Democrats must strike a sharp blow against economic royalists and win back middle America

It’s way past time for Democrats to wake up and regain the allegiance of financially strapped middle Americans who deserted the party of their parents to become Reagan Republicans. Democrats can still win elections without them. But my party can’t win big without them and big wins are the only outcomes that bring big change. 

The lifestyles of the rich and famous have become infamous.  

The wealthy denizens of Jeffrey Epstein’s Caribbean island who sexually abused girls are now in disgrace. Rich men like Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, have combined to abdicate the moral high ground that the wealthy once enjoyed in the Age of Reagan. Greed and excess are not good.

Public resentment has grown towards the billionaires who sail the world on 400-foot gas guzzling yachts for pleasure cruises on the high seas while mothers and fathers at home struggle to fill their gas tanks for trips to grocery stores where they barely can afford the food.  

There’s no time like the present for Democrats to run a full tilt boogie populist economic campaign against the economic royalists who were the favorite foils for Franklin Roosevelt to win four presidential elections.  

A national survey conducted for The Economist in December by YouGov.com demonstrates the desire of the public to upend the economic apple cart. 

Four in five people feel the rich have too much power and a like number believe income inequality is a problem. Six out of every ten Americans think taxes on billionaires are too low and want government to act to reduce the wealth gap. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have seen the opening and run with it. Their proposal, The Make Billionaires Pay Their Share Act, would increase taxes on the 938 billionaires in the United States and use the money for cash payments to every man, woman and child living in a household where the income is less than $150,000 a year.  

The 938 billionaires are worth $8.2 trillion collectively which represents an increase of $1.5 trillion in the last year alone after the big Trump tax break law for wealthy Americans was enacted. Meanwhile, the great divide between caviar class and poor is at an all-time high, with poor and middle-income Americans struggling to feed their families.  

The renowned U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandies once wrote, “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we can’t have both.” 

Our states are laboratories of democracy and they are doing their part to level the economic playing field. A tax increase on billionaires is on the ballot in California this year. A tax the rich proposal in Washington just passed the state legislature and enjoys the support of the governor. James Talarico, the newly minted Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in Texas, wages a competitive hard-fought populist crusade against the power of the big dog billionaires who have run the Lone Star State for so long.   

Mountains of money can erase the will of the people. So, we must act aggressively! 

The voices of ordinary Americans become silent when rich people own the news. Billionaire Jeff Bezos owns what’s still left of the Washington Post which opposes the Sanders plan. Another big buck’s guy, Larry Ellison owns CBS and will soon own CNN.  

The battle over the tax surcharge on billionaires being waged on the ballot in the Golden State is a classic case study. The ballot proposal would place a one-time 5 percent tax on billionaires and use the money to fund public health care programs.  

Who is fighting the plan to make billionaires pay their fair share? The billionaires of course! A group of rich Californians created a $35 million fund to defeat the progressive proposal. 

It’s time for a crusade against the economic royalists, which include bankers, billionaires and the aristocrats and plutocrats who have profited so bigly from Donald Trump’s massive tax cuts. The time has come for revenge against the wealthy predators who served Jeffrey Epstein so well and the public so poorly. 

Time is money. Americans are hurting financially and they need economic relief pronto. March 28 is No Kings Day which is the perfect occasion to strike a blow against the oligarchy run by economic royalists and the corporate welfare queens. 

Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications. He writes weekly for The Hill and hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon. 

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

More Opinions - Finance News

Trump’s takeover of DC landmarks reaches legal apex

Thune: Republicans will use SAVE Act in midterms if Democrats don’t get ‘on ...

Rand Paul confronts Markwayne Mullin over ‘snake’ remark; says he has ...

US military drops 5,000-pound deep-penetrator bombs near Strait of Hormuz 

Judge skeptical over Trump ballroom project amid new bid to halt it 

GOP tempers flare over how to pass SAVE America Act

Live updates: Mullin, Paul tussle at start of DHS questioning; Iran operation ...

Republicans collide with Trump over no-excuse absentee voting, SAVE Act

Mullin says FEMA should be ‘restructured’ and that he’ll end Noem’s ...

Key deadline in Texas Senate race passes without Trump endorsement

Former Trump appointee: MAGA movement is ‘dead’

Judge permanently blocks Ten Commandments displays at several Arkansas school ...

Watch live: Mullin faces questioning from Senate on DHS nomination

Cesar Chavez celebrations halted over abuse allegations

Democrats are being total hypocrites over the SAVE America Act 

Swalwell gains traction in crowded California governor’s race

Johnson says Democrats’ pitch to fund DHS without ICE, CBP would ‘defund ...

Bolton: Gabbard should join Joe Kent in resigning from Trump administration

The Hill Podcasts – Morning Report

© The Hill