The Next American Revolution: Breaking Oligarchy and Making a New Democracy
In barely 18 months, the second Trump presidency has thrown into sharp, painful relief the threats the anti-monopoly movement has warned about for decades: Corporate consolidation and the self-serving political power it buys. Online communications and media platforms of unprecedented reach, controlled by anti-democratic billionaires. The naked fusion of extreme private wealth and brazen authoritarian rule.
On June 24, 2026, the Open Markets Institute in partnership with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee convened a day-long conference focused on the greatest political challenge of our time: The battle against a small circle of oligarchs who are seizing control over our economy, our media, and our politics – rigging all three for their own benefit, at everyone else's expense.
We were joined by leaders at the front lines of this fight – including Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, and Chris Van Hollen; Representatives Greg Casar and Chris Deluzio; California Attorney General Rob Bonta; Nobel economist Daron Acemoglu; and candidates remaking the map, from independent Dan Osborn in Nebraska to Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania.
We brought some of the sharpest political strategists, pollsters, and movement leaders in the country: Veteran pollster Celinda Lake; Joseph Geevarghese of Our Revolution; PCCC co-founder Adam Green; Chris Deluzio’s Chief of Staff Matthew Koos; Adam Carlson of Zenith Research; and Middle Seat Partner Elizabeth Bennett.
And we were joined by the policymakers and experts defining the agenda: Former USTR Katherine Tai; Former FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya; Former State Department Senior Advisor Aya Ibrahim; NYT columnist, author, and data scientist Julia Angwin; Journalist, Puck News founder and author Julia Ioffe; legal scholar and author Zephyr Teachout; Kate Brennan of the AI Now Institute; and Center for International Policy’s Matthew Duss.
America was founded in rebellion against concentrated power – against the British Empire and the British East India company that backed it. Generations since have waged this fight anew, from the trustbusters of the first Gilded Age to builders of the New Deal.
On the eve of the nation's 250th anniversary, it falls to us to find that revolutionary spark once again. Watch full speeches, interviews and panel discussions below.
Barry Lynn: The Stakes of This Political Moment (Opening Remarks )
250 years after the Declaration of Independence, Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn argues that America again faces a crisis of liberty, freedom and democracy.
The threat comes not only from President Trump’s assault on democratic freedoms – but from a concentration of corporate and technological power without precedent in human history: A handful of firms and oligarchs who increasingly control what we read, watch, buy, and believe.
Lynn sets the summit three charges: To reckon with the scale of the crisis. To imagine the democratic economy that could replace it. To build on the decade of organizing that has already laid the foundation for victory.
This fight will be won not with policy alone, but with the stories and language of liberty, power and independence that once carried Americans to victory – and can once again.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta: Antitrust & Oligarchy
With federal antitrust enforcement becoming consumed by corruption allegations and political interference, it has fallen to state attorneys general to step into the breach.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has stood at the forefront of this fight, leading one of the fiercest antitrust enforcement teams in the country – and he makes the case that state attorneys general are now among democracy's last functioning checks.
Interviewer Angwin, frames the work as throwing "sand in the gears" of a soft authoritarianism, and slowing the capture of institutions and the information space itself. As Bonta puts it, America should have no kings, in our government or our economy.
Julia Angwin (m): Author and New York Times Contributing Opinion Writer
Panel 1: We've Done It Before: Reclaiming America's Anti-Monopoly Tradition
On the 250th anniversary of our republic, we remember that America was founded in opposition to concentrated power – from the British East India Company to the industrial trusts of the first Gilded Age.
Zephyr Teachout traces the through-line from the revolt against the British East India Company to the Populists of 1892. Sabeel Rahman carries it across Reconstruction and the New Deal. Chris Griswold, argues from the right, insisting that defiance of private tyranny is as American as defiance of kings – and is core to healing the fabric of our society.
Anchored in our history and spanning ideological divides, this panel outlines a fight that can unite Americans to reclaim democratic power, challenge oligarchy, and renew the promise of self-government.
