The Long War on the Middle Class

By Rob C.

Art by Pat Bagley

TL;DR:

For nearly a century, America’s billionaire class has waged a quiet, relentless war on the very idea of shared prosperity. They’ve turned “government” into a dirty word, convinced millions to vote against their own interests, and shifted $50 trillion (yes, trillion with a “T”) from the middle class to the top 1%. The result: an America that’s richer than ever — for everyone except the people who built it.

The Birth of the Middle Class — and the Billionaires’ Meltdown

Once upon a time (the 1930s), America was a nation of the working poor. Then came Franklin Delano Roosevelt — the man who dared to tell the robber barons that their days of running the country like a sweat shop were over. His New Deal programs didn’t just pull the nation out of the Great Depression — they redefined what government could be.

Public works programs gave millions jobs, dignity, and purpose. Social Security kept seniors out of poverty. The GI Bill built the suburbs, universities, and a generation of educated, upwardly mobile Americans. The result? The birth of the American middle class.

And the billionaires hated it.

They saw the New Deal as a socialist coup — a government takeover of what they believed was rightfully theirs: total control. In their eyes, FDR didn’t just build bridges and schools — he built class consciousness. And that terrified them.

The Propaganda War Begins

Enter the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) — the original architects of the anti-government crusade. These titans of industry launched an all-out PR campaign to rewrite American history in their favor. As Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway detail in The Big Myth, NAM’s mission was simple: convince Americans that free markets equal freedom, and that government is the enemy of prosperity.

They bought up radio time, TV programming, even school textbooks. They funded “educational” institutions to churn out professors who taught that unions were evil, regulation was tyranny, and pollution was freedom’s price tag. By the 1950s, they’d woven their ideology into the national DNA.

Fast forward a few decades, and a B-list actor named Ronald Reagan, fresh off his gig as NAM’s corporate spokesman, became their perfect front man. Reagan stood in front of America and declared:

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

Translation: We’re about to rob you blind, but we’ll make you laugh while we do it.

Reagan’s Revolution — and the Billionaire Jackpot

Before Reagan, nearly two-thirds of Americans qualified as middle class. Unions were strong, wages kept up with productivity, and even Republicans pretended to care about working families. Then came trickle-down economics — the biggest con job since snake oil.

Tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for corporations, union busting for everyone else. Reaganomics wasn’t about freedom; it was about returning the keys of the country to the oligarchs who’d been sulking since FDR.

And it worked — for them.
Since 1980, the top 1% has siphoned $50 trillion from the rest of us. That’s trillion with a “T” — enough to send every American family a housewarming gift and still have money left over to buy Congress (again).

Trump, Project 2025, and the Endgame

Now we’ve reached the boss level: Trump and his billionaire backers, armed with Project 2025 — a dystopian blueprint to finish the job Reagan started. They’ve gutted environmental protections, privatized public goods, and turned government into a weapon for the rich.

The watchdogs who kept our air and water clean? Fired. The agencies that protected consumers from corporate abuse? Defunded. Civil servants who actually believed in democracy? Purged.

All while Trump poses as a “man of the people” — a guy who literally doesn’t know what groceries are. The only people he’s helping are the ones who own yachts big enough to have their own ZIP codes.

Meanwhile, his cronies push propaganda about “freedom” and “small government” while raking in billions in subsidies, defense contracts, and tax loopholes. Small government for you, big government for them. It’s the perfect scam.

The Real American Dream

The truth is, the middle class didn’t happen by accident — it was built by government. Roads, schools, clean water, science, Medicare, Social Security — all of it was the result of collective investment and leadership that actually believed in the public good.

We can have that again. But only if we stop falling for the billionaire brainwashing that says government is evil and greed is good. Because if we keep buying that line, we’ll end up right where the oligarchs want us: working harder, earning less, and blaming each other instead of them.

It’s time to remember that democracy is not a charity. It’s a fight.

Robert Cain is the author of Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed Is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet.