The political conversation in the United States has become trapped in a cycle of partisan bickering, where the democratic and republican parties spar endlessly over policies yet deliver little meaningful change for the people they claim to represent.
Beneath the noise, however, lies a far deeper conflict – one that cuts across party lines and speaks to the heart of American life. At its core, this conflict is not merely political but economic, rooted in the uneven distribution of power and privilege that defines modern America. The final war to be fought will be the class war.
The class war will begin when the proletariat, or your average working class citizen, regardless of political affiliation, realizes they have more in common with their fellow Americans than any member of Congress, the federal government or the ruling class.
This divide runs deeper than government politics and seeps into the corporatocracy that makes up the U.S. economy. Major corporations have unprecedented influence over politics through political lobbying, giving CEOs authority comparable to that of lawmakers in the private sector.
The power gap between the average citizen and corporate CEOs – who shape policies, procedures and culture – illustrates this differential. A similar imbalance exists between ordinary people and the government at both the state and federal levels.
Historically, our government has been filled with corruption. While corruption itself was more prevalent in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries, some systemic issues like lobbying, bribery and embezzlement still permeate the political landscape today. Regardless of political affiliation, the American government is riddled with scandals used to fuel partisan hate.
In an ideal society, the government would be working to make life easier for every individual. This is not the case in the U.S. The political game, meaning the major interest of the ruling class, is less occupied with improving the material conditions of the average American and more concerned with increasing the geopolitical power of the nation, regardless of the consequences.
An example of this would be the U.S.’s continual and bipartisan support for Israel, despite the majority of Americans voicing dissent for this alliance. While 60% of Americans oppose the U.S. sending more military aid to Israel, the alliance is kept strictly to maintain the current power structure of the ruling class and does not budge, despite persistent calls for reformation and regulation on the amount of influence a foreign entity has in U.S. politics.
These polarizing political debates are putting working-class American citizens against one another. However, the ultimate divide that riddles our country is the class divide: between the homeless and the housed, between renters and landlords, between homeowners and the banks that finance them, and between shareholders and stakeholders in a corporation. This divide, characterized by differences in lived reality and material conditions, will ultimately be the driving force for revolution in the United States.
It is a sad reality that 0.1% of the American population owns 13% of the country’s wealth. The top 1% hold 30% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% hold only 2.5%. These statistics alone represent how inequitably wealth is distributed in the U.S. here could be plenty of wealth to go around if we managed to equitably redistribute wealth in the country through policy changes that give workers ownership over their means of production.
At the core of this conflict is capitalism, the economic and political system in which the means of production are privately owned by a select few. This system requires the exploitation of entire social classes, often the working class, in order to function, as it is built upon the inequitable distribution of wealth. The ruling class is typically privileged and protected, while the working class, which could also be considered the consuming class in the U.S., is relatively powerless against larger political forces that influence the economy.
There is hardly any consumer protection in the U.S., especially since President Donald Trump gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, worsening the problem by removing the agency responsible for creating protections against consumer exploitation.
If we want to end homelessness, hunger, disease and other large humanitarian crises, the path forward requires unification across political affiliations and unity among all political parties and ideologies against the ruling class. The ruling class is defined then not by political ideology, but by position, power and wealth.
We live in a minoritarian society; however, the minority is not defined by race, it is defined by class. When looking at power from a populist perspective, the people with the most power in the world are billionaires, yet they make up the smallest social class in terms of population.
There are currently 3,028 billionaires worldwide; those are the people with the most influence and power. I would argue that the most powerful people are those on the boards of Vanguard and BlackRock, the investment firms whose assets under management (AUM) are larger than the gross domestic product of entire countries.
These firms invest in the supply chain of essentially every market in the world. From healthcare to technology to the housing sector, Vanguard and BlackRock have ownership, making their influence over the global economy second to none. They hold the most capital in the world, meaning they essentially own the economy.
This silent power is characteristic of late-stage capitalism, in that there is no more wealth to go around, since it is already in the hands of the few. This is a dangerous economic position to be in, as it is unsustainable and inequitable.
The ownership of capital in the hands of a few prevents the collective flourishing of human society, and it is important to fight back against this reality to secure better material conditions for the majority of people, rather than for an elite few.
The final political fight in the U.S. will occur when the working class decides they are no longer comfortable remaining complicit in this rigid class structure. We are reaching an inevitable point where people will no longer remain complacent and, as a result, they will revolt.
Now is the time to educate yourself on how to organize with other members of the proletariat, in hopes of a better future and for a world and governing body that cares about the general material conditions of everyday people.
