The American Dream
by Errington C. Thompson, MD
In the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s victory over Mitt Romney, there was a lot of soul-searching and finger-pointing. I’m not talking about deep introspective soul-searching – instead, lots of superficial, meaningless blather that clogged up the mainstream media airwaves.
The essence of all of this handwringing was wonderfully distilled down to a simple paragraph by Fox News analyst Bill O’Reilly. He said, before the election, “The white establishment is now the minority. And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see Hispanics vote for President Obama, overwhelming for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama’s way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things?”
I think that this short paragraph really sums up where we are in the United States today. Let’s break this down.
“The white establishment is now the minority.” This was an offhand, matter-of-fact comment. O’Reilly said it as if it were a undisputed fact – with the same intonation I would use if I said, “We breathe oxygen and we exhale carbon dioxide.” So let’s analyze this “fact.”
According to the 2010 United States Census, there are 223 million Americans who consider themselves to be white. This is 72% of the United States population. So, not only are white people in the United States the majority, they are the majority by a large margin. So what is O’Reilly talking about?
The problem that Bill O’Reilly and others conservatives have is that not all white people agree with them. “They” are the establishment (at least in their minds), and they believe that if you do not conform to their beliefs then you are somehow un-American.
What they don’t understand, or don’t accept, is the truth of what Michael Douglas’s character, Andrew Shepherd, said in the movie The American President: America is about advanced citizenship – America is about the right to disagree and the right to debate.
What I find most appalling about Bill O’Reilly statement is that it was universally accepted by conservatives as fact. A host of conservatives asserted over and over that Mitt Romney lost the election because he wasn’t giving away free “stuff.” Romney himself, after the election, in another of those secretly recorded private statements, told a group of super-wealthy donors that he lost because President Obama was giving away gifts to blacks, Hispanics and young voters – that same 47% he complained about in a previously recorded private speech. President Obama was giving away “free” healthcare – Obamacare (which people have to buy from for-profit insurance companies). Obama was giving away free food – food stamps. Obama was giving away free contraceptives to women – not for their health, but so they could all have more sex.
This implication that blacks and Hispanics want America to “give them stuff” instead of wanting to participate in the American dream is disturbing and in a way, ugly. Blacks, Hispanics and women (of all ethnicities) want the exact same thing that all Americans want. Most of us, after working eight hours a day, five to seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, want and deserve our own little slice of the American pie.
From approximately the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s, a large portion of America was able to live the American dream. They were able to get a job that paid a living wage. They were able to live in a good, safe neighborhood. Large portions of white America, and a few blacks and a few other minorities, were able to send their children to good schools. College was affordable to the average American. This is the American dream. It is about working. It is about bringing home a check that is large enough to take care of your family, your house, your expenses and, most importantly, have money left over to save for the future and build a legacy for your children. The American Dream is not about living in the ghetto, listening to gunfire, waiting for your welfare check to arrive.
As the debate over the “fiscal cliff” and raising the debt ceiling begins to heat up, it is critical that we focus on what is truly important, the American Dream. Cutting Social Security benefits, cutting Medicare benefits, giving larger and larger tax cuts to the rich would seem to be moving America away from that dream. The question that our elected politicians should ask themselves is, “How do we include more and more Americans in the American Dream?”
Extending much-needed unemployment benefits, lowering the cost of higher education, and making healthcare more obtainable for all Americans would seem to be a step in the right direction. Providing a sustainable way to repair our crumbling roads and bridges could put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work in well-paying jobs. What about our lack of investment in green technology that is necessary to push us over the top? A green economy would provide good jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans for the next several decades. (I won’t even mention that a green economy provides air that we can all breathe and other health benefits.)
The American Dream is alive and well in United States. Whites, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Americans of all ethnicities believe in this magical and powerful idea. We believe with hard work, ingenuity, a little luck and a lot of prayer, we can do better than our parents and our children can do better than us. Now, all we need is our government to create an environment where these dreams can come true.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
