Reclaiming the Future: 4 Lessons to Meet the Moment and Start Building for Tomorrow

By Roosevelt Forward

If Donald Trump’s first term was defined by destruction—of norms, protections, and public capacity—his second is a campaign of consolidation. He and his allies have been more singularly focused on amassing power and wielding it, undergirded by attempts at permanent deregulation and unapologetic institutional sabotage. The question isn’t just how we stop that vision—it’s whether we can articulate a better one.

In a piece for The Hill, Roosevelt Forward President Elizabeth Wilkins, writing with Hannah Garden-Monheit, calls for a wholesale reimagining of government. Their argument is clear: Democrats cannot merely patch Trump-era damage but must start now to design public institutions to be faster, fairer, and more capable than the forces trying to dismantle them.

This need is all the more urgent given what’s happening at the edges of our political discourse. In the New York Times, Roosevelt Fellow Daniel Martinez HoSang explores how the rise of a multicultural Right reflects real feelings of exclusion from governance among communities that don’t see government working for them.

This July roundup highlights how Roosevelt thinkers and allies are helping define a more democratic future: calling out explicit government sabotage, confronting distortions of family policy, challenging economic myths, and preparing for the political fights ahead.

1. Trump's Philosophy of Institutional Sabotage

Elizabeth and Hannah’s piece underscores a crucial dynamic: The Trump movement is building an infrastructure of failure. From slowing down agency action to politicizing rulemaking, this strategy is designed to make government appear ineffective—then use that perception to further privatize and deregulate. And the courts have been a willing participant in this project.

For instance, in Balls & Strikes, Roosevelt's Shahrzad Shams analyzes the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, which undermined the original purpose of antidiscrimination protections by making it easier for plaintiffs to bring so-called reverse discrimination cases. Shahrzad’s piece reveals a broader conservative legal strategy: using civil rights laws not to advance equity, but to hollow out its foundation.

A similar tactic played out in the recent budget bill. In an MSNBC piece, Roosevelt Fellow Miranda Yaver explains how allowing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire would spike health insurance premiums by up to 75 percent. This isn’t just bad policy. It’s deliberate sabotage: Inflate premiums, blame the ACA, and claim government programs don’t work. Meanwhile, the “savings” from those cut subsidies are funneled into tax breaks for the wealthy.

And in the New York Times, former Roosevelt Fellow Suresh Naidu warns that the recent settlement between Columbia University and the Trump administration shouldn’t be read as the end to this story, but as a signal of how far Trump’s allies are willing to go to punish dissent. The use of state power to intimidate and suppress—not empower or serve the public—is central to this vision.

These examples expose a core insight: Sabotage is not incidental—it’s strategic. And Roosevelt’s response is equally structural: These attacks will require a wholesale rebuilding of public institutions with the capacity and legitimacy to deliver.

2. Family Policy That Actually Delivers

For all the rhetoric about “pro-family” priorities, Trump-aligned conservatives continue to offer policies that serve financial markets more than families. Whether through overhyped tax credits or newborn “savings accounts,” their proposals offer the logic of privatization to solve all problems.

For instance, in MSNBC, Roosevelt's Suzanne Kahn and Lena Bilik analyze Vice President JD Vance’s take on the expansion of child tax credits in Trump's budget bill. Conservatives market their tax credits as a pro-family revolution that claims to deliver relief for parents—yet in practice, it offers little to those who need it most. The bill prioritizes larger benefits for wealthier families and fails to fund or expand the actual care infrastructure parents rely on. It’s a tax code tweak masquerading as a structural fix. What’s missing is what matters most: direct investment in childcare services, workers, and public systems.

Similarly, in MSNBC, Roosevelt’s Stephen Nuñez examines the so-called Trump Accounts, newborn savings accounts included in the recent budget. The accounts are designed to benefit families who can afford to contribute to them, while leaving structurally vulnerable families behind. They're less a policy solution than a financial product dressed in populist rhetoric.

What ties these proposals together isn’t just their inadequacy. It’s their ideology. In both cases, conservative policymakers are asking families to bootstrap their way through systemic failures—with a tax credit here, a savings account there—while refusing to build the public systems that would actually meet their needs.

That’s why Elizabeth and Hannah make the forceful case to avoid patchwork programs that paper over broken systems, and look instead to craft institutions that are built to act, resourced to deliver, and designed with the people they serve in mind.

3. Economic Myths and the Politics of Distribution

Roosevelt thinkers this month are also taking aim at the economic myths that shape policymaking in Trump-aligned circles: the idea that flat taxes are fair, that markets are neutral, and that government action should serve corporate consolidation.

In an interview with Planet Money, Roosevelt Senior Fellow Darrick Hamilton pulls back the curtain on tax policy as a reflection of values—not just revenue. Flat taxes, he explains, don’t just miss the mark on equity—they actively encode inequality into the system, burdening the poor while appearing “neutral.”

Darrick offers a countervision: one where taxes aren’t just technical levers but democratic tools—used to shape behavior, reduce harm, and rebalance power. If Trump’s tax vision is about erasing responsibility for the wealthy, Roosevelt’s is about building shared prosperity from the ground up.

In a conversation on WBUR's On Point, Roosevelt's Todd N. Tucker talks about Trump’s use of the "golden share" in the US steel market. While this approach can be a valid way to safeguard national industrial interests, as Todd notes, there are real concerns about how Trump will use it in the short term. Will he stick up for union steelworkers, or use his leverage to benefit himself? Time will tell, but Trump is inspiring little confidence.

In each case, Roosevelt contributors are pointing to a deeper truth: Economic policy is not neutral. It reflects who holds power and how that power is distributed.

4. Telling Stories to Shape the Future

As we look ahead, the challenge isn’t only to name the threats—it’s to tell a story that resonates with people who’ve felt locked out of governance entirely.

In the New York Times, Roosevelt Fellow Daniel Martinez HoSang documents an emerging multicultural Right. He paints a picture of diverse communities drawn to conservative politics after years of feeling ignored, surveilled, or sidelined by their own government.

Our response, as Elizabeth and Hannah stress, isn’t about “messaging.” It’s about material conditions. The public responds to what government does—or fails to do—for them. When people are struggling with housing, care, and wages, and we don’t show up with credible solutions, they look elsewhere.

We build power by starting with stories—not just as symbols, but as guides. That means crafting policies that meet people where they are and governing in ways that reflect their priorities. It means listening, and then delivering.

A New Blueprint for Power

Across these pieces, Roosevelt Forward staff, fellows, and allies are providing the initial outline of our shared next steps. They include:

• Exposing institutional sabotage and calling for a government that delivers

• Rejecting financialized policy in favor of public investment

• Challenging economic myths and rebalancing power

• Calling on all of us to not just oppose Trump, but to envision governing with shared purpose centered on human impact

If the Right is consolidating around a vision of government that serves the few, Roosevelt Forward is helping build a politics that serves the many—and now is the time to start building that vision together.

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