Keeping The American Dream

“The American Dream,” the idealistic term of prosperity we have all heard and read about throughout our lives and from our educational history courses, originates back to 1931.

Penned by the famed writer, James Turslow Adams, in his work, “The Epic of America.” In his book, Adam (1931) describes the American dream as “"that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." An idea that if someone, anyone, comes to America and puts forth the time and hard work, that you will be rich and successful. This promise of material affluence brought immigrants from all around the world to the land of opportunity and freedom in the pursuit of happiness that

Thomas uses his short essay to focus in on and direct the readers what we should be doing differently to keep this Dream alive. Thomas believes that we are able to keep this

American Dream going if we focus on the right things. He states that the cause in decline of the

American Dream is because of “Setting aside war, which was imposed on America, the eclipse of liberalism’s American dream has been largely caused by expanding, encroaching, over-taxing, over-spending, and over-regulating government” (Thomas, 2010). Thomas believes that our focus into achieving the American Dream through the government is where we should not be focusing, instead we should be teaching our children to stay in school and follow those previous rules for achieving the American Dream (Thomas, 2010). We must do things accordingly to how generations before us did in order to achieve the Dream. (Thomas, 2010). Although I find it true that we should follow in the footsteps that those before us took, it is not necessarily true that we need to keep our children in school. Many people are successful without finishing their education. Is the American Dream Over? was Cal Thomas’s way to trash liberal policies and his

THE CONSERVATIVES AMERICAN DREAM

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The fact of the matter is, everyone has a different idea of success. Some people see success as owning five mansions and a big jet plane you take every other weekend to the

Bahamas. Some people view the idea of success as working hard and being able to provide for the ones they love and being happy with their life. I agree with the author in saying, no, the

American dream is not dead. Yes, it does seem though at times the government is dysfunctional and the American people are crazy with the lack of morals, but Thomas and Herbert need to take a look in the past when the term American Dream was actually coined, back in 1931. The United

States was not doing so good. The government and American citizens alike. People were spending way too much money, which led to the stock market crashing, which ultimately led to the great depression. What Herbert and Thomas were discussing was the status of the United

States socially and economically, not the American dream. Don’t let the term fool you, The

American dream is not just for Americans, but for everyone around the world. The dream