Fact: In 1980, the richest 10% of Americans took home about one quarter of our country’s annual income. By 2025, they were taking home almost half of the income earned each year. That is obscene and makes continuation of our democracy impossible.
Another fact: Several teams of the best economists in the United States have estimated that between $47 trillion and $79 trillion of wealth has been moved from the bottom 90% of the American population to the richest 10% since 1975.
Embedded in those two facts is much of the American political history of the last 12 years, and of the last week.
The movement of income and wealth away from working and middle class Americans created the same dynamic in our country as the reparations requirements of the treaty ending World War I created in Germany before Hitler. Economic historians have documented the same pattern in dozens of countries with the same result. Those populations become susceptible to the siren song of right wing extremism; a song that points to a perpetrator of the problem and offers relief by a strongman leader.
Donald Trump, with his well-honed talent for unethical financial gain, smelled an opportunity. He was sadly but obviously correct in his “gut.” He opened the door to his candidacy with open racism and xenophobia. Then he added the “swamp” and “corruption” in Washington, D.C.
The Republican tax and service cuts of 1981 and 1986 started the money movement to the top by reducing the tax rate on income over $29,750 ($110,750 in 2026) from 70% to 28% and cutting new construction of subsidized housing from 175,000 to 20,000 units per year. Major policy changes followed that pushed more money to the top, like allowing stock buybacks starting in 1982. Sadly, many Democrats voted for the 1981 tax cuts and never tried to undo them, thereby allowing the wealth gap to skyrocket and their working-class support from the New Deal to erode.
Working Americans expressed their restiveness about the drop in their economic status in many ways, such as opposing NAFTA and joining the Tea Party. Democrats and traditional Republicans failed to notice the parallel to the restiveness in Germany before Hitler.
In 2010, the Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, decided political advertising is free speech and the amount of money spent on it cannot be limited. Elections quickly became vastly more costly. With each corporate, billionaire or PAC dollar a Democrat accepted, their ability to see the increasing wealth gap dimmed, and their ability to fight it evaporated. They were now stuck in “the swamp” and “corruption.” This economic undertow is a major, mostly unacknowledged, force behind Trump’s two victories.
In his current term, Trump’s hubris has come back to haunt him. He pushed tariffs higher. Predictably, prices started to rise. He ignored warnings and went with the “feeling in his gut” that the Iranian regime would topple quickly. Instead, the war has forced prices to rise faster. Squeezed badly by the economy, former supporters have noticed Trump’s overreach on immigration, and the blatant corruption he leads and encourages.
The new Democratic Congress has been given an overwhelming opportunity and challenge. They must understand that what so many Trump voters have been saying since 2016 is “We want our money back: the money the top 10% have been taking from us for the last 30+ years.” Understanding this clarifies the tasks facing the new Congress.
First, you must address “affordability” for Americans whose real income has barely changed since 1980. You must address it not in the context of the price increases of the last two years but in the context of the vast wealth that has moved from regular Americans to the very rich. That means starting the process of “unredistributing” the wealth and income that the wealthy have been hard at work “re-distributing” to themselves.
Second, you must do all you can to rebuild American relationships with NATO, and the friends who have stood beside us since the end of World War II. Appropriate funds to support Ukraine. Shout out that Russia is our enemy: giving intelligence to Iran that has led to the death of American military personnel and citizens. Underline the president’s “aid and comfort” to the enemy.
Third, you must strengthen the institutions of American Democratic/Republican government to make it harder to manipulate in the future. Don’t waste time trying to convict people. Too many of the 2026 new Democratic voters will see it as continuation of the wasteful Washington infighting and time stolen from giving them the help they need. Encourage and support states where ICE has committed murder and other crimes where presidential pardons are beyond reach.
Your real investigative target must be better understanding the structural and statutory weaknesses Mr. Trump has exploited to push aside the balance of power among the three branches of government. Pass stronger laws to prevent a recurrence.
This election cycle, more candidates than at any time in recent history refused contributions from PACs and the wealthy. Some of those candidates called themselves “Democratic Socialists.” Others kept the label “Democrat.”
Those of you who accepted contributions from PACs and the wealthy face a critical choice. You can play it safe and keep the chain that comes with those contributions. Or risk the displeasure and campaign contributions of the ultra-wealthy and the votes of the the 2026 “new Democrats.”
With the risk comes an historic opportunity: return a large share of the trillions of dollars the rich and Republicans have moved up the economic ladder. Doing so will cut the legs from under Trumpism and start an era of Democratic political dominance. Don’t, and you will keep us stuck in division and paralysis.
David Allen is the creator of Redleaf Press, recognized for child care and early education publications, and the executive director of nonprofit Think Small. He lives in Center Barnstead.