happened because FDR had 69 Democratic senators and a 313-seat House majority. Civil Rights legislation was passed because of similar commanding majorities. And it wasn't just federal power. By 1935, Democrats controlled 75% of state legislatures, a level of dominance that allowed them to accomplish amazing, transformative things. No president, no matter how visionary or inspiring, can overcome Congressional gridlock. The hard truth is that our government was built to move slowly unless one side has the numbers to push through major change. We need both the presidency and overwhelming Congressional majorities to deliver the transformation Americans desperately need.

During the Biden administration, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed. It had the funds—$1.2 trillion—to theoretically rebuild the entire Interstate Highway System. But what do we have to show for it? Anything approaching that level of transformation? No. We have infrastructure projects stalled by state courts, local politics, and endless red tape.

This gap between promised funding and actual results points to a deeper problem: the systems we use to measure progress often mask fundamental decay. Even when we secure legislative victories, the metrics we celebrate obscure the reality most Americans experience. Our economic metrics hide systemic decay. Our manufacturing base has been gutted while misleading statistics say output is growing. We build prisons faster than classrooms or hospitals. Every year we spend more on education and healthcare, yet we get less and less in return.

A Vision Beyond Incrementalism

Take healthcare: spending spirals upward while quality plummets. America spends more on healthcare than any other nation, yet our outcomes rank among the worst. The private healthcare and insurance industries have unquestionably failed. Our healthcare system already suffers from critical shortages of doctors, nurses, and facilities. Simply expanding Medicare coverage without addressing supply would overwhelm an already strained system, leading to rationing and delays. Medicare-for-All alone won't fix this because it still feeds private-sector parasites. We don't just need universal coverage; we need universal care—publicly owned hospitals, publicly employed doctors, and publicly administered costs.

I'm proposing a healthcare revolution that starts by rapidly expanding the supply of healthcare providers and facilities while aggressively growing existing public institutions like VA and TRICARE. We must train more doctors and nurses, build more hospitals and clinics, and extend public healthcare systems to reach the general public, with Medicare serving as a universal payer. We begin by targeting healthcare deserts where corporate healthcare providers have abandoned entire communities, leaving millions without basic services.

Let's be clear about funding: We already spend trillions on healthcare annually. The question isn't whether we'll spend this money - we will. The question is what we're getting for it and who controls it. Instead of funneling these trillions to private monopolies that prioritize profit over care, we redirect that spending toward public institutions that we, as citizens, can actually influence. When critics ask "how will you pay for Medicare for All?" they conveniently ignore that we're already paying for a broken system. The choice isn't between spending and not spending - it's between financing private profits or funding public care.

As healthcare continues consolidating into fewer, larger monopolies, our leverage as consumers disappears. You can't "vote with your wallet" when there's only one provider in town. But we can regain control through robust public competition - building government-run alternatives that either force private providers to improve or eventually replace them entirely. This is about reclaiming our power to demand better.

Consider this disturbing example: At Walter Reed, government scientists developed a single-shot COVID vaccine designed to protect against multiple variants—including potential future strains. Early trials were extremely promising. Yet it barely made the news, never reached the public, and quietly disappeared without explanation or aggressive support. It's impossible to ignore the reality: a publicly-developed, taxpayer-funded vaccine that threatened Big Pharma's bottom line vanished silently. Maybe that's why it wasn't fast-tracked. Maybe that's why you've never heard of it.

This pattern extends far beyond healthcare. Look at our cosmic ambitions: America's once-inspiring space program, built on collective dreams and public investment, has been stolen and sold off piece by piece to billionaires like Musk and Bezos. NASA, once a beacon of national pride, now serves as a subsidiary of SpaceX, while Pentagon budgets become Musk's personal investment fund.

Musk openly profits from billions in taxpayer-funded contracts, turning our collective dreams into his personal monopoly. His employees cycle between SpaceX and government agencies, approving contracts for themselves and rewriting rules for their benefit. This isn't entrepreneurship; it's piracy. It's time to reclaim space exploration for the public good, scientific advancement, and collective inspiration—away from those who turn humanity's dreams into vanity projects.

These are just two examples of where robust public competition is desperately needed. In sector after sector—from pharmaceuticals to transportation, housing to broadband—the private sector has grown complacent, exploitative, or absent altogether. The solution isn't to tinker with regulations or offer more subsidies to failing private models. We need the government to actively compete, building superior alternatives that either force private industry to radically improve or replace them entirely. When the private sector fails the public, the public should step in and show them how it's done.

How to Make This Happen

If you're serious about transforming America, here's your roadmap:

1. Start now, recruiting candidates nationwide who share your vision. One of the things that made FDR an amazing president was an amazing house and Senate that didn’t stand in the way.

2. Think of your campaign as a movement not just a campaign—unifying the center-left and left with purpose and discipline.

3. Build a Congressional majority committed to transformative change. Real change demands a Congress that fights for expanded healthcare, infrastructure, justice, and accountability for corrupt officials like Clarence Thomas. Voters aren't looking for cautious promises; we're desperate for courageous leadership. Give them authenticity, and you'll unleash enthusiasm the establishment can only dream about.

You have two election cycles—enough time if you start now. Build majorities in both the House and Senate, ready for the radical change America urgently needs.

I'm asking you directly: Are you prepared to tell Americans the hard truth and act boldly? Are you ready to lose wealthy donors and media accolades to actually save this country? Make no mistake—the establishment will fight you every step. They'll call you divisive or radical. Good. Wear those labels proudly. FDR was called a traitor to his class. Civil rights leaders were labeled extremists. History vindicates the bold, not the timid.

A Warning and a Promise

Expect backlash from the party establishment—they fear disruption. But this isn't about party loyalty; it's loyalty to the people. It's about rescuing America from decades-long decline.

We're polarized not because we inherently hate each other, but because leaders offer nothing compelling, no true alternatives. Without something to believe in, people retreat into tribes, choosing destruction over stagnation. Offer a real vision—a government that builds, an economy that works for everyone, institutions that serve the public interest—and watch how quickly people rally.

America is at a crossroads, and history doesn't forgive missed opportunities. Half-measures and incrementalism won't cut it. It's a political and social transformation, or it's collapse. Choose wisely.

Look, I'm not running for anything. I'm swinging hammers in East Tennessee. Not everyone needs to be a candidate to have ideas worth hearing. Sometimes the clearest view comes from outside the system—from people who've seen it from all sides but aren't trapped in its machinery.

If my words resonate, share them. If they piss you off, tell me why. But whatever you do, don't wait for permission to think boldly about what comes next. The country we need won't be built by consultants or saved by celebrities. It'll be built by people who care enough to imagine it differently.

Here’s hoping,

Corbin Trent