Campaign Memo From: Left of Center PAC To: Concerned Democrats Re: Restoring Middle Class Prosperity
The Rule of Law, Constitutional Guarantees, Elections and a Good Plan
The American people are getting so close to their breaking point that by the time the Summer of ‘26 is over, Trump and the Republicans will wish they had dug a moat around their lair instead of a ballroom.
Since Trump returned to the White House, the Republicans in Congress have assisted or enabled Trump to bulldoze the American dream and wreck our pursuit of happiness. Driven by Trump’s lust for power and the politics of greed, Republicans in Congress have wallowed in the recreational cruelty imposed on people, cities, states and institutions. Thankfully, most Americans are fed up with the Trump policy moves and headline-grabbing stunts.
Heading toward the midterm elections, Trump and the Republicans are learning the hard way that when they try to tear down everything in their path they also end up running over a lot of their own supporters – and a growing number of those voters have noticed.
“A substantial portion of Trump voters who give the president a negative grade on the economy (22%), the Epstein files (37%) and the Iran war (49%) say they would not vote for him in an election redo," pollsters in the political science department at UMass-Amherst, who surveyed self-identified Trump voters, wrote a recent article published in The Conversation.
The Great Betrayal: Inflation, Iraq War and Epstein Cover Up
Trump promised he would lower food prices, absurdly saying it would happen on Day One, but by Day 200 his tariffs had reignited inflation and we were paying more for just about everything – and we still are.
Trump promised no new wars, but now he has started one that he can't end without being called a loser or Netanyahu's puppet. The up front cost of the war is around $40 billion, but the total price is much higher, CNN reported, citing additional operational costs, inflation and a drained oil supply have added billions more when added up . “You want to see bedlam?” Trump said at the G7, acting as if he wasn't responsible for the disaster. “We run out of reserves in about four weeks.” Trump looks weak, and he has embarrassed the military by ordering them to do what most honest military strategists have long said was impossible to do without mass death and destruction. The strategists were right, the regime did not change and Iran still has control over the Strait of Hormuz.
And, Trump promised he would declassify all the Epstein files and the transparency would clear him of any wrongdoing, but instead we got a cover up headed by Trump’s personal lawyer and would-be attorney general that buried victims’ allegations against Trump and the Epstein class perpetrators yet exposed the names of the victims.
Taken together, those three lies are a great betrayal to Americans who believed what Trump was selling and voted for him in 2024 because of it. Taken together, that great betrayal has caused a small but meaningful slice of Trump supporters to rethink their votes in 2024 – and in some cases they seek help dealing with it.
“I’m getting more individuals — they were Republicans, they voted for Trump three times — and now they’re extremely frustrated with their party because even though their party is in power, they don’t feel like they’re being heard by their party,” Adam Luke, a Tennessee-based therapist who is part of a conservative therapist network, told Politico.
“My clients that are in their 60s are like, ‘For 40 or 50 years, I’ve believed in the system. I truly don’t believe in it anymore. This is the last time I’m ever going to vote.”
Good. We hope large swaths of MAGA – the ones who are too brainwashed or too brainless to ever vote Blue – don’t vote. The rest of us don’t have that choice. We must identify and lock in every vote we can find to help us get beyond this darkness, including identifying and reaching out to persuadable 2024 Trump voters.
It’s time to start talking about what must be done to restore and rebuild the path to prosperity for the American middle class.
Rescuing Middle Class Prosperity from the GOP’s Inflation Nation
Out of control healthcare costs and inflation top the list of issues of concern for Americans, but that's no surprise. Healthcare and inflation, along with opposition to the oil wars, have been voters' biggest grievances for decades. However, as we head toward the midterm elections, the Republican Congress and Trump have passed laws, abruptly changed rules, and imposed policies that have exploded health insurance premiums and out of pocket healthcare costs.
Trump, with no objection from the Republican congressional leaders, reignited inflation with tariffs and a war to the point where the Fed chairman he handpicked to lower interest rates instead signalled in his first rate-setting meeting that a hike in interest rates will likely be needed to avoid recession. Democratic candidates and campaigns have all receipts, and they have begun to share with voters ways to restore prosperity that make sense to the people in their districts and states.