Professor Sabeel Rahman: Legal scholar, former Biden administration official, leading voice on structural reform and democracy. Currently: Cornell Law.
Professor Zephyr Teachout: Author of Corruption in America, veteran of anti-monopoly political campaigns. Currently: Fordham Law.
Chris Griswold, Policy Director, American Compass.
Osita Nwanevu (m): Contributing editor at The New Republic and columnist at The Guardian
Greg Casar on Oligarchy: It's Not Just What We Say. It's Who We Fight.
In one of the day's most pointed speeches, Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Greg Casar challenged his own party to fundamentally rethink how it confronts concentrated power if it hopes to rebuild public trust and win durable majorities: "It's not just about changing the words that we say. It's about changing who we are and how we govern."
Naming the "unholy alliance" between corporate and political power – Casar warned of the cynicism it breeds, the conviction that the wealthy run things no matter how you vote, is precisely the vacuum authoritarians rush to fill.
Summoning FDR's legacy, he tells Democrats they must ‘welcome the hatred’ of the powerful interests they must fight against in order to break their grip on our democracy and our economy and return economic and political power to the American people.
Panel 2: Power, Freedom and Affordability: Building a Bigger Story That Wins
Against the backdrop of insurgent victories in New York primaries and the collapse of Kier Starmer in Britain, Chris Deluzio and Chris Rabb argue that voters everywhere have lost patience with ‘moderation’ and want leaders who will fight against concentrated power. The panel presents a candid reckoning of whether the party is ready for the fight in front of it.
"Tinkering and incremental change, it isn't going to do it,” Deluzio said. “If you're looking to attack the little symptoms of consolidated power without addressing that power, you aren't going to fundamentally turn the ship around."
Instead of “oligarchy,” Raab said, "I like to say fuckery, everyone understands that.” People voted for Trump because they wanted to shake things up, and Democrats have to be willing to shake things up as well.
Congressman Chris Deluzio: Representative for PA-17
State Rep. Chris Rabb: Democratic Nominee for PA-03
Perry Bacon Jr. (m): staff writer at The New Republic
Daron Acemoglu: Monopoly Control over Technology Is a Threat to Democracy.
Recorded remarks from the 2024 Nobel laureate in economics. Author: Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Why Nations Fail, The Narrow Corridor, Power and Progress.
Daron Acemoglu won the Nobel Prize for economics for showing how societies built on extractive institutions – designed to funnel wealth and power to a narrow elite – ultimately decay and fail. Liberal democracy is in retreat, he argues, because the shared prosperity it promised "hasn't materialized over the last four decades." The cause is clear: "We haven't looked after workers and consumers" – and monopoly sits at the heart of that failure.
In a tight, commanding address, Daron Acemoglu argues that the two defining threats of our age — the decline of democracy and the unchecked power now steering AI — share a single root: The concentration of corporate power.
It was never merely about prices. Monopoly determines the direction of technology, the distribution of social standing, and where political power finally rests. Anti-monopoly is not a partisan cause but a democratic imperative – and a fight that can still be won.
The Populist Playbook: What Voters Are Actually Telling Democrats
Four of the sharpest minds in Democratic polling and politics deliver a blunt verdict drawn from reams of data across the country: The work is no longer convincing voters the economy and our politics is rigged – they have believed that for a generation – it's convincing them that Democrats will actually take up the fight.
Celinda Lake diagnoses a three-legged stool missing its third leg: Voters know everything's broken and that Trump is bad, but still can't say what Democrats would do instead. Evan Roth Smith argues the party has to "declare war on capital" and pick louder fights, because the willingness to throw the punch matters more than the win. Adam Carlson flags AI and corruption as fast-rising populist openings neither party has claimed. Alex Jacquez makes the case for turning the fire inward: Democrats "cannot be afraid to call out other Democrats," because voters are fed up with the whole system – both parties – and won't be talked out of it.
This panel delivers a merciless autopsy of 2024 – and a roadmap for 2026 and beyond.
