Bring Back the Square Deal

I’m tired of hearing the word “polarization.” It’s being used so much by older people that it’s starting to feel like an excuse.

An excuse for retaliation. An excuse for doing nothing. An excuse for why we should expect less from the people who ask for our votes.

Recently, while talking with someone about getting involved with my podcast, With All Due Respect, I encountered exactly that attitude. He told me he disagreed with what I was doing but would participate for a paycheck. When I pressed him about bringing people from different sides together to discuss solutions, he said the country was too polarized for it to matter.

I want this administration judged by that standard: Can people earn enough to live, and do workers have a meaningful say in the conditions of their employment?

That pissed me off.

I told him he could perhaps come back another time. That day, the disagreement wasn’t the problem. Declaring the effort pointless before we had even begun was.

Polarization may explain why a meeting is stalling. It should never explain why the conversation is over.

When people’s livelihoods, healthcare, and futures are involved, walking away has consequences. Someone still has to live with the problem after you’ve decided discussing it is a waste of time.

I’m a member of Gen Z and an Army veteran. My breaking point came when I could not afford to keep going to school while using the GI Bill.

The jobs I could reliably land were full-time. Meanwhile, taking at least one class in person could qualify me for a higher housing allowance than an online-only schedule. But those classroom hours competed with the hours I needed to work.

If I built my schedule around school, I lost work time. If I built it around work, I lost part of the housing allowance. My housing costs in Phoenix did not shrink to match. Credit cards filled the gap; interest made it deeper.

If a veteran cannot afford to use his benefit effectively, what good is the benefit to him?

The fight wasn’t with my neighbor. It was with a system whose promises did not add up to a life I could afford.

I hear older Americans talk about responsibility. I want that conversation. I want it to include responsibility for the decisions that shaped the country my generation inherited.

If your measure of success is how much your house has appreciated, what happens when the next generation cannot afford to buy it? If you tell young people to work hard, what are you prepared to change when their work still leaves them struggling?

Those questions deserve answers. Instead, I hear commentators, including on Fox News, mock my generation’s efforts at inclusion. I see those efforts as attempts to build a more perfect union. Disagree with our language or proposals, but engage with what we are trying to achieve.

Age and experience do not exempt anyone from explaining the results of their leadership.

This is why I keep thinking about Theodore Roosevelt.

Republican bosses in New York wanted Roosevelt out of the governor’s office. They helped move him into the vice presidency, where they hoped his capacity to disrupt their interests would be contained. Instead, after President William McKinley’s assassination in 1901, Roosevelt became president. He subsequently won election in 1904.

I cannot prove he would never have reached the presidency another way. He had substantial public appeal. But his story makes me ask how many capable leaders are sidelined because they threaten the people who control access to power.

America cannot afford to leave those openings to chance.

Roosevelt’s Square Deal sought fairer treatment for workers and limits on corporate power. What I admire is his willingness to use public authority when powerful interests would have preferred that government stay out of their way.

I am a democratic socialist. Roosevelt opposed socialism. My argument is that his willingness to confront concentrated power offers something we can learn from, even where our politics differ.

Bring back the Square Deal—and make the promise broader.

For me, it has to start with work. Get people into jobs that pay enough to build a life. I want this administration judged by that standard: Can people earn enough to live, and do workers have a meaningful say in the conditions of their employment?

Add healthcare people can use without financial ruin and housing working people can afford. These are the terms of the deal I am demanding.

Who creates the value at work? Who decides how it is divided? How much bargaining power does the worker actually have?

Hard work should deliver more than permission to keep struggling.

My interest in democratic socialism begins with that question of power. I want people to have more control over their work and communities. We should debate how to achieve that, what it would cost, and what could go wrong. I need to keep studying, too.

But a label should begin a discussion, not shut it down.

The same standard applies to leadership. You probably know someone closer to home who listens, shows up, and takes responsibility. It may even be you. We should help people like that learn how to organize, run, and serve.

And we should make demands concrete enough to judge. How will you help people find good-paying work? What will you do about housing and healthcare? How will workers gain a stronger voice? What can voters check a year after you take office?

A new face means little without a different standard of accountability.

That work begins before the 2028 presidential election. It belongs in local meetings, workplaces, neighborhood conversations, and every election where we can influence who exercises power.

Call your representatives. Ask specific questions. Compare their answers with their votes. Support challengers when incumbents fail. Build organizations that can keep demanding results after Election Day.

This week, talk to a neighbor. Find an organization working on something that affects your life. Attend a meeting. Take on one task. If you disagree with my politics, bring an argument and a willingness to listen.

There are already people passing out flyers, organizing meetings, and trying to bring others into this work. They need company. They need people willing to turn frustration into participation.

Roosevelt wrote that “progress is accomplished by the man who does the things”.

Today, that invitation belongs to all of us.

We must stand for ourselves. We must organize and elect people who will fight for a fairer deal, then hold them to it.

Stop using polarization to tell us why we cannot begin.

Let us begin.