There is widespread agreement that Democrats need to run on a robust but realistic agenda tailored to the local voters to restore and rebuild prosperity for America’s middle class. Here is a thumbnail summary of some of the ideas already being discussed and some fresh thoughts, as well:
End the Chaos. Restoring the rule of law and the Constitution and conducting free and fair elections are essential to restoring prosperity for the middle class. Trump and the Republicans have rigged the economy to put more burden on wage earners than the wealthiest among us. Chaos is not conducive to business, commerce and financial markets, and it sure as heck isn't favorable to our quality of life. Everything Trump does is chaotic, and most everything Trump does gets a stamp of approval from the GOP Congress. We need to thin the ranks of Trump enablers in the House and Senate this fall to end the chaos, and begin to take the masks off Trump’s rogue militia and stop pretending ICE is about enforcing immigration law.
Affordable Healthcare. Voters are begging for coverage they can afford, with a streamlined process for admission and a simple way to make changes. Getting health insurance in America is like buying a video game you can never win because you can’t figure out how to make it work to full capacity. And, chances are you really couldn't afford the premium in the first place. Trump and the Republicans have done everything they can to destroy the Affordable Care Act, and in doing so they have raised healthcare costs for all of us. That should be repeated often and fixed immediately.
Employment Security and Better Pay. Raise the minimum wage and commit to protecting job loss caused by AI. Voters approve. Trump and the Republicans have held open the door to AI, despite all the layoffs and plans for robotics replacing humans. The Republicans don’t have a plan for all the workers that would be displaced, and Democrats are debating what the plan should include. There is an opportunity here.
Repair and Rebuild the American Food Supply Chain. Prices can come down, but not if Trump tantrums continue to lead to punitive tariffs. It should be a no-brainer: don’t raise tariffs on produce if you have facts that show America requires a specific minimum number of tomatoes and broccoli to be imported to meet needs and demand. Doubly, if you have a massively popular crop that isn't grown in the U.S., like coffee, don’t raise tariffs on coffee. The beef crisis was avoidable. Ranchers couldn’t plan and invest in the herds, monopolistic middlemen took too much of a cut, and the elected Republicans in Washington and the Red State capitals hung a “gone fishing” sign on the regulatory agencies. House and Senate Democrats have new legislation that cracks down on meatpacking monopolies with the aim of bringing prices under control and unclogging the supply chain by breaking the stranglehold large companies have on consumers. It mainly gives federal oversight real teeth. The screwworm, meanwhile, was a newcomer to the crisis, but it’s no surprise it showed up after Elon Musk and DOGE cut $15 million last year in federal grants for tracking screwworm in Central America and Mexico. There are at least a dozen known cases of screwworm in the U.S. The broken American beef supply chain is a wholly Republican-caused crisis.
Permanent Middle Class Tax Cut. Offset meaningful middle class tax cuts with tax hikes of billionaires and a trillionaire. There are some interesting proposals already floating around. It’s time to get serious about tax relief for middle income earners. The Republicans failed to take care of the middle class among their fat cat tax cuts in their Big Beautiful Bill. Voters should be reminded of this over and over again.
Build Housing. We need to build, convert, repair and renovate more housing in the United States. Even if the population were frozen where it is today, the U.S. still would be up to as much as 5 million units short of an accessible and affordable market. Along with the aforementioned inflation, speculation has priced millennials and Gen Z out of the market. The rising median age of first time buyers hit a record of age 40 in 2025, the National Realtors Association reports. Out of state corporate landlords, meanwhile, are a big reason why many communities and states are reconsidering rent stabilization laws.
Restore Innovation Investment. Trump froze or cut $3 billion in National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants and he asked Congress to cut another $44 billion in scientific research in a single year, the Brennan Center reports. Innovation has given America its edge in the world and innovation breeds job creation and the opportunity for prosperity.
Education for All. Trump and the GOP are setting their sights set on Head Start, the successful early education anti-poverty program, planning to cut wages for teachers, impose impossible eligibility requirements, especially for immigrants, and the usual MAGA-coded defunding of a program that is proven to help Americans. Candidates who stand with teachers, faculty and parents, are demonstrating a commitment to kids getting a fair shot at a future. People need to be able to learn without back breaking debt that takes decades to dig out from under. Research universities need those above-mentioned innovation grants restored and community colleges have to tailor part of their curriculum to their regional economies.
