​​Corporations Have Bent the Government to Their Will. To Win for Working People, We Must Fight Smarter.

For anyone questioning whether our country is rigged in favor of corporations and billionaires, the image of Elon Musk in the Oval Office in the first few weeks of the Trump presidency should settle the debate. That image was a vivid reminder that corporate interests will use every tool at their disposal—including the tremendous power of the federal government—to get what they want.

What impact do voters’ choices have on how our government shapes our society? It’s increasingly the case that corporate-backed leaders in America make sweeping policy changes when they take the reins, but progressives fighting for working people are blocked at every turn when they do.

A country that does not actually translate the will of voters into government action is, in some real sense, not truly a democracy. And at a time when many are rightfully worried about the rule of law, this dynamic—and the way it is fueling widespread distrust in our institutions—is powerfully contrary to the rule of law in its own sense.

Put another way, it simply is not tenable for progressives to take office and be allowed to accomplish only a sliver of their agenda, only to hand the keys over to a right-wing that burns the whole building to the ground.

In a Democracy Journal essay, Elizabeth Wilkins, the President and CEO of our affiliate organization Roosevelt Institute, laid out a forward-looking vision in which people shape the economy they need and want. But that can only happen if our government can deliver for everyday Americans even when corporations and their billionaire owners object.

For that to happen, progressives must get better at and more comfortable with wielding power.

Corporate Power vs. People Power

As Elizabeth wrote, corporations have become “bigger, more powerful, and more able not just to flout the rules but to rewrite them in their self-interest.” A big part of that story is the conscious effort to prevent the federal government from working for working people.

In just a few decades, Congress has been transformed into “a junior partner to the executive, or doesn’t function at all when it comes to the country’s pressing priorities.” That has put a tremendous amount of pressure on executive action to accomplish any administration’s goals.

But progressive efforts to help everyday Americans have run into the bulldozer of the federal courts, which have become increasingly hostile to government action that would make a real difference for working people and incredibly friendly to corporate interests. Corporations have used cynical lawsuits to block efforts to stop junk fees on credit cards and airlines, curb predatory car-dealer practices, ensure overtime pay, lower student loan payments, and much more.

This level of corporate interference represents a significant break from recent history. From the Clinton administration to the Biden administration, challenges to executive action and courts’ willingness to strike executive action down have steadily increased. Even more striking is the degree to which corporate interests now “forum shop” for friendly judges: More and more cases against the government are now filed in venues deemed favorable by corporate plaintiffs. The Biden administration lost 79 percent of cases decided by the courts in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. That’s corporate power in a very real sense.

Courts’ treatment of the Biden administration’s progressive priorities is notably different from how courts are handling the Trump administration’s pro-corporate agenda. As just one example, consider each administration’s invocations of “national emergencies.”

The Supreme Court, 6-3, rejected Biden’s reliance on the very real COVID-19 pandemic emergency to forgive working people’s student loans. Yet the Trump administration declared eight national emergencies in its first 100 days—more than any president in history—on topics ranging from border security to energy, and hints that more “emergencies” may be on the way.

To be sure, the fate of some of these actions is still TBD. But there’s been barely a whisper of disagreement from our nation’s highest court so far. And the overall tally is undeniable: The reactionary right advances corporate priorities while efforts to help working people are blocked.

What This Means for Progressive Governance

Elizabeth wrote that “we have to flip our risk profile: Instead of preserving the legitimacy and authority of our institutions by carefully coloring within the lines, we must use all available tools to meet the moment.” The hostility of our institutions to action that helps everyday Americans is one of many reasons why that is true.

Knowing that we will be challenged at every turn, progressives must take bigger and more swings, faster. When courts stand in our way, we must quickly move on to Plan B. And fixing our broken judicial system is going to have to be high on any agenda that corporate power may oppose.

There has often been a fair amount of hesitancy, even sanctimony, on the left and center about the appropriateness of taking big swings, especially when there is legal risk. Take again the example of student loans.

Weeks before taking office, President Biden inexplicably suggested that student loan forgiveness could not be accomplished using executive power—a baffling, unnecessary disavowal of his own authority. (Especially considering that three Supreme Court justices would later vote to uphold that authority.) Biden ultimately flipped and forgave student debt from the executive branch, but only after months of his own waffling, wasting crucial time to pursue Plans B, C, and D after the Supreme Court intervened. The president was also slow to embrace court reform, even as it was clear that hostile courts would impede his agenda.

Now, as President Trump and his allies have engaged in no small amount of whining whenever lower courts enjoin their lawless agenda, it would be perfectly understandable for progressives to take the opposite stance—to count judicial victories as real victories, and try to avoid legal losses for its own sake.

Progressives must unquestionably oppose the corruption and self-dealing that characterizes the actions of the Trump administration. For all their flaws, courts remain a vital bulwark against this administration’s abuses. There is absolutely no place in our system for the flouting of judicial orders or other acts of defiance.

At the end of the day, though, the government works for the people. As I said at the top, the asymmetry between what corporate interests extract from their government and what working people receive is its own affront to the rule of law. Hesitating because something may get held up in court has its own costs to our democracy.

Musk has moved on from the Oval Office. We are all going to have to deal with the wreckage wrought on our country. The future of our democracy now depends on whether progressives can embrace power with urgency and conviction.