Some of the essays we read for today touch on American ideals, Americanness, and the American Dream. Atul Gawande sees the impending revocation of health insurance for poor people as a threat to American ideals. Toni Morrison writes that “for many people, the definition of ‘Americanness’ is color.” According to Hochschild, Trump supporters in Louisiana define the American Dream as gainful employment and social mobility unhindered by federal bureaucracy. In contrast, some of the New Yorker essayists ask whether their version of the American Dream, which values tolerance, diversity, and human rights, is sustainable in Trump’s America.
How is your sense of American ideals, Americanness, and/or the American Dream impacted by the 2016 election? Do you find your own understanding of present-day challenges to American ideals, Americanness, and/or the American Dream reflected in any of the essays we read for today?
I had always been taught that the American Dream was the freedom of an American to work hard to experience upward mobility, achieving and maintaining higher economic status for themselves and for future generations. However, after this election, I believe that we’re all forced to consider the social constructs in our society and their ties to the American Dream more than ever before. Throughout this campaign season and election we have seen and heard countless remarks about how race and class are becoming ever more evident and intensified in their role in American’s ability to grow and succeed. This intense focus on social class has sprouted from Trump’s outspokenness about “making America great again” and returning to old ways of white power in this country. Trump’s proposal of this revival of white supremacy would greatly impact every American’s version of the American Dream, boosting the benefits of lower class white Americans while simultaneously removing those of all others. Reading Hochschild and Morrison’s essays side by side provided fascinating outlooks on the sentiments of Americans, the former calling attention to the way in which lower class white Americans want economic success, seeing a revival of their exclusive mobility in the mid 1900’s and reaping the rewards of a white favoring welfare system, while the latter hones in on the tone of fear that is evident from white acts of violence and protest against the well being and success of others. According to Morrison, these Americans fear the loss of their American Dream, one of social dominance, stating, “White men, who are prepared to abandon their humanity out of fear of black men and women, suggest the true horror of lost status.” Overall, this election has made me see how the American Dream has evolved from an ideal of the potential for economic success and mobility, to a need for all Americans to have economic, social and political equality and acceptance.
The American Dream has slowly dissolved over the past couple decades. The sense instilled in Americans that they can achieve anything if they work at it is more or less dead. I would argue however, that Donald Trump has revived that sense of the American Dream in today’s electorate.
Another important item to point out about the American Dream is that it is relative. Donald Trump’s son’s American Dream is not the same as an 18-year-old college kid’s who is swimming in student loans he or she has to pay back eventually. This is where we hit the popular, controversial topic of equality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity is separate from other divisive issues that we have discussed including race, gender, and sexual orientation. Equality of opportunity is really what the American Dream is all about: the idea that no matter what, an American can work his or her tail off and yield success, relatively speaking.
In the wake of the election, we’ve seen record increases in the stock market and CEO’s playing by the rules, what political and business analysts are calling the “Trump Effect.” Trump played the tune that aligned with the middle-class workers who haven’t seen significant changes in their economical situation. In my opinion, Trump absolutely hit the ball out of the park with this demographic, and that is the main reason he won in such a dominating fashion in the electoral college. I mean, the answer lies in the rust belt, where the average voter is a blue-collar factory worker who wants the American Dream to become reality.
Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” has more to do with reinstalling the American Dream in citizens and bringing the United States back to a more powerful force from a foreign policy standpoint. Several people are worried and scared about the ramifications of say a KKK member expressing “support” of Trump’s cabinet choices, but at the end of the day, that KKK supporter has a freedom of choice of who to support and who to disagree with and the media has the ability to portray it however they want. There is a unique sense of patriotism and Americanness about Trump and his campaign, even his bumper stickers appear more patriotic than Clinton’s because of the contrast in the blues. It’s no lie that America is very divided at this point and the hard-fought campaign showed that, but Trump spoke in a more patriotic, unifying way that revived the sense of the American Dream for many blue-collar workers and voters who want to see America become the strong force it once was.
I have always imagined the American Dream as the idea that anyone can study and work their way towards a house with a white picket fence and a comfortable lifestyle no matter where they start from.
In my life, the struggle of attaining the American Dream is a story of the past, and I get to enjoy the result of the dream. My family loves to talk about how my grandfather fled Nazi Germany and arrived in the United States with nearly nothing; how he studied hard and eventually became a successful scientist who got to travel the world. As his granddaughter, I have the privilege of having the work of the American Dream completed for me. Therefore, I find it hard to understand how Trump supporters seem to want to limit other people (Muslims, refugees, blacks, etc.) from achieving the American Dream as well. If my grandfather, an immigrant of a religious minority, got a shot at the Dream, why shouldn’t Syrian refugees get the same opportunity? I see the impending Trump presidency as a threat to the accessibility of the American Dream.
I do realize, however, that as someone who has never had to work herself for the American Dream, I am unable to understand the frustration that working-class Americans feel when they are unable to attain the comfortable, stable lifestyle that the mantra of our country promises. Hochschild explains that many Trump supporters feel that as they metaphorically wait in line for the American Dream, other people are cutting them in line. “Many of these line-cutters are black—beneficiaries of affirmative action or welfare. Some are career-driven women pushing into jobs they never had before. Then you see immigrants, Mexicans, Somalis, the Syrian refugees yet to come …. Then you see President Barack Hussein Obama waving the line-cutters forward.” I imagine that white people who struggle financially feel resented for not being ushered through the line; their needs are urgent too. However, I still can’t understand how they think that minorities are “cutting” the line; perhaps they are just frustrated that if everyone has a good chance at attaining the American Dream, the line that everyone has to wait in is simply longer. If I were in a financially urgent situation, maybe I would favor a leader who would limit the amount of people in the metaphorical line in front of me; maybe I would do anything to get a shorter wait. I am in no way supporting these views; I’m just trying to understand how people can support a candidate who seems to be saying that minorities don’t deserve the American Dream as much as white Americans do.
If anything, this election has made me feel even more strongly that tolerance and diversity are important features of the American Dream: anyone, from anywhere, should be able to achieve it. However, as someone who has never had to worry about achieving the Dream, I’m realizing that there is a huge group of white, working-class Americans who feel that the Dream has become inaccessible to them. It frustrates me that they want to prioritize their own access to the Dream over minorities’ access, but it is eye-opening: the whole country does not have the romantic, anyone-can-do-it idea of the American Dream that I’ve always had.