What an assassin reveals about our politics

And how the response to his act—both by public officials and everyday people—gives us an opportunity to look at one thing Democrats can do to flip the narrative

A couple days ago I wrote about the burning question that so many Democrats ask: why do so many people keep voting against their own self-interest?

We talked about how one big reason that people vote the way they do is because they believe our system is broken and they are mad about the lack of accountability for elites. An example I used was how the big banks ruined our economy and housing market, were then bailed out when Democrats had full control in Washington, and how not a single one of those bankers were ever held accountable—even though many broke the law. Many who suffered during that time blame Democrats for supporting that system.

Thank you to everyone for the hundreds of comments and strong engagement. I read through all of them and your thoughts and comments encourage me to go deeper into these topics. If you find these Substacks interesting, please share them with people who you think might feel the same way or consider upgrading to a paid subscription to continue supporting this work!

Many of you brought up the media in your replies, and so I promise to write about my experience with the media during the campaign in a future post. A lot of people also asked for a solution to the problem and how Democrats can flip the narrative. I have a lot of thoughts on that based on my experiences on the trail, and plan on going deep on it in the future.

However, right now an assassin is on the loose! And the response to his act—both by public officials and everyday people—gives us an immediate opportunity to look at one thing in particular that Democrats can do, so we are going to seize the opportunity.

If you’re not up to date, last week a young man laid in wait outside an investor meeting of America’s biggest healthcare monopolist, UnitedHealth Group (UHG), in Manhattan and shot the company’s CEO, Brian Thompson, in the back, killing him, with an old school manually operated silenced pistol modeled after a WWII special service firearm.

As of writing this, he is still on the loose. Shell casings found at the scene were inscribed with words the insurance industry uses to profit off of suffering, like “deny, defend, depose,” although there is some question as to which exact words were on the casings. And the suspect’s discarded backpack was also stuffed with monopoly money. No one knows if the killing was motivated by healthcare industry practices or if it’s just a cover. But if it’s a cover, it’s a good one.

Because right now, if I had to guess, the killer would be acquitted by a jury of his peers in most towns in America. I can guarantee he would be acquitted here in Independence.

Which reinforces the depth of the anti-establishment mood in our country and illustrates why people are willing to vote for politicians who say they are going to burn the system down without thinking any more about what that means.

Let’s take a closer look at the different ways people reacted to this.

The official civilized response has been outrage at a cold-blooded murder of a father in broad daylight. I didn’t pay close attention to the story at first, so my exposure is about the same as a normal person (which is a good thing in this case). The limited responses I noticed at the time were from Minnesota politicians, where UHG is headquartered, and the Governor of New York and Mayor of New York City where the incident occurred, and they were all very supportive of the CEO and the company. I went back and collected a couple from Minnesota just now, here they are:

Tim Walz called the shooting “Horrifying news and a terrible loss for the business and health care community in Minnesota.”

Amy Klobuchar called it “horrifying” and “shocking” and expressed thoughts for the CEO’s family and also for the “UHG family.”

When you contrast those to the responses of everyday people in this country, the only thing shocking about this murder is that it hasn’t happened before.

One of the more popularly quoted posts, by a Professor at Columbia University, reads “Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down.... wait, I'm sorry - today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.”

Internet boards, comment sections, Reddit, are full of the feelings of real people in this country, and they overwhelmingly, almost unanimously, express a sentiment that this man had it coming, and so does his whole industry.

Here is just one example of hundreds from the campaign trail for why we are where we are: a battle between a single working mom and her monolithic insurance company. This is what she told me.

Her son has type one diabetes and needs insulin to survive. She said they get their insulin every three months through the insurance company, put it in the refrigerator, and use it throughout the three months until they re-supply.

One day, right after they had gotten a 90 day supply, they went to visit family out of town. When they got back a couple days later, she realized that the power was out and her heart just dropped. She immediately ran to the refrigerator and yanked it open to check on her son’s insulin. She said everything in the fridge was spoiled, but she didn’t even think about the food, just the insulin, because she had only taken enough with them for the days they were gone and she was terrified for her son.

She called her insurance company and asked them what to do. They told her she had already gotten her 90 day supply so she would need to go to the pharmacy and buy it out of pocket.

She tried, and discovered it would cost something like $6,000 to replace it. Desperate, she called her insurance company back and begged them for a solution. They told her that if she went back and bought it out of pocket she could fill out some paperwork and request reimbursement and that she might get reimbursed at some point.

When she told the company that she didn’t have that type of money to front, and that she couldn’t even get a credit card that would give her access to that type of money, they told her it wasn’t their problem, that they had met their obligation.

Crying, she told me that the worst moment of her life was when she gave her son that warm insulin and prayed that it would still work.

