"What it takes to be successful"
Step 1: Have the right parents.
Is a tough one for many people. And not only is it the first step, but the most important too!
This is most certainly true.
Beyond that, an entirely free market would be ideal to allow for the greatest movement between classes and potential for growth, but that would have to be somewhere free of corruption, preferential treatment, racism, sexism, classism, etc.
American politics and the presidency has been an idiotic contest using buzzwords and inconsequential topics for a long time. Not just this year. Even people talk about the failures in the loser's strategy saying, "oh, he/she didn't say this or express this to this particular group of people enough." Shows how awful it is when there's so much strategy to properly pander to the correct percentage of people by using shallow statements the group wants to hear, instead of just being an honest person and saying what you believe.