Dear John,

Back in 1994, after Republicans won control of the House and Senate in a crushing election not unlike the one we just lived through, I gave a speech that caused quite a bit of controversy at the time.

In the speech, I warned that America was becoming a two-tiered society, divided between the super-rich and disillusioned working people, whose anger could be easily manipulated by a dangerous demagogue.

That’s when all hell broke loose. Instead of heeding my warnings, top Democrats went ballistic. I was summoned to the White House and scolded for not being a “team player.” And now, 30 years later, with Donald Trump and his MAGA allies getting ready to take control of all three branches of government in January, the crisis is more urgent than ever.

But since our elected leaders didn’t listen to us back then, the best time to demand action is right now.

In the short term, that means working to stop additional Trump tax giveaways to the ultra-wealthy and to block other policies that will help his rich buddies. In addition, we must push Democratic leaders to stop listening to their billionaire donors and embrace a populist economic agenda. We have a plan to do just that (more on that below) — but first, I need your help.

If you’re with me, please make a monthly donation to Inequality Media Civic Action and help support our efforts to educate the public, fight inequality, and save our ailing democracy.

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This is the key portion of the speech I gave that day, which generated major headlines and made a lot of top Democrats very angry at me:

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 disillusionment are 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?

It gives me no great pleasure to see how prescient my speech has turned out to be. And I dearly wish that my warnings had been heeded back then. But I’m not writing this email just to say “I told you so” to my fellow Democrats. I’m writing to you in hopes that we can finally learn our lesson and save our democracy before it's too late.

So what are we going to do about it? I’m glad you asked.

Inequality Media Civic Action was founded ten years ago to educate the public, build support for progressive economic policies, and push elected officials to deliver results. Our strategy is to use social media to bypass the corporate media — which too often serves the interests of their corporate bosses more than the public interest — and speak directly to everyday people.

Over the last decade, we’ve built a massive following of over 9 million people by making videos and posts go viral on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky … you name it. If there’s a social media platform, we’re on it, explaining the seemingly complex economic issues that affect our pocketbooks and mobilizing people to demand policies that will make things better for working families.

We were on the front lines of the resistance during the first Trump presidency, and today our team is even bigger and more effective than it was back then.

I won’t sugarcoat it. We have our work cut out for us. With MAGA in charge of all three branches of the federal government, the next two years are, first and foremost, about damage control and protecting those who are most at risk. At the same time, we must push Democrats to once again embrace progressive economic solutions and fight for working people.

That’s why I’m asking you today: Will you make a monthly donation to Inequality Media Civic Action and help support our efforts to educate the public, fight inequality, and save our ailing democracy?