Americans are mad as hell and Democrats must respond to voter anger

Progressives, and ordinary people who buy groceries, scored a victory this week when a judge quashed a mega-merger between two mammoth grocery chains, Kroger and Albertsons.

The merger could have cost grocery shoppers in Washington state alone an extra $800 million per year. Things got even better when the two big grocery chains turned on each other and Albertsons sued its erstwhile merger partner after the ruling. Judicial action toppled the corporate giants and elevated the interests of financially strapped working families.  

The merger of these two corporate behemoths would have been an alliance between Godzilla and King Kong that would have terrorized hard-pressed consumers. They tried to sell the merger on the ridiculous notion that the massive conglomerate would produce lower food prices for customers. If you believe that, you must still believe in trickle-down economics — and in Santa Claus. 

The moral of this twisted tale of these two corporate giants is that there is still hope for the progressive fight for working families after they supported for the Great Pretender, Donald Trump, in November.

The message that Americans sent when they voted came straight from the great movie “Network” and the angry anchor Howard Beale, “the mad prophet of the airways,” when he shouted, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any take this anymore.”

Middle Americans are in a dreadful mood and angry at the political and corporate establishment. The national Election Day exit poll indicated that three out of every four Americans were dissatisfied with the direction of the nation and two in three were displeased with the state of the national economy.  

As a Democrat, you have two choices. One, you can complain about the ugly mood and use it as an excuse for defeat or you can work to take advantage of it and use it as leverage for victory. The Trump campaign gave voters the chance to vent their spleen and strike a blow against the status quo by villainizing the federal government. Democrats failed to respond in kind by taking on corporate America, and my party paid the political price. 

Winston Churchill once said, “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at with no result.” That’s the way Trump feels these days. He was thrown out of office in the 2020 election, found liable for sexual assault in the E. Jean Carroll case and found guilty of 34 felony counts of business fraud in New York. But he lived to talk about it and returned to power.  

That was then and now he plans to take his revenge with the help of a compliant Congress and Supreme Court and make hay while an ominous dark moon envelops our great nation. He will indulge his wildest fantasies with cuts in earned Social Security and Medicare benefits, tax cuts for bankers and billionaires and free rein for high-powered corporate executives like Elon Musk to dismantle the social safety net that sustains millions of Americans.

Trump revels in excess like the gaudy trappings of the gold and silver tower in Manhattan that bears his name. The trouble will start when he overreaches and throws the baby out with the bathwater. When he inevitably goes too far, Democrats must be aggressive enough to stop him in his tracks and advance the cause of ordinary Americans. My party needs to take on the tough fights for working families even when they lose those battles to create an anti-establishment brand for the party. 

There are all sorts of ways for Democrats to take on Trump’s passion for the corporate status quo. Steely opposition to Trump’s tax giveaways to the super rich and corporate executives is an obvious target and may be a winnable fight. Another hill to die on is opposition to GOP hopes to tear the guts out of the Social Security and Medicare programs that have served so many Americans for so long. 

But it’s not enough for Democrats to protect the status quo, we must fight for a brighter future and for systematic change. Those fights will be harder and take longer for us to win. The best place to start is to call for a universal health care insurance. 

Misery for millions and senseless violence are the price our nation pays when the political system fails to address chronic social problems. Sadly, it took the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, to focus public attention on the millions of Americans who die or go bankrupt every year because they can’t afford adequate health care.  

The U.S. spends so much more money on health care than any other nation in the world and Americans get so little in return. The health care system needs urgent reform and Democrats must summon up its courage and tackle this tough job. 

No one said it would be easy. The fight to create Medicare started with President Truman in 1945 and didn’t end until President Johnson signed it into law in 1965. The campaign for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) Medicare For All proposal will similarly be drawn out and difficult. But it’s not enough to protect Medicare for seniors — we must serve Americans of all ages to make the country a more perfect and a healthier union. 

The failure of the Albertsons and Kroger grocery chain merger was a big win for ordinary grocery shoppers at the expense of big business. Political insiders view politics as an ideological battle on a horizontal plane from left to right. But the more useful perspective for Democrats and for progressives is that it revolves around a populist battle on a vertical plane from bottom to top.  

Americans love underdogs and my party should serve the interests of the many trapped at the bottom or in the middle over the few high and mighty at the top. 

Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster and CEO of Bannon Communications Research which polls for Democrats, labor unions and progressive issue groups. He hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.