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By Chuck Pennacchio
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America’s biggest crisis is not that we lack solutions. It is that we have allowed ourselves to believe we are powerless to create them.
Across healthcare, housing, wages, and democracy itself, people feel the system is failing them. Yet we remain divided, isolated, and trapped between false optimism and hopeless cynicism.
I call this moment a test of “radical hope with eyes wide open.” Radical hope means believing transformation is possible. Eyes wide open means understanding that entrenched power does not surrender voluntarily.
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We cannot sit back and assume elections, institutions, or politicians will repair a system that has been shaped for decades by money, influence, and fragmentation.
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Healthcare shows this failure clearly. In 2025, U.S. healthcare spending was estimated to reach $5.7 trillion, as reported by Healthcare Dive. Yet Americans still delay care, fear medical bills, and struggle to afford treatment.
A 2026 study published in Health Affairs found that insurance administration and profits consume hundreds of billions of dollars annually, demonstrating how much of our healthcare system is devoted not to healing patients, but to managing complexity and payment systems.
This is not simply a healthcare problem. It is a democracy problem.
For decades, Americans have been encouraged to fight one issue at a time. Healthcare advocates fight healthcare battles. Housing advocates fight housing battles. Labor advocates fight labor battles. Environmental advocates fight environmental battles.
Meanwhile, concentrated wealth and organized corporate interests understand something movements continue to forget: power comes from connection, coordination, and collaboration.
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Change
History teaches us that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary change when they organize around a shared strategic vision.
The abolition movement, labor movement, civil rights movement, and creation of programs like Social Security and Medicare were not gifts handed down by those in power. They were victories won by people who built movements strong enough to demand a different future.
I learned this lesson from studying and teaching history and from decades of organizing. Edward Bellamy’s novel Looking Backward imagined a future society and then asked the critical question: How did we get there?
We need to ask that same question today. If future generations look back on us, will they see people who accepted decline, or people who intentionally built something better?
The future we create depends on that answer. If we continue down our current path, the result is clear: deeper inequality, rising healthcare costs, increased political distrust, and a dystopian society where ordinary people feel powerless.
But there is another possibility. Imagine an America where healthcare is treated as a foundation of human dignity, where workers can change jobs without fear of losing coverage, where entrepreneurs can build businesses without gambling with their families’ security, and where communities understand that another person’s struggle is connected to their own future.
That future will happen if we organize smarter.
Single-Issue Silos
Political scientist Erica Chenoweth’s research on successful nonviolent movements, as explained by the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School, identified a crucial threshold: mobilizing roughly 3.5 percent of a population can create powerful momentum for systemic change.
But they can not achieve this alone. In the United States, that means millions of people choosing disciplined participation instead of passive frustration. It means those with resources putting them to good use by supporting those who refuse to be silenced.
But first, we must break out of single-issue silos.
We need healthcare advocates standing with housing organizers, workers standing with civil rights advocates, and communities building networks of mutual support. We need to replace polite politics with strategic organizing and creative actions.
The choice before us is simple. We can remain spectators while powerful interests continue shaping the country, or we can become active participants in building not only the country but the world we want.
The work begins where people live. Join local organizations. Build alliances across movements. Support leaders who answer to communities rather than donors. Show up, organize, and create the pressure required for meaningful change.
History does not move because people wait for permission. It moves because people decide that a better future is worth fighting for.
Chuck Pennacchio, Ph.D., is a historian, social justice organizer, and political strategist. He is president of One Payer States and recently founded the Arc of Justice Network (AJN). All views are his own.
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