This is the first edition of How We Win, a Guardian opinion series bringing together leading thinkers and writers with different perspectives on America’s political future.

In these last weeks before the midterms, Democratic candidates have been gaining ground by talking about two things: the affordability crisis and political corruption.

If Democrats regain control of Congress and genuinely want to respond to affordability, they’ll need to do everything possible to root out corruption.

Trump’s war on Iran is causing Americans to spend almost 50% more on gas on average. And the diesel fuel needed to transport almost everything else we buy now averages more than $6.00 a gallon, which is also being passed on to consumers.

These price increases due to Trump’s war tell only half the story. The other half is the political corruption at the root of the war – enriching Trump’s friends and family.

The war has been a huge windfall for Big Tech supplying the military – such as Palantir, a core artificial intelligence and data-integration partner for the US Department of Defense, founded by Trump’s and JD Vance’s ally Peter Thiel.

Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump have invested in an array of companies that have business before the Pentagon and have reaped substantial awards. Most of their investments in defense contractors occurred after Trump was elected for a second time.

Trump’s tariffs offer another example of higher prices connected to corruption. The tariffs are import taxes that have increased annual household costs by an estimated $1,100, according to The Budget Lab at Yale.

Again, though, the price increases tell only half the story. The tariffs........

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