Our founding fathers worked hard to ensure that a small group of wealthy people would never dominate this country. Thomas Jefferson believed that our very democracy depends upon our ability to play referee to the game of business, protecting labor and the public good. But over the last twenty-five years, we’ve witnessed an undeclared war against the middle class. The so-called conservatives waging this war are interested only in conserving and increasing their own wealth and power. Under the guise of freeing the market, they have dismantled programs set up to protect the middle class and replaced them with policies that favor only the privileged few. To keep America strong, we must ensure that our public institutions meet people’s basic needs for education, health care, and a living wage before our democracy becomes a “corporatocracy.”