The problem with the American Dream is that - by definition - it's driven by belief. It's an imprecise ideal that has little to do with the either the current or future reality of modern America. Either the dream has to change or it has to be forgotten.
The American Dream in its current incoherent form is a cliched catch-all that has become deeply destructive as a political tool. It's simplistic, unrecognizable, and anachronistic. But the right in particular cling to it, because it has become a shroud for so many weaknesses of American social, cultural and political life.
America was founded as a can-do nation. From the earliest stirrings of Colonial rebellion, to the Westward expansion and beyond, Americans have always had a pioneering ethos that ran and continues to run deep. But as the country matures, so too must its attitude to itself, and to its people. Relying on outmoded can-do concepts is quite simply not enough. We can all praise the entrepreneurial optimism of the American Spirit. It is the positive part of the American psyche. But it's a script that's overplayed, and applied to far too much of the American experience to be meaningful. There's more to life than getting ahead.
When Johnson conceptualized the "Great Society", the idea was built on a generational shift in American attidues. A maturity of spirit and a realization that the common good was the best way to advance America. The corrolary of that was a move away from rugged individualism. It is this philosophical tussle that's at the heart of America's crisis. The irony of the American Dream is that it's associated with the individualism, when in fact it's a product of a greater commonality. Depression, War, Roosevelt's embrace of Keynesian economics, the GI Bill, and intense fiscal and monetary stability in the post-war era led to the rise of the suburban ideal. It's an irony that's profoundly lost on the Right, who equate The Dream with Government "getting out of the way". That is wrong. The American dream arose at a time when government was positively enmeshed with the ambitions of the people.
The American Dream has become the fulcrum in the seesaw between the believers on the Right and the Rationalists on the Left of the American political spectrum. The believers paint the American dream as a twinkling Thomas Kinkade, a sacharrine Mayberry experience that's almost surreal in its ignorance and delusiveness. The Rationlists see the dream as a fusion of the American entrepreneurial spirit with a strong Social Contract. In a sense that dream matures. It's less halcyon fable - more a fusion of hope, logic and justice. These themes have been hinted at in the current electoral cycle, but without the necessary coherence.
Barack Obama represents a move towards a more mature American Dream, but we must not underestimate how powerful opposition to that move will be. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that in the picket fence, exurban small town of Rightist fantasy, hate and injustice aren't gone, they're just out of sight. In the construct of a large segment of American society, protecting Mayberry from the outsider is the key to realizing the American Dream. In doing so, the hatred will come to the surface, but that irony can be justified by the end justifying the means. The second reason for pessimism is that America is so distant from a workable social contract that the kind of changes required to bring true balance about will be daunting and jarring for just about any American. And thirdly, the levers of American government are poorly suited for bringing about real change.
A fundamental part of maturing the American Dream is reducing the oligopolistic tendency in US corporate experience. There's too much economic and political power in the hands of corporations. Operating as they do on a short-termist profit motive at the expense of public, corporate interests have become an unaccountable force unto themselves. The Health Insurance industry is a classic example of this imbalance. Paying crippling premiums for inadequate coverage is hardly part of the American Dream. But in order to restore the balance between corporate and community interests, nothing less than the dismantling of the current Health Insurance system is required. Doing that will require the kind of political will that's hard to imagine. But even that may not be enough. The force of special interests and the inadequacy of the tricameral system are further massive hinderances to change. Add to that Rightist 'belief systems' that hold a publicly driven health system (no matter the economic, business or social logic behind it, and no matter that it is already in operations successfully in the form of Medicare and the Veterans Administration) is something to be fought.
Obama avoided mandates in health care precisely to attract enough soft Republicans to win. But at what cost? He has already said he enshrines the rights of gun-owners, and he has said little coherent about dismantling the Special Interests system. He chose his platform to attract swing voters, as any shrewd and wise politican would do. But in doing so, he has recognized that the challenge of rebuilding the American Dream may not be a battle he is prepared to fight.
And here lies the catch. If we try to bring about fundamental change, it will likely be rejected, and the nation will suffer. If we stay on a moderate path, we will not rebuild the dream, and the nation will suffer.
Is there a way around this conundrum. Yes. There is.
Most people will disagree with the assertion, but in order to rebuild the dream, we must have a nightmare first. We need another Great Depression. The first American Dream rose out of darkness. The new American Dream will arise the same way.