About fifteen years ago, I was talking with an old friend of mine who was joking that he hadn’t really done anything he had expected to do by that time in his life. At one point in the conversation, he looked up and, smiling at me, said something that I clearly remember even so many years later: “All of my dreams have come true… only on a drastically smaller scale than I would have ever dreamed possible.” At the time I first heard this little bit of self-deprecation, I had to laugh at the irony in the conflict between the dreary resignation it held and the hope and happiness in the idea of his achievement of his dreams.
During last night’s State of the Union address, a portion of President Obama speech reminded me this conversation but in a way that was much more ominous. At one port of his address, after talking about some of the opportunities of which his grandparents were able to take advantage, President Obama stated the following:
“The two of them shared the optimism of a Nation that had triumphed over a depression and fascism. They understood they were part of something larger; that they were contributing to a story of success that every American had a chance to share the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.
The defining issue of our time is how to keep that promise alive. No challenge is more urgent. No debate is more important. We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them. “
When I heard this statement, I had to rewind the speech and listen to it again to be sure that I had heard him properly. On my second listen it turned out that I had. In only two short paragraphs, it appears that the President has defined an American promise quite different from the one I learned as a child.
One of the first non-fiction books I can remember having an impact on me as a child was The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. In this book, Franklin describes a life that began in poverty and ended with him becoming one of the most notable people the country has ever produced. Franklin notes a life that began in poverty and ended in wealth and notoriety. He notes his successes, his failures, and his philosophies in ways that have inspired generations. Franklin’s life and successes inspired James Harper of HarperCollins publishing to leave his farm life and start one of the largest publishing companies in America. Thomas Mellon, after reading Franklin’s Autobiography was able to see the possibilities the country held and left his farm to found one of the largest banks in the United States. Mellon once said that “[f]or so poor and friendless a boy to be able to become a merchant or a professional man had before seemed an impossibility; but here was Franklin, poorer than myself, who by industry, thrift and frugality had become learned and wise, and elevated to wealth and fame.” Mellon went on to say that he realized that he “had will and energy equal to the occasion, and could exercise the same degree of industry and perseverance…. After that I was more industrious when at school, and more constant than ever in reading and study during leisure hours. I regard the reading of Franklin’s autobiography as the turning point of my life.”
I remember that the stories noted in Franklin’s Autobiography were used as parables of how we too could succeed. While there would obviously be hurdles, if we worked hard enough, America was a place that promised that there were no limits to what you could achieve. It was a place of hope and a place of dreams.
Obama’s vision of America is quite different. Obama states a very specific promise for those who work hard in the country he now governs. Unlike the America where Franklin became wealthy through hard work, Obama’s America offers to those who “work hard”, not the ability to become wealthy and powerful in the world; but, rather Obama’s America offers us the chance to do “well enough.” How well is enough to our President? He defines this quite specifically as the ability to “raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.” True wealth from hard work is apparently no longer an option in Obama’s America; rather, it is a very specific standard of living that President Obama feels is the acceptable reward.
What’s more, Obama seems to think that this limitation on reward is somehow a restoration of something that has been lost when he says that we need to “restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share." I do not seem to remember a time when our economy gave “a fair shot” to anyone. Those who succeed do not do so because they are given anything; is the act of taking a shot that leads someone to succeed. I am not even sure how one can measure someone’s fair share if we really live in a society that allows those who work hard to achieve whatever they can.
The reduction of the American dream to the one that our President expressed is a sad day for America. I fear for my children’s future in a world where they are dictated their acceptable levels of success in such specific terms. I dread the day when they realize that they have achieved this new American Dream and become aware that it is truly on a drastically smaller scale than they were capable of achieving.
I can only agree with one part of what the President said here. “What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values.” The problem is that these are not “American values” either.
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