The Declaration of Independence initially only extended the American Dream to white property-owners. However, the idea of inalienable rights was so powerful that laws were added to extend these rights to slaves, women, and non-property owners. In this way, the American Dream changed the course of America itself.
In the 1920s, the American Dream started morphing from the right to create a better life to the desire to acquire material things. This change was described in the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby. In it, the character Daisy Buchanan cries when she sees Jay Gatsby’s shirts, because she’s “never seen such—such beautiful shirts before.”
This greed-driven version of the Dream was never truly attainable. Someone else always had more. The Dream of The Great Gatsby was “an orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter -- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther..." This greed led to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.
The nation's leaders verbalized the evolution of the American Dream. President Lincoln granted the Dream's equal opportunity to slaves. President Wilson supported the voting rights of women. It led to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1918. President Johnson promoted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That ended segregation in the schools. It protects workers from discrimination based on race; color; religion; sex, which includes pregnancy; or national origin. In 1967, he extended those rights to those over 40. President Obama supported the legal benefits of the marriage contract regardless of sexual orientation.
After the 1920s, many presidents supported the Gatsby Dream by guaranteeing material benefits. President Roosevelt extended equal opportunity to homeownership by creating Fannie Mae to insure mortgages. His Economic Bill of Rights advocated, "...the right to decent housing, to a job that was sufficient to support one's family and oneself, to educational opportunities for all and to universal health care."
Roosevelt added, "We have come to a clear realization of the fact...that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. ...People who are hungry, people who are out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." In other words, he strengthened the Dream to protect America from Nazism, socialism or communism. FDR's Unfinished Second Bill of Rights sought to address domestic security toward the end of WWII.
President Truman built upon this idea after World War II. His "post-war social contract" included the GI Bill. It provided government-funded college degrees for returning veterans. Urban policy expert Matt Lassiter summed up Truman’s “contract” this way: "...if you worked hard and played by the rules, you deserved certain things. You deserved security and decent shelter and to not have to worry all the time that you might lose your house to bankruptcy."
U.S. prosperity after World War II allowed people to expect those things in their lifetime. The Bush and Clinton Administrations supported the Dream of home ownership. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton presented the American Dream Plan. This included the opportunity to go to college, save for retirement, own a home, provide health insurance for all children, encourage business growth, and afford prosperity.
President Obama furthered FDR's idea that everyone should have access to affordable health care. He softened the blow of the recession for many by extending unemployment benefits and increasing government assistance for student loans.
There is disagreement over the definition of the American Dream today. Some even think we've seen the End of the American Dream. But this inspiring idea from the Founding Fathers will continue to evolve. Both the right to pursue happiness and the right to disagree about what that means are what makes the American Dream so powerful.
