Dear John,

In 1994, I was serving as Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor, and I gave a speech warning that the growing gap between rich and poor in this country was setting the stage for the rise of a right-wing demagogue who might dismantle democracy itself.

Then all hell broke loose.

Senior White House staff scolded me for not being a “team player.” And now, 30 years later, the right-wing demagogue I worried about then is now at risk of returning to the White House.

I want to be clear: I take no joy in the fact that my speech has turned out to be so prescient. This email is not an “I told you so” victory lap. I’m writing to you today because I believe that there’s still time to reverse course and stop our slide toward authoritarianism.

The team here at Inequality Media Civic Action is creating some of the most effective social media content I’ve ever seen to reach the kinds of voters we need to stop Trump, while building support for the kind of progressive economic policies we need to address the underlying issues tearing at the fabric of our democracy.

I still believe that we can save democracy over the coming months, but the time to act is now. Will you start a $5 a month donation today?

Yes, Bob! I'll start a monthly donation and help Inequality Media Civic Action connect with the voters we need to win.

No, I'm sorry, I can't chip in monthly.

This is the key portion of the speech I gave that day, which generated so much controversy back in 1994 (and I’m told came up again last week on an episode of Morning Joe):

My friends, we are on the way to becoming a two-tiered society composed of a few winners and a larger group of Americans left behind, whose anger and whose disillusionment is easily manipulated. Once unbottled, mass resentment can poison the very fabric of society, the moral integrity of society, replacing ambition with envy, replacing tolerance with hate…Today the targets of that rage are immigrants and welfare mothers and government officials and gays and an ill-defined counterculture…But as the middle class continues to erode, who will be the targets tomorrow?

At the time, a debate was raging within the Democratic Party about whether to remain the FDR-style party of the little guy or rebrand as a “new,” more Wall Street–friendly Democratic Party.

My boss, Bill Clinton, was at the center of that debate, and I knew he was torn between the two sides. So while I didn’t mean to create a major media controversy, I wanted him to hear my points. I would have been delighted to be proven wrong, but since senior Democratic Party leaders didn’t listen back then, we must work even harder right now.

Here’s the good news: Since we launched in 2016, Inequality Media Civic Action has built an audience of over 8.7 million people across social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and we have an unusually large number of young folks and persuadable independents and conservatives among our followers.

Meanwhile, over the last several months, the team here at Inequality Media Civic Action has been testing a series of messages aimed at reaching the kind of working-class voters who have been drifting away from the Democratic Party — and the results we’re seeing are incredible.

Now we need to get these videos in front of as many people as possible – and that will cost money. That’s why I’m asking you today: Will you donate $5 a month to Inequality Media Civic Action?

Click here to start your monthly donation today, and support our ongoing efforts to connect with voters and stop America’s slide into authoritarianism.

Or, if you can't pitch in monthly, click here.

Thank you for joining with us,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action