Adam Carlson: Democratic strategist, campaign communications. Founding partner, Zenith Research
Celinda Lake: Veteran Democratic pollster, authority on working-class and rural town voter attitudes. Top Biden 2020 pollster. President, Lake Research Partners
Evan Roth Smith: Pollster and consultant focused on populist messaging and Democratic Party strategy. Founding partner, Slingshot Strategies.
Alex Jacquez: Chief of Policy and Advocacy, Groundwork Collaborative.
David Weigel (m): politics reporter at Semafor
Keynote: Senator Chris Murphy on our Spiritual, Economic and Political Crisis
Stepping back from day-to-day politics and policy, Senator Chris Murphy reframes the anti-monopoly, anti-oligarchy fight as a spiritual one. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, he argues that the precondition for authoritarianism is rootlessness – when people belong nowhere and hold no social, political or economic power, they drift wherever the wind takes them, clinging to any demagogue who offers them a scapegoat.
Senator Murphy – regarded as a potential 2028 presidential contender – argues that his party’s economic message must go far beyond affordability, it must go to power, security and community. A more competitive, locally rooted economy doesn't just lower prices, it rebuilds the connection and accountability that make people feel belonging again.
Defeating Donald Trump isn’t enough, he says: “If you don't solve the spiritual crisis in this country, if you don't make people feel less lonely and more powerful, it'll just be a matter of time before the next demagogue comes along."
The Populist Playbook II: The Politics of Breaking the Oligarchy
Our first playbook mapped where voters are; this session digs into how races are actually won now that the old rules no longer apply.
Adam Green argues that nearly all politics right now, in the US and abroad, comes down to insiders versus outsiders: voters want candidates who channel their anger and shake up a rigged system – candidates who aren't corrupted by corporate money, billionaire power, or Trump-aligned forces – an appeal that cuts across left, right, and moderate alike.
Matt Koos puts it more bluntly: people don't want wimps. They're done with a party that takes corporate PAC money and trades stocks while attacking Republicans for the same. Liz Bennett breaks down why the insurgent winners in New York broke through: not ideology but credibility, a handful of tangible promises hammered relentlessly.
A working session from campaign veterans on winning in a transformed landscape – where the establishment's caution has become a liability, and the candidates rewriting the map are the ones willing to run against their own side.
Liz Bennett: Partner, Middle Seat
Adam Green: Co-founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee
Matt Koos: Chief of Staff and former Campaign Manager to Rep. Chris Deluzio (PA-17)
Elena Schneider (m): National political reporter, NOTUS
Fireside Chat with Dan Osborn: Replace a Billionaire With a Mechanic
A live demonstration of the paycheck populism and plainspoken credibility that's knitting together rural and urban voters the Democratic party had written off.
A mechanic and Navy veteran who refuses corporate money, Dan Osborn came within seven points of a US Senate seat in a state Trump won by twenty – the best independent showing against that tide anywhere. He's running again, and polls show he’s winning.
In conversation with Alvaro Bedoya, Osborn stays relentlessly local. He's spent his life "sticking up for the little guy" – and taking on corporations as a union organizer. He talks to Nebraskans not about Washington scandals and culture wars but about their paychecks – and the policy choices squeezing them. He describes a farm economy in freefall: Fertilizer costs up tens of thousands of dollars a season after the war in Iran, soybean markets shut off by tariffs, family-farm bankruptcies climbing, and a farmer suicide rate several times the national average.
On the wars driving those costs, he's blunt that they're fought by families like his: "Certainly not my opponent's kids. Those types of people don't go fight wars in this country. Ours do."
Dan Osborn: Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska
Alvaro Bedoya (m): Former FTC Commissioner
Who Does Our Foreign Policy Actually Serve? Reclaiming American Leadership From the Oligarchs
Oligarchy doesn't stop at the border. Over recent decades, concentrated private power has reshaped the global economy and American foreign policy in ways that have weakened democratic institutions, heightened geopolitical tensions, and raised the risk of economic and military conflict.
