Reviving the American Dream: The Trump Era

“Sadly, the American dream is dead.
But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again” (Here’s Donald…).

The crowd burst into applause at Trump Tower that day, warmly welcoming Donald Trump into the presidential primary race in June of 2015. We know what came next—surging poll numbers, controversial rallies, the Republican nomination and a viable shot at becoming the next president of the United States. People latched onto the pervasive message of elevating America’s status in the world once again. Many, including Trump himself, believe that his phrase is revolutionary, and that it finally gives Americans what they want to hear. However, looking only at

No politician can objectively point to a time when America was ‘great,’ or when the decline started. Because of the impossibility of clarifying these two times, the media and politicians can bend the idea of greatness around in many ways, and often, the groups suggest that the decline is a first-time occurrence. In the contrary, fears of American decline have existed since America’s foundation. For example, while the Americans were resoundingly successful in the revolutionary war, the British impressed US soldiers, burned the White House and blockaded US ports during the War of 1812. General Sherman and other officers felt the Union’s inability to quickly defeat the Confederate Army proved American decline, and Lincoln’s assassination was seen as an event that would be impossible to recover from. The Great Depression was another period of assumed national decline, and Adolf Hitler believed that America could not enter World War 2 because America had become too weak of a nation (Dowd). Between every period of assumed decline, America advanced greatly, from spreading across the American continent after the War of 1812, to imperializing and creating the world’s most powerful navy after the Civil War, and finally to leaving the Great Depression and World War 2 as the world’s dominant economic, political and social power. Although the continued trend of decline and amazing recovery is not certain, it is important for Americans to understand that the current fear of decline is not new. The American people would benefit greatly if American greatness could be put on a timescale, because the people and historians would be able to more easily determine if the trends and claims are