Daycare that is Dependable, Accessible and Affordable. Trump and the Republicans have given us an economy that is forcing many Americans to hold down two jobs. Just think, with daycare maybe they could hold down three jobs? Sheesh. Daycare is a basic middle class family resource necessary for job retention. It’s laughable that the Republicans have been begging for more babies, but the procreation GOP has cut funding for tools necessary to a mother or father to work knowing their children are safe and in a learning environment.
Love Thy Neighbor. Buy locally, dine out at mom and pop restaurants, patronize your local and regional performing arts and sports entertainment options. Share space when practical, try to rent your apartment from a landlord who at least lives in your state, and embrace a lifestyle of economic connectedness through our neighborhoods and communities.
The contrast doesn't require more than a long paragraph. Republicans don't have a plan to fight inflation and they continue to embrace policies that push prices up. In order to give the wealthiest Americans and corporations tax cuts in their Big Beautiful Bill, Republicans so far have cost an estimated 5 million Americans their healthcare coverage, and middle class families collectively are paying about $20 billion more for healthcare in 2026. Republicans refuse to raise the minimum wage, won’t promise to protect workers from AI layoffs, won’t pay for daycare or forgive student loans, and are dismantling the Department of Education. And the Republicans are about as serious about building good permanent housing as the Big Bad Wolf.
How We Got Here
Trump reignited inflation with his tariffs. Everyone paid more, and the pain the Republicans caused did not discriminate. It was felt in the homes and businesses of the MAGA faithful, and everywhere else. Trump “Liberation Day” Tariffs were a tax on consumers that cost the average American household $1,000 in 2025, and a tax on imports for America’s 236,000 small businesses were projected to total more than $2 billion. Restaurants, clothing retailers, furniture stores closed, and thousands of jobs were lost. The factories Trump promised would relocate to the U.S. as a result of tariffs never happened.
Trump's tariffs were blatantly illegal from the start, but the thin-skinned GOP majority in Congress wanted no part of tangling with Trump, so the cowards kept their mouths shut, while the increasingly partisan conservatives leading the Supreme Court sat on their hands for too long before it finally called a foul on the Trump tariffs.
Nearly a year after Trump and the Republican Congress passed their $5 trillion Big Beautiful Bill tax cut package, billionaires’ wealth is off the charts. America’s 977 billionaires hold $9.24 trillion, according to Americans For Tax Fairness’ analysis of Forbes data – a $2.2 trillion (32%) increase over a year ago. Over the last 12 months, U.S. GDP rose just 6%, so the wealth once again is not trickling down to broad based middle class prosperity. With SpaceX going public, Elon Musk is now the world’s first ever trillionaire.
Then came the Iran War. We know how that went. Now comes the part where Trump, who never takes responsibility or blame for anything he does, decides who takes the fall for the debacle. Trump predictably has already thrown his partner in launching the war under the bus, and then threw the bus into reverse and rolled over Netanyahu again for good measure. Trump still has Vance, Hegseth and even the often missing man, Marco Rubio, to blame as the political fallout from the war surely heats up.
A Fight Worth Fighting through Election Day
Trump and the Republicans have abandoned the American Middle class as demonstrated by their lack of investment, punitive budget cuts and the excessive tax giveaways to the Epstein Class and corporate cronies. Trump and the GOP are denying working families a pathway to prosperity that is ultimately beneficial to even the richest Americans.
Any of us can watch the lines into community food banks and see how Trump’s brand of mean and rotten incompetence and ignorance are growing poverty in America. An increasing number of working people depend on food banks to survive to the next paycheck.
Try to imagine a live split screen news report: On half the screen you have a mash up of food lines around the country; in the other half of the screen is a shot of the closing bell after another rally on Wall Street in which investors add millions to their wealth. We see the gross disparity, and so do a small but significant portion of Trump’s 2024 voters who are on the lower rung of an increasingly unsustainable K-shaped economy.
“When society’s more productive, we have fewer people who have health problems, who are incarcerated. That’s less expense for taxpayers. Even more affluent people gain in the end when we make these investments. A key thing to figure out is how we actually make that connection very direct so that people see it and feel it themselves,” says economist Raj Chetty, who studies economic opportunity and upward mobility at Harvard's Opportunity Insights research center.