Soap Box: Promises of change threaten elusive American Dream

by Larry Schuster

August 8,2008

By the time you read this, the August primary election will be complete. Winners will have feigned humility and losers will live to fight another day.

In all of the huff and puff of this year's election, much drivel has been spewed about reviving the American Dream. An uncle I grew up with on our farm is fond of political debate. He has watched much water pass under the bridge. He has become quite the philosopher and patriarch of the family—tender but intolerant of excuses and demands for rights oft abounding today.

He knows the stories of hard times from his parents and grandparents about the Great Depression. His father married his mother in late 1929. These events surely shaped his outlook on life, his work ethic and, in the end, contribute to the wisdom and assurance of a life well lived he now enjoys. A picture book story of a quiet, non-pretentious life would include chapters filled with heartache and angst along with the chapters of joy and elation.

It is hard for each generation to not compare the one that follows it to itself. So my uncle scratches his head about some of the nonsense elections drum up. We commiserate about strange and extreme lifestyles. As folks who mind their own business, each of us is content to smile, curiously frown or simply ignore modern eccentricities. Politicians babble about their ability to solve the myriad problems life offers. Particularly troubling, though, is the serious look to government many cast to fulfill life's basic needs.

For instance on the most basic level, is it government's duty to ensure that you receive three square meals a day? Or now that we know modest sized meals paired with snacks to be a more healthy lifestyle, should government also provide the proper, healthy snack?  Is it an individual's responsibility to secure their own meals either by gardening or working for a paycheck to purchase meals and groceries?  Should the government provide food for people who won't garden, work or spend appropriately?  Sustenance is a most basic need. We all must eat or die.

Recently, I have asked many folks, what is the American Dream? The most common response has been silence. After a moment some recall the cry for "A Great Society". "A chicken in every pot" is mentioned. Only one person mentioned freedom—freedom to live their life as they saw fit. Many see our prosperity as the American Dream. Some are motivated to seek, grasp and firmly take hold of it. Others demand it as a right.

The single most intertwining issue of this election cycle is change. It is characterized most dominantly by statements that the government must do more. It must do more to ensure that the American Dream does not die.

County-level challengers accused incumbents of reticence, complacency and abdication of duty for failure to plan per their prescribed philosophy. State house representative candidates railed against Republicans for proper fiscal management that cut waste in the Medicaid program and saved the state budget from disaster. In fact, Missouri is only a handful of states in the United States that is not struggling with budget calamity. If you wish to view governmental melt down, just take a look at the mess Arnold Schwartznegger is struggling with. Massive layoffs and pay cuts to minimum wage levels have triggered protests as participants demand their "government cheese" from the state of California.

Current definitions of change seek to solve problems conjured up by politicians for election platforms, which require robbing Peter to pay Paul. When Peter has been plundered, where will Paul turn next?

The American Dream is not about material possessions. It is about the freedom to pursue life unfettered by governmental interference. It is not a "Get Out of Jail Free Card" for use to rescue us from life's calamities or our own fool heartiness.

The American Dream is most threatened by politicians who promise change without the expectation of due responsibility. Politicians who incite the entitlement class against the working class steal the lifeblood of a nation and rob it's descendants of a future now known as The American Dream.

Larry Schuster is a former city councilman and political observer.