From my chapter I learned that the American Dream is primarly influenced by the President. The way the President defines it. In the chapter, White is speaking about influence the United States President has over the American Dream. The President is the leader and well known nationwide, additionally he is also the most admired single human being. One strategy that President cadidates appeal to , is the representation of the American Dream. That is elected is because he/she represents the American Dream that the Country aspire. He gives several example in different time periods and how each president and even candidaate represented the dream, spoke about the dream and even gave hope and optimism to foreign immigrants
I learned alot of knowledge from this text. So, I already had the main concept that the President was a huge influence to the American Dream however I was never able to think of solid examples of that. This chapter allowed me to understand the effectivneess of the Presidents role over the American Dream through the extensive veriaty of examples , which btw I had no idea how effective some of these presidents were. Anyway, It also helped me understand the importance of Obamas election. Now that I am older and politically aware, I wish I was able to experience the day he won the election. However at that time I was about 9 years old and didn't know better than " oh cool our first brown president, about time the white house adds some color." In chapter 3 white said that " Obama embodied the American Dream."Through this quote he explains that Obamas election was so much more than just the Presdiency.He also explains how the optimism for the American Dream drastically increased for African Americans. The crazy thing is that Obama was nearly just elected and the perception of the American Dream had already increased. Obama has not done anything!! nO POLICY! NO ACTION!He simply won the election and was already changing the Americna Dream.
I can only come to the conclusion that the President has tremendous amount of power. He has complete control over guiding the United States. He can revive the American Dream, or kill it. He can give it a moral purpose or set an American Dream full of racism and discrimination. The American Dream is the Identity of the nation