Her son is fine, she was able to work with his doctor to figure something out, perhaps even through the insurance. But how many people in this country have a story like that?

How many people have gone bankrupt because of medical conditions, like my parents did when my sister needed open heart surgery when we were kids?

How many hours every year do you spend fighting insurance companies who deny, defend, and delay every single payment they should be making? I spent so many hours last spring calling back and forth between providers and an insurance company who just kept pointing the finger at one another that I nearly boiled over with real rage, despite being a generally calm guy.

As CEO of UHG, Thompson oversaw an empire whose sole purpose is to extract as much wealth as possible from everyday people’s health and lives, people like you and me, like that woman and her son, and transfer it to the shareholder class. Converting death and suffering into shareholder profit.

Has he or anyone at UHG ever been held accountable for that? Thompson’s latest innovation was to use AI algorithms to automatically deny patient claims that their physicians had already approved in order to increase profits.

Converting patient health into profit isn’t even an unspoken secret now as UnitedHealth, alongside other insurance companies, have bought into a program they call “the dial”, that cranks up AI-initiated claim denials when they need more profit.

Quarterly report coming up? Crank the dial!

If there is a system that Democrats could be attacking and tearing down, this is one great example. And they would probably have it all to themselves.

But, instead, they are talking about the “UHG family” and what a terrible loss this supposed health innovator’s death is for the business and healthcare community. I get it, it’s tricky considering that the man was gunned down. But most people care a hell of a lot more about their own family, the family that these people’s system has been screwing for years, than the supposed “UHG family.” Which is just a twisted executive construct to try to make big corporations seem like something other than what they are, and no one buys that crap anymore.

The response in New York has been just as eye-opening on who the system does and doesn’t work for. The mayor pulled out all the stops for security in New York City after this guy was murdered, at who knows what cost. In a targeted killing. That was very specifically aimed at one person and most likely put no one else at risk.

The governor called for the state police to come in and aid.

This is the stuff that anyone or their family who has ever been the victim of a violent crime, or really any crime, hopes for and believes is going to be there for them. This is what you see on TV.

In reality? Unless you’re a big-time CEO, there “aren’t enough resources” to solve your crime. The murder clearance rate in New York right now? About 50%. And I can guarantee you that most of those ones that are cleared don’t require a lot of evidence or investigation because the assailant was caught on scene. Because the system sure as hell isn’t investing in protecting everyday people.

I can guarantee you the cops are just as pissed about the dump of resources into this vs. other crimes as anyone else.

There is no justice for everyday victims in this country just like there is no justice for elite law-breakers in this country.

In order to augment the lack of justice and investigation that everyday people experience in this country, something unique has developed: TikTok sleuths have been popping up left and right. They use social media to help solve crimes that law enforcement doesn’t have the resources for.

Their reaction? None of them were willing to use their resources or networks to help identify the killer.

That’s where our country is at.

People in the replies to my last post asked how voters could bring themselves to vote for a criminal like Donald Trump. Well, people of all stripes right now, nurses, professors, patients, and others are, if not celebrating, at least understanding and internally supporting a cold-blooded murderer (pretty big crime) because they know how broken this system is and it’s the first sign of justice or power they have seen in years.

I mean, just ask yourself how you feel about it and give yourself an honest answer. I bet the feelings are at least mixed, and for many of you they slant much further toward the young murderer than the slain executive.

Yet the most public responses we have seen from a bunch of Democrats makes it look like they are just UnitedHealth company men and women who actually believe in this system. I know, the CEO was Walz’s and Klobuchar’s constituent. And they were probably all pals, too, because that’s how it works with Democrats and big healthcare here in Missouri. So it makes sense.

But if Democrats want to capture the mood in this country, win elections, and then actually fix things and make lives better again, it might be a good idea to drop the company man mentality and start talking about how some of these things need to be torn down and replaced.

One of the big problems I ran into with my campaign, and that we saw over and over again in response to our anti-corruption and broken-system narrative, is that right now no one in Missouri, and probably most of the country, believes that Democrats have the will to break things in order to rebuild them.

Although I’m not sure people would name it, the original ACA fight was a good example of that lack of will in this very healthcare/insurer sector. When Democrats had full control—the Presidency, the House, and 60 in the Senate—they chose to preserve the health insurance industry. Even if people don’t remember that specifically, the cultural memory exists, and is reinforced over and over again not just by Fox News, but also by Democrat politicians taking the company line with insurers like UHG.

I’ll dig more into that in a future post, because we found over and over again in our focus groups that my anti-corporate power messaging made them think I must be a Republican, not a Democrat, and they were surprised to hear I was a Democrat. This is a critical thing that needs to change.

Thank you all again for being a part of this. Please continue to engage and share with anyone you think would be interested, and I’m looking forward to continuing the dialogue!

— Lucas