In a direct challenge to politics-as-usual, insurgent Senate candidate Lisa McCormick argues that a candidate’s character is a distraction manufactured by plutocrats, and the only metric that matters is their plan to dismantle the billionaire class and reallocate the nation’s stolen wealth.
McCormick, an anti-establishment progressive woman who could bring about revolutionary change to the country if she wins the Democratic nomination for US Senator, is challenging Senator Cory Booker in the Democratic primary.
The shift to supply-side Republicans and neoliberal Democrats represented a “new strategy” for the professional elite, but it was nothing less than a war against the middle-class workers who shared in much of the prosperity that followed World War II.
She issued a blistering critique of the political status quo today, urging Americans ready for revolutionary change to ignore the curated personas of candidates and focus solely on the economic policies they propose.
“We are conditioned to judge the character of candidates, people we might never truly know well enough to judge fairly, while ignoring the only thing that truly matters: the quality of their proposals and the promises they make to the people,” said McCormick. “The billionaire class and their media enablers want you to focus on personality. They want a reality show. I want you to focus on policy. I want an economic revolution.”
McCormick’s argument is a radical departure from conventional political wisdom, which often hinges on a candidate’s perceived trustworthiness, likability, or personal narrative.
She frames her election campaign not as one of philosophical difference, but as a strategic necessity in a class war that she asserts the ultra-wealthy are winning.
“While most Americans struggle in an economy rigged by corruption, 60% of billionaire wealth flows from inheritance, monopoly, and cronyism,” argued McCormick, reframing the debate on inequality. “Their windfall is unearned; your struggle is undeserved.”
“The United States is a business-run society,” McCormick said. “The business classes are very class-conscious – they’re constantly fighting a bitter class war to improve their power and diminish opposition. It’s time the rest of us started fighting back with the only weapons that matter: bold, uncompromising policy.”
Her platform is a direct declaration of that war. Its cornerstone is a sweeping limitation on personal wealth, capping fortunes at $50 million—a modern interpretation of Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth” plan. This is paired with a policy arsenal designed to systematically reallocate power and capital:
- A 90% top marginal tax rate on extreme income.
- A Constitutional Amendment to publicly finance elections and overturn Citizens United.
- Medicare for All and tuition-free public schools from pre-K to college.
- A $20 federal minimum wage and the abolition of sub-minimum wages.
- A Green New Deal to create millions of union jobs.
“This is not merely economic policy—it is a moral framework,” McCormick argued. “A person can live magnificently on $50 million, but no one deserves to amass billions while children go hungry, students drown in debt, and families die from preventable medical crises.”
The commentary serves as a stark contrast to the tenure of Cory Booker, author of a long list of failures since he became a senator: “Women lost abortion rights. The Voting Rights Act was gutted. Mass shootings tripled. CO₂ levels hit 427 ppm. New Jersey’s middle class shrank 3%. $37 trillion was stolen from workers.”
Billionaire wealth surged by $2 trillion in 2024, three times faster than the year before, while the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990.
McCormick’s call for a policy-focused electorate is rooted in a grim analysis of American politics. She contends that the traditional “working class vs. elite” narrative is a distraction, and that the real fracture is within the elite itself—between the top 0.1% who live on capital gains and the top 10% whose professional labor is being devalued.
Oxfam published “Takers Not Makers” in January 2025, as business elites gather in the Swiss resort town of Davos and billionaire Donald Trump, backed by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, was inaugurated as President of the United States.
“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable. The failure to stop billionaires is now spawning soon-to-be trillionaires. Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated —by three times— but so too has their power,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar.
“The crown jewel of this oligarchy is a billionaire president, backed and bought by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, running the world’s largest economy. We present this report as a stark wake-up call that ordinary people the world over are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few,” said Behar.
“The real class war is between the 0.1 percent and the 10 percent,” said McCormick, arguing that the professional class, feeling the sting of stagnation and recognizing the “degeneracy of the American billionaire class,” is now the most potent force for radical change.
Some 60 percent of the American population has already lost everything, leaving this segment as losers who have been defeated in the previous class war, without even knowing it was going on.
Oxfam calculates that 36 percent of billionaire wealth is now inherited. Research by Forbes found that every billionaire under 30 has inherited their wealth, while UBS estimates that over 1,000 of today’s billionaires will pass on more than $5.2 trillion to their heirs over the next two to three decades.
“This unearned fortune is built on the backs of hardworking Americans struggling under a rigged system,” said McCormick.
Many of the super-rich, particularly in Europe, owe part of their wealth to historical colonialism and the exploitation of poorer countries.
“Sixty percent of billionaire wealth is now derived from inheritance, monopoly power, or crony connections,” said McCormick, who argues that “extreme billionaire wealth is largely unmerited, just as most Americans do not deserve the difficult living conditions forced upon them by chicanery and corruption.”
McCormick dismissed the performative outrage of Capitol Hill hearings as a sideshow, implying that true power is not won by shouting matches for the cameras but by building an unignorable mandate for a fundamental economic reset.
“There is a powerful movement churning over the question of whether Americans want more of the same or Democrats for Change,” said McCormick. “If you look beyond the thirty-second ads on TV, the glossy postcards in your mailbox, or other paid advertising, you should see candidates who can afford them exposed as corrupt, but Democrats for Change are united behind an agenda to empower people.”
“The planet won’t save itself. We will do the saving or suffering,” said McCormick. “The question for voters is not who seems more sincere or likable. The question is which candidate’s platform displays the courage needed to seize the wealth of the oligarchs and return it to the people who actually create it. Judge us on that. Nothing else.”
People are easily fooled by crafty candidates who provide drama rather than results, but voting is not like changing the channel in search of better entertainment. It is the way Americans decide what kind of lives they are going to enjoy or endure.
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