A thought experiment.

While I was talking with my Dad this morning, we were discussing the current oligarchical state of the United States compared to the Gilded Age of Rockefeller and Carnegie. Trickle-down Reaganomics has never worked because it goes contrary to human nature (greed); FDR’s Revenue Act of 1935 and its Wealth Tax taxed the robber barons up to 75%, and of course they quickly found loopholes for tax evasion, necessitating the Revenue Act of 1937 – but what revenues WERE gleaned from that era largely established the American middle class. Reagan’s untethering of the rich from their tax obligations began the long choking-out of said middle class. Trump returned to power on the back of a global dissatisfaction with the Establishment, itself the result of a generation-long evisceration of the middle class, but anyone thinking that Trump is going to actually make life better for anyone other than his fellow kleptocrats is a fool.

This got me thinking. Democrats and liberals have waged a long-running campaign against the oligarchy, but this runs directly counter to the American Dream, in which anyone can become the next Trump or Kardashian, so God help any attempt to return to FDR’s tax plans because that could be THEIR money that’s being heavily taxed someday!

(Brace yourself – here comes the counterintuitive, provocative bit.)

What if Democrats took back the American Dream with its own Trumpian spin? What if we accepted the reality that the only way to affect 21st century change is ungodly amounts of money, with which one can buy Supreme Court justices and politicians? What if we taught people that the only moral, ethical response to a corrupt 1% is to get *even richer* and outspend the bastards? What if what we need is an anti-Ayn Rand, telling stories with a heroic, civic-minded John Galt instead of a selfish one, who demonstrates that it’s entirely possible to live like a king, affect massive social and environmental positive change, and sufficiently compensate their employees to reinstate and reinvigorate the American middle class?

The liberal Democrat mythical hero discovers the secret of cheap power and gives it away for free, but what if that genius instead got really stinking rich and used it to run the equivalent of Elon Musk out of business? (Isn’t that who we thought Elon Musk WAS before his descent into Trumpism?)

Does American pop culture actually need a modern American mythology built not around the violence of Iron Man or Batman but around the entrepreneurialism and philanthropy of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne if they hadn’t generated their fortunes through war profiteering or inheritance? Do we need a reality show built around what members of society there are who embody this ideal, instead of Musk and the Kardashians? How do the Democrats out-Trump Trump by creating modern American heroes who live a financially rich life while enriching others and improving their communities, creating role models that own and accept the greed inherent to human nature AND showcase how if you use that wealth for the betterment of all then you become a respected pillar of the community instead of a Brian Thompson?

Scott Snyder’s ABSOLUTE BATMAN, set in an alternate reality where Bruce Wayne isn’t rich and uses much more brutal force to fight against the corrupt rich and powerful, is the antithesis of what I’m proposing here. ABSOLUTE BATMAN embodies more of the fantasy of the oppressed, and is shaping up to be more of a Robin Hood-type story than a Batman story, which is a really interesting take – but it was also the #1 selling comic of 2024, which shows that it struck a nerve in the zeitgeist, and if we use that as a barometer (and, of course, the aforementioned fate of Brian Thompson), then American culture is on the threshold of some really dangerous shit. Violent revolution is one option (a la STAR WARS), sure, but it’s not a GOOD option.

Mightn’t rejiggering the liberal Democrat message into making getting rich a moral and ethical imperative so you can do more good with that money provide a better alternative? And how do we short-circuit the “there are no good billionaires” counterargument by establishing and publicizing paths to wealth that do not require the fucking-over of others?