Redefining the American Dream
by John Lawrence
I've heard a lot about the American Dream from the Republican convention. Put simply, the American Dream is having more stuff than your parents had. It's the freedom to accumulate wealth unconditionally. That's their definition of freedom. If I hear the phrase 'hard work and determination' one more time, I'm going to puke. By the way they can retire the words 'kitchen table' from politics as well. Conservatives maintain that equality is about equality of opportunity not equality of outcome. Supposedly everyone starts the race at the same starting line, but does everyone? Do black people who have suffered from the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and redlining start from the same starting line? Even in golf they give handicaps to equalize the chances for all players regardless of ability. The point is that never does everyone start from the same starting line.
Take my sister for example. She was born before they measured the oxygen level of the baby in utero. The doctor wasn't there, and the nurse kept telling my mother to hold the baby back. As a result my sister was born with severe brain damage and was stuck with the mental capacity of a one year old her entire life. She never learned to talk or take any responsibility for herself. She needed caregivers her entire life and those caregivers primarily were my mother and father. Lucky for her that at least she was born into a family that had the capacity to love and take care of her.
The American Dream as defined by Republicans is unsustainable. It is based on unlimited consumption which is killing our planet. We cannot continue to consume without limitation and have a healthy planet. The planet's resources are not unlimited. We cannot continue to consume fossil fuels without leading to a hell on earth. I think California wildfires and Hurricane Laura are proving that today. Unlimited fossil fuel production, as advocated by Republicans, is killing us. Taking away regulations that allow corporations to pollute our air and waterways freely is killing us while it maximizes profits. The Democratic version of the American Dream - a well paying job, a decent house in a decent neighborhood, medical care, educational opportunities and a dignified old age - is much more sustainable. Republicans cater to those among us that are favored by nature, that are favored by not having any physical or mental vulnerabilities, that are favored by access to capital, that are favored by living in neighborhoods having the best schools. Republicans are always pushing charter schools. That's because the funding for public schools comes from the tax base in the neighborhood where the school is located. if a school is in a poor neighborhood, the tax base is poor with the result that the school is poor. It's as simple as that. Change the way schools are funded so that schools in poor neighborhoods have the same resources as schools in rich neighborhoods, and that advantage for rich kids goes away. No need for privatized charter schools which, by the way, still want public money.
So where at the Republican convention were the real Republican constituents.Their real constituents are not truck drivers, first responders and nurses. Their real constituents are hedge fund managers, bankers and billionaires. Sure they give hypocritical lip service to the 'hard working middle class', but they are not about the middle class. Did Jamie Diamond, CEO of JPMorgan Chase and billionaire, speak? Did hedge fund manager of the Blackstone group, Stephen Schwarzman, worth over $118 billion, did he speak? No, the Republicans pandered to Joe SixPack and never mentioned the vast gap between the Lloyd Blankfeins (billionaire chairman of Goldman Sachs) and the Ray Dalios (Bridgewater Associates - salary $2 billion) and the rest of us. But these are the real constituents of the Republican Party. Of course they have their base of white supremicists as well. So where was the CEO of Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson with a salary of $30 million? Where are the defense contractors who benefit from a bloated defense budget 3 times bigger than China's? Instead, they celebrated the fact that Trump added $54 billion to it, an amount almost as large as Russia's entire defense budget.
So what is a sustainable American Dream. It's one devoid of fossil fuels. It's one where there's no drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge. It's one of renewable energy. It's one that recognizes the threat of global warming. It's one that recognizes the need for Medicare for All or equivalent that covers everyone. It's one that recognizes the need to rebuild American infrastructure. It's one that recognizes the need to raise the wages of essential workers to a living wage. It's one that needs to pay caregivers. It's one that recognizes the need to deal with economic inequality by taxing the rich and using the money to fund free education from pre-K through graduate school without students having to go into a lot of debt. It's one that recognizes the responsibility to deal with the 40% of the world's population in dire poverty, without even a functioning sanitation system, especially the 60 million refugees that the US is responsible for creating so that they too can have a Dream. In short it's one that recognizes the role of Americans not simply as individual wealth creators and accumulators for themselves as individuals, but one in which we all endeavor to make the world a habitable place for all human beings now and in the future.
