Why America needs a New Square Deal
and fast.
Anyone paying attention to American current events can see that our nation faces multiple crises. When I mention that our democracy has been undermined and our collective prosperity captured by a handful of billionaires, people often react with discomfort. "What can I possibly do?" they ask. "Shouldn't elected officials or institutions be addressing this?"
Their anxiety resonates with me. Like many Americans, I struggle with limited resources for my family, let alone for civic engagement. Yet history provides both warning and inspiration: we've been here before, and ordinary citizens found ways to fight back.
What we're experiencing in 2025 isn't unprecedented—it's a modern echo of the first Gilded Age, with striking parallels that extend far beyond technology. After the Civil War, America underwent explosive industrial growth while political power was concentrated in the hands of "Robber Barons" who built fortunes through government contracts, speculation, and monopolistic practices. The parallel to our time is unmistakable.
Today's tech billionaires function like yesterday's railroad tycoons, but that's merely the most visible similarity. Both eras feature astronomical wealth inequality masked by a thin veneer of gold. Both saw essential industries consolidated into monopolies that crushed competition—Standard Oil then, Big Tech now. Both witnessed the commodification of information—yellow journalism then, algorithmic feeds now. Both exploited workers through novel arrangements—company towns then, gig economy now. Both featured captured regulatory systems where government served capital rather than citizens. Both saw financial speculation create paper wealth divorced from productive value. Both experienced massive rural-urban divides as prosperity was concentrated in select metropolitan areas.
Theodore Roosevelt's "Square Deal" promised Americans fair treatment regardless of social station, leading to historic antitrust enforcement and consumer protections. Later, Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" rebuilt the economy with ordinary Americans at the center. These weren't acts of charity but recognition that democracy and extreme inequality cannot coexist.
America now requires a New Square Deal—a comprehensive approach that addresses both economic power imbalances and political corruption. Not a nostalgic return to the past, but a forward-looking framework that applies time-tested principles to modern challenges.
Historical Resistance That Worked
During the first Gilded Age, Americans fought back against seemingly invincible monopolies—and won. The Knights of Labor grew to 700,000 members despite brutal suppression. Farmers formed cooperatives and the Populist Party to combat predatory railroad rates. Journalists like Ida Tarbell exposed Standard Oil's corruption through meticulous investigation. Women without voting rights organized consumer boycotts that forced workplace reforms. These movements—composed of people with less education, wealth, and free time than most Americans have today—secured the 8-hour workday, antitrust legislation, food safety laws, and direct election of senators, transforming American life against overwhelming odds. Recently, consumers have forced Elon to consider his actions with Tesla’s precipitous fall in stock price, and some years ag,o retail investors forced the government to intervene to save an overleveraged hedge fund. We have affected and can affect powerful organizations to this day.
How Today's Oligarchs Control Us
Modern billionaires wield power through sophisticated mechanisms invisible to most citizens. They shape legislation through dark money campaign contributions and armies of lobbyists. They control information flow through ownership of major media platforms and manipulation of algorithmic feeds that determine what news reaches your eyes. Their companies track your movements, purchases, and communications, harvesting data to predict and modify your behavior. They leverage tax loopholes to starve public infrastructure while using philanthropy to launder reputations and influence policy without democratic accountability. Most insidiously, they've convinced many Americans that this arrangement is natural, inevitable, and beyond challenge.
The Democratic Party's Feckless Resistance
The Democratic Party, ostensibly the vehicle for working-class interests, has largely surrendered to the very forces it claims to oppose. Their resistance to oligarchic power is performative—fiery speeches followed by tepid action. They decry corporate influence while accepting the same donor money. They promise antitrust enforcement while appointing regulators from the very industries they're meant to oversee. They speak of economic justice while promoting architects of financial deregulation. Their legislative victories, when they come, are watered-down compromises that preserve fundamental power imbalances. This isn't merely ineffective—it smells of complicity. Like the conservative Democrats of the first Gilded Age who fought populist reforms, today's party establishment seems more frightened of genuine economic democracy than of billionaire domination.
The Republican Party's MAGA Capture
Meanwhile, the Republican Party has been thoroughly hijacked by the MAGA movement, leaving traditional conservatives politically homeless. The party that once championed local businesses against monopolies now defends corporate personhood and unlimited political spending. The party of fiscal responsibility now explodes deficits to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. The party of family values now rallies behind figures who embody their opposite. Most dangerously, the party has embraced authoritarian tendencies, viewing democracy itself as an impediment to power. Traditional conservatives who value stable institutions, genuinely free markets, and measured governance find themselves without representation, forced to choose between a Democratic Party that doesn't share their values and a Republican Party that has abandoned conservative principles for populist theater that, paradoxically, serves the same oligarchic interests through different means.
What You Can Do Right Now
I won't keep you waiting for the most powerful tools at your disposal. First, systematically boycott businesses(Amazon,Walmart Target,and others) that perpetuate this system—both the digital fiefdoms of Big Tech and the so-called "freedom cities" emerging as twenty-first-century company towns where technocrats seek total control over residents' lives. Withdraw your dollars from traditional retailers like GameStop that promptly scrapped DEI initiatives when given political cover, sending a clear message that diversity was always performative rather than principled. Avoid establishments that bankroll MAGA candidates working to dismantle democratic safeguards. Starve them all of their most precious resource—your money and attention. Second, support labor actions and, when possible, participate in coordinated work stoppages—preferably building toward a general strike of increasing duration. This two-pronged approach hits oligarchs' revenue streams while disrupting their production. The message must be clear: We will not financially support our own subjugation. Remember, their entire empire rests on one assumption—that we'll keep participating in a system rigged against us. When enough of us refuse, their power collapses.
The outcome of this Second Gilded Age remains unwritten. Will digital fiefdoms replace industrial company towns? Will algorithmic manipulation perfect what propaganda began? Or will we, like our predecessors, recognize our collective power and demand a New Square Deal that ensures technology and prosperity serve democracy rather than subvert it? Above all, organize locally—in person, face-to-face—with neighbors, coworkers, and community members. The most effective resistance happens not through online activism but through real human connection. Everyone brings valuable skills: teachers can educate, tradespeople can build, healthcare workers can heal, artists can inspire, and organizers can mobilize. These networks of citizens and communities become the foundation for broader movements and serve immediate community needs while building toward systemic change. The successful resistance movements of the first Gilded Age didn't have the internet—they had each other. So must we. History shows us the path—now we must walk it together.