The Declaration of Independence and the American Dream

Today, we acknowledge and celebrate the inextricable link between the Declaration of Independence and the American Dream. After all, the Declaration is the parent of our Dreams.

Protected by the principles of the Declaration, the American Dream is an attitude a person is born with whether or not they are born in America -- which is one reason why immigration is so important to America's growth and prosperity. It's about an attitude and it's about navigable pathways to achievement. These pathways are not guarantees but they are legally and culturally encouraged and protected here. We don’t want to convey the dreamy idea that because we dream, we are perfect, or that everything is always hunky dory in Dreamland. It's tough out there. It's tough everywhere. But we are free and that makes all the difference.  

The Dream is too often represented inaccurately and self interestedly by commentators, candidates, advertisers and economists. Surprising to some, the American Dream is not primarily about material acquisition or wealth accumulation. It is more than anything an attitude about possibility and improvement. This can only be fostered in an atmosphere dedicated to freedom enduringly put into play by the Declaration. "Freedom" consistently tops the list of Dream definitions in the American mind. In that context, the economy certainly plays a part, but it is not the star of the show.

 We must remind ourselves that the term "American Dream" was coined in the midst of the Great Depression, not in a time of great prosperity. The Dream is personal and is sustained by the oxygen of freedom. Americans fully understand that freedom is the basic requirement for whatever our Dreams may be, and it's not reliant on the current state of the economy.

The Dream is not about a job. A job is an American assumption despite the current discouraging employment state of affairs. Americans don't spend their Dream time imagining a job but rather what a job enables. We can worry about jobs, but we don't Dream about them.

The American Dream is one of the few unifying ideas in our republic and the point of the Dream is that ultimately personal outcomes can be influenced or determined by individuals. Believing this is the Dream. 

American Dreamers seem well suited to tough times and tough news. Without this toughness, the Dream would have withered away long ago. Without this toughness, there never would have been a Declaration of Independence in the first place.

 Happy Birthday, America.

Civic Illiteracy: A Threat to the American Dream

Immigrants desiring American citizenship must pass a naturalization test demonstrating basic civic literacy. 97.5% of immigrants pass this test.

Xavier University’s Center for the Study of the American Dream undertook a survey to learn details of the civic literacy rate of native-born Americans measured identically by the same test. Our work over the last three years has consistently re-enforced the strong American belief in the relationship between the American Dream and freedom. Freedom is not found in the state of nature, and must be fought for and vigilantly guarded. In order to do this successfully, Americans are expected to know what freedom means beyond sloganeering and applause lines. This includes understanding the nature of the freedoms won by those who have gone before us and the obligations freedom demands of us to ensure its continuance and to protect those who will follow us.

In order to do this, we must first understand what those freedoms are.

It is our strong contention that civic illiteracy is a threat to the American Dream because it is a threat to the freedom we treasure. Civic illiteracy makes us less likely to exercise freedom by understanding and engaging in our public life. Failure to achieve and maintain this understanding inevitably makes us more susceptible to manipulation and abuses of power. If we do participate with limited knowledge of what makes America, America, we mock the history we revere.

Concurrent to our national civic literacy survey, the Center for the Study of the American Dream asked native-born US citizens: “Immigrants are expected to pass a civic literacy test. Do you think all Americans should be able to pass that test?” A strong majority, 77%, said, yes. Furthermore, 60% agreed that high school students should have to pass the naturalization test as a requirement for graduation.

However, our national survey revealed that one in three native-born citizens failed the civic literacy test, based on the INS passing score of 6 out of 10 correct answers. This pass rate is 32% less than the average immigrant passing rate. In and of itself, these numbers don't appear alarming because we have heard them before. However, our persistence in civic unawareness is no comfort simply because it is consistent. There is no honorable connection between civic illiteracy and resistance to and distrust of government authority. Quite the contrary.

If the passing score for native-born Americans was raised to 70% from 60% --- seven correct answers out of ten --- the failure rate would climb to 50% --- one in two.

Understanding the true nature of our national civic literacy requires more than averaging scores alone. For example, if we were trying to gauge the average US household net worth and we asked 1,000 Americans and one of them happened to be Bill Gates, the consequent skew would be grossly misleading. Similarly, in the civic literacy test, college graduates performed best with an 82% average pass rate --- still 15% less than the immigrant pass rate. However, high school grads or less performed poorly with a 44% pass rate --- 53% less than the immigrant pass rate. Less than 1/3rd of Americans graduate from college but their impact on the civic literacy test skews the picture.

However, the central issue at hand is not sensationalizing who passed and who failed, but more a demonstration of what vote-eligible Americans specifically know and do not know in the midst of an important presidential election, after 12-18 years of school and 24/7 exposure to unfiltered multi-media information sources.

Americans do well with elementary school level questions such as: "What is the name of the President of the United States?", "What is the capital of the United States?", "Where is the Statue of Liberty?", “Who was the first President?", "When do we celebrate Independence Day?", and "What are the two major political parties in the United States?". No doubt, these answers might easily be offered by people around the world.

However, of greater material importance are questions about the US Constitution, legal and political structures of the American constitutional republic, and basic facts related to current political life and key political decision-makers. For example:

* 85% did not know the meaning of the "the rule of law."
* 82% could not name "two rights stated in the Declaration of Independence."
* 77% could not identify "one power of the states under the Constitution."
* 75% were not able to correctly answer "What does the judiciary branch do?"
* 71% were unable to identify the Constitution as the "supreme law of the land."
* 63% could not name one of their two US Senators.
* 62% could not identify "What happened at the Constitutional Convention?"
* 62% did not know who the Governor of their state is.
* 62% could not answer "the name of the Speaker of the US House."

