Anti-Corruption as an Affordability Agenda
Anti-Corruption as an Affordability Agenda
Conventional wisdom has finally caught up to what we’ve been saying for years.
In late 2023, things were looking grim for Democrats’ reelection hopes. Biden was consistently and increasingly trailing Trump in the polls and nearly 75 percent of the country had a negative view about the state of the economy. As it became clear that people were blaming corporations and price gouging for persistent cost-of-living struggles, we reiterated calls for the administration to pursue a “corporate crackdown.”
Revolving Door Project first introduced that concept in January 2022 after conducting a poll with Data for Progress to assess how then-President Biden could craft a winning message. As we wrote in Democracy Journal at the time: “Biden needs to take the fight to the elite villains who are screwing the American people. He needs to tell the public who the villains are, and he needs to fight them on the people’s behalf. And the best villains available today, on both policy and politics, are predatory megafirms whose abuses harm the public.”
As we neared the 2024 election, we continued to argue that a push to name and shame corporate villains, spearheaded by Vice President Harris, could signal to the public that the administration understood the public’s concerns and was taking tangible steps to hold elites accountable. (Harris, as a former prosecutor herself, was uniquely situated to articulate such a message even before she would take over the top of the ticket.) It would also provide a stark contrast to Trump, a candidate who eventually became a convicted white collar criminal himself, and the Republican party generally that had little to say about corporate power.
Unfortunately, our advice went largely unheeded, and Democrats got crushed by Trump’s (empty) promises to bring down the costs of living. As the administration got underway, and it immediately became clear that Trump would once again be far more focused on enriching himself and protecting the interests of his donors than tackling affordability, we evolved our corporate crackdown message for Trump 2.0: a relentless focus on the material harms caused by Trumpian corruption.
After a decade as the leading political figure in the country, Trump’s rampant corruption has become almost baked into the public consciousness. In order to move the needle, the opposition needs to do more than simply say “Trump is corrupt.” While true, it does little to convince the public why they should care at a time when they believe both parties are beholden to their donors and using their offices for personal gain. The key, then, is to connect Trump’s corruption—from transparent quid pro quos like donations to his vanity projects to more subtle forms of corruption like allowing AI industrialists to dictate federal policy—to the tangible harms that come as a result, especially when it relates to affordability.
This was the founding idea behind the Corruption Calendar vertical of Watchdog Weekly. As we wrote in its inaugural edition in January 2025, “Shady dealings between the wealthy and powerful and members of the federal government range from brazen to more secretive, but they influence the air we breathe, the water we drink, the price of housing and other necessities, and far more. We believe it is critical to provide the public with the knowledge to make direct connections between Trumpworld corruption and their daily lives.”
Thankfully, after many years it seems our thinking has become conventional wisdom among Democrats, serving as a basis for their affordability agenda that undergirds their midterm message. After spending much of the administration criticizing Trump’s corruption and failure to address the cost of living as two separate issues, Democrats are finally marrying the two. Earlier this month, the New York Times wrote on how Democratic candidates were adopting the message that “rampant corruption in Congress and the administration is directly costing average citizens who are paying more for necessities like groceries, gas and medicine while those in power get rich through insider knowledge, pay-to-play schemes and the backing of billionaires and powerful corporations.” Sounds familiar.
It’s encouraging to see our corporate crackdown framing finally being put to the test. Early results are encouraging. In addition to polling from Navigator Research that shows connecting corruption to the cost of living is a convincing message, the midterms look likely to hoist Democrats into power in at least one chamber of Congress. But simply talking a good game is not enough. If Democrats regain some authority on the back of this message, they must follow through and use their oversight authority to police both Trump and the elites who have capitalized on his corruption.
While allies of Big Tech and other industries have warned Democrats against including corporate collaborators in oversight efforts, this would be a failure to follow through on the promises they’ve campaigned on. There must be consequences for the corruption we’ve seen over the past two years. If a corporation donated to the ballroom in order to have enforcement actions dropped; if they helped fund Freedom250 in exchange for government contracts; if they lobbied and donated to MAGA Inc. in exchange for deregulation of their industry, Americans deserve to know the full story of how this corruption worked and who suffered as a result.
This is the corporate crackdown that Democrats are now promising. For too long, these open forms of corruption have been allowed to flourish—more aggressively under Trump, but the untoward influence of corporate power predates this administration. Americans are yearning for the people they put into power to finally put a stop to it.
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