Is America Broken or Has It Always Been This Way?

Tony Aguilar
Nonfiction
Politic
20-Oct-2025

Many say America is broken—but what if it isn't? What if the system is working exactly as intended, just not for you? The issues we face today—rising income inequality, racial injustice, battles over immigration, religion, and culture—aren’t new. They've been with us for decades. Yet through it all, one thing remains constant: the rich keep getting richer, and the rest are told to wait their turn.

This isn’t just a broken system—it’s a rigged one. Designed and maintained by those who benefit most from the status quo. So the real question isn’t whether the system is failing—it’s: who is it serving?

Despite growing frustration over affordability, wages, housing, and healthcare, too many Americans continue to support policies and leaders that work against their own economic and social interests. That’s not by accident—it’s by design.

It’s time to stop playing by the rules of a game that wasn’t made for you. It's time to vote, spend, organize, and act in ways that serve your self-interest—not someone else’s. If enough people do that, the system won’t just change—it will have to.

Tony Aguilar is the host and producer of the Aguilar Conversations: A Global Perspective podcast which features interviews with guests about international affairs. He also writes commentary about political issues for the Aguilar Commentary. During the course of his 35 years of public life as a community organizer, advocate, preacher he has been quoted in newspapers from the New York Times, Jersey Journal, Newsday and the Daily News.

Is America Broken or Has It Always Been This Way? - Tony Aguilar