In 1964, at the Republican National Convention, Nelson A. Rockefeller warned that factions fueled by hatred, prejudice, and fear could take over a major political party and endanger democracy. By 2026, his fears were validated unexpectedly. Both major parties now show the same patterns he cautioned against, as influential factions in each exploit resentment and division to redefine party identity and direction.

The political strategies later perfected by Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump show how modern coalitions mobilize voters through populism and identity conflict. This replaces the broad governing consensus that Rockefeller believed democracy needed. Each presidency encouraged Americans to see politics through cultural divisions: distrust of government, the politics of identity, or populist revolt. Economic power became less central to public debate. The policies of both political parties show that neither addresses the middle class’s problems.

Rockefeller argued that democracy depends on accountability of economic power and resistance to ideological extremism. The contrast between his vision and the culture-focused strategies that now predominate helps explain why the twentieth-century middle-class consensus has eroded. Reagan, Obama, and Trump each mobilized discontent in different ways but left the concentration of economic power—a core concern for Rockefeller—largely unchanged.

I graduated from high school in 1980. Most of my friends went to college while I tried to find my purpose. That September, I took a temporary job in a textile warehouse. Around this time, Ronald Reagan became President. I soon experienced deindustrialization first-hand. The work stopped in 1981. Six months later, I was rehired, but the company soon closed. Years later, I learned the job was offshored. I did not know millions of Americans were facing this same shock. Its consequences would affect politics for decades. Reagan redirected working-class anger from economic power to government. Deregulation, tax cuts, and attacks on organized labor sold out the American worker. Reagan did not shrink government. He shifted who benefited: away from democratic institutions and public programs, toward corporations and wealthy actors. The........

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