The effects of civic illiteracy take their toll over time, and while Americans are almost defiantly indifferent about their lack of civic understanding, the consequences to our basic rights and freedoms and the general health of our republic could be dire. The American Dream, which requires the rule of law and civic understanding to protect the freedoms and opportunities we value, could be deeply damaged.

When Ben Franklin left Independence Hall after the Constitution was finally produced after much deliberation and amidst much contention (in 1787 --- a question answered incorrectly by 91% of native-born Americans), he was asked by a woman waiting outside to learn what the fate of her new country would be.

"What do we have, Mr. Franklin?"

"A Republic, Madam, if we can keep it."

It is tempting to blame the schools for our low civic literacy scores but schools can only lead us to water. They cannot make us drink nor remember where the water is. It is an individual responsibility.

After all, Mr. Franklin did not say: "A Republic Madam, if the school system can keep it."

Five Myths About the American Dream

Few ideas are as central to American self-identity as the “American dream.” Politicians invoke it, immigrants pursue it, and despite unremittingly negative economic news, citizens embrace it. But what is the American dream? We began regular study of how people define and perceive the dream three years ago, and have discovered many misunderstandings worth a second look.

1. The American dream is about getting rich.

In a national survey of more than 1,300 adults that we completed in March, only 6 percent of Americans ranked “wealth” as their first or second definition of the American dream. Forty-five percent named “a good life for my family,” while 34 percent put “financial security” — material comfort that is not necessarily synonymous with Bill Gates-like riches — on top.

While money may certainly be part of a good life, the American dream isn’t just about dollars and cents. Thirty-two percent of our respondents pointed to “freedom” as their dream; 29 percent to “opportunity”; and 21 percent to the “pursuit of happiness.” A fat bank account can be a means to these ends, but only a small minority believe that money is a worthy end in itself.

2. Homeownership is the American dream.

In June, a New York Times-CBS News poll found that almost 90 percent of Americans think that homeownership is an important part of the American dream. But only 7 percent of Americans we surveyed ranked homeownership as their first or second definition of the American dream.Why the discrepancy? Owning real estate is important to some Americans, but not as important — or as financially rewarding — as we’re led to believe.

Federal support of homeownership greatly overvalues its meaning in American life. Through tax breaks and guarantees, the government boosted homeownership to its peak in 2004, when 69 percent of American households owned homes. Subsidies for homeownership, including the mortgage interest deduction, reached $230 billion in 2009, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Meanwhile, only $60 billion in tax breaks and spending programs aided renters.

The result of this real estate spending spree? According to the Federal Reserve, American real estate lost more than $6 trillion in value, or almost 30 percent, between 2006 and 2010. One in five American homeowners is underwater, owing more on a mortgage than what the home is worth.

Those who profit most from homeownership are far and away the largest source of political campaign contributions. Insurance companies, securities and investment firms, real estate interests, and commercial banks gave more than $100 million to federal candidates and parties in 2011, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The National Association of Realtors alone gave more than $950,000 — more than Morgan Stanley, Citigroup or Ernst & Young.
Homeownership is more important to special interests than it is to most Americans, who, according to our research, care more about “a good job,” “the pursuit of happiness” and “freedom.”

3. The American dream is American.

The term “American dream” was coined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams in his history “The Epic of America.” In the midst of the Great Depression, Adams discovered the same counterintuitive optimism that we observe in today’s Great Recession, and he dubbed it “the American dream” — “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.”

However, the American dream pre-dated 1931. Starting in the 16th century, Western European settlers came to this land at great risk to build a better life. Today, this dream is sustained by immigrants from different parts of the world who still come here seeking to do the same thing.

Perceptions of the dream today are often more positive among those who are new to America. When asked to rate the condition of the American dream on a scale of one to 10, where 10 means the best possible condition and one means the worst, 42 percent of immigrants responded between six and 10. Only 31 percent of the general population answered in that range.

4. China threatens the American dream.

Our surveys revealed that 57 percent of Americans believe that “the world now looks to many different countries,” not just ours, to “represent the future.” When we asked participants which region or country is charting that future, more than half chose China. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed mistakenly believe that the Chinese economy is already larger than the U.S. economy — it is actually one-third the size, with a population four times larger. China does own more than $1.1 trillion of U.S. debt, however; it is our largest creditor.

But the problem isn’t just one nation. Japan holds almost $1 trillion of U.S. debt. Britain owns more than $400 billion. In 1970, less than 5 percent of U.S. debt was held by non-citizens. Today, almost half is. Neither China nor these other countries can be blamed for U.S. choices that have placed our financial future increasingly out of our hands.

Still, no matter how much we owe, the United States remains the world’s land of opportunity. In fact, the largest international group coming to America to study is from China — 157,000 students in the 2010-2011 academic year. As recently reported in The Washington Post, the number of Chinese undergraduates at U.S. colleges increased 43 percent over the previous year.

5. Economic decline and political gridlock are killing the American dream.

Our research showed a stunning lack of confidence in U.S. institutions. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed believe that America is in decline; 83 percent said they have less trust in “politics in general” than they did 10 or 15 years ago; 79 percent said they have less trust in big business and major corporations; 78 percent said they have less trust in government; 72 percent reported declining trust in the media. These recent figures are more startling when contrasted against Gallup polling from the 1970s, when as many as 70 percent of Americans had “trust and confidence” that the government could handle domestic problems.

Even so, 63 percent of Americans said they are confident that they will attain their American dream, regardless of what the nation’s institutions do or don’t do. While they may be worried about future generations, their dream today stands defiantly against the odds.