This panel traces a long history of American foreign policy as, in Aya Ibrahim's phrase, "an export of corporate capture" – from the 1954 coup in Guatemala to Chilean copper in the 1970s to interventions in Iran and Venezuela. Through the structural-adjustment era, when countries seeking IMF or World Bank financing were made to privatize, deregulate, and impose austerity.
The discussion focuses on the battle between two competing versions of postwar internationalism – one built to distribute power and prosperity, one built to concentrate it – and follows how the second reshaped security, sovereignty, and an assault on organized labor.
The line runs straight to today: AI oligarchs seated beside heads of state at the G7, promising a new golden age while delivering a new Gilded Age.
Alexandra Geese: Member of the European Parliament [via video]
Katherine Tai: Former US Trade Representative
Matthew Duss: Executive vice president, Center for International Policy
Aya Ibrahim: Former senior adviser, State Department and NEC
Julia Ioffe (m): Founding partner & correspondent, Puck
Fireside Chat with Senator Chris Van Hollen
Chris Van Hollen has become one of the leading mainstream voices insisting that concentrated wealth, captured media, and unchecked executive power are not separate problems, but a single interlocking threat to democracy.
He argues that opposing Trump is not a program – "the status quo before Trump was already broken for Americans" – and that the party cannot timidly wait for the pendulum to swing back. It has to confront the concentration of economic and political power – and the slide toward authoritarianism – head-on.
That conviction has led Van Hollen to step past conventional political caution, from his fight for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to his warnings about the power tech oligarchs now wield over our economy and our future. A candid conversation about what it takes to meet this moment – and where the country goes from here.
Senator Chris Van Hollen
David Wallace-Wells (m): New York Times Opinion columnist
Senator Elizabeth Warren on Corruption, Consolidation and Hope
Ten years after she first spoke at Open Markets, Elizabeth Warren returns with an indictment and a battle cry. The indictment is that corruption is now greasing the skids for mega-mergers in plain sight – and the rot isn't only in the White House. Judges across administrations – Clinton, Obama, and Biden appointees alike – have succumbed to the siren song of pro-corporate Chicago school economics, waving through massive mergers while ignoring the antitrust laws already on the books.
The result: Oligarchs with unprecedented control over our politics, our economy and our information systems.
But her message is defiance. What Lina Khan, Jonathan Kanter and other anti-trust champions built, she argues, "cannot be undone." She lays out a concrete agenda – mandatory structural separation, banning private equity rollups, closing merger loopholes, and rebuilding a federal bench with consumer, tenant, and labor-side lawyers who will actually enforce the law. With the public behind them and a generation of enforcers trained up, "I like our odds."
Learning How to Talk About AI and Power Like the Pope
AI is one of the biggest sources of anxiety for voters across the political spectrum – yet that dread hasn't hardened into a clear political demand.
This panel asks how to change that: how the concerns already out there, about jobs, surveillance, information, and freedom, can be forged into a winning political agenda.
Pope Leo XIV got there before most politicians – naming AI as a domain where private actors now command resources and power surpassing many governments, with no democratic check.
The panel charts how fast AI is consolidating power in a handful of firms – supercharging surveillance, deciding whose AI agents work for whom, and handing a few gatekeeper companies the ability to shape (or quietly disappear) the facts we share. The stakes run to democracy itself: The ability to hold a common reality. What's needed is not lighter-touch rules, but laws that break concentration and corporate power – limiting vertical integration, curbing surveillance models, and ensuring the technology answers to the people who use it, not the firms that own it.
The coming agentic web could dislodge the platforms that took over the internet, or entrench them forever – the path we go down will be a fight, not fate.
Julia Angwin: New York Times contributing opinion writer & author of On Courage
Kate Brennan: Senior director, AI Now Institute
Sally Hubbard: Senior fellow, Open Markets Institute
Eoin Higgins (m): Journalist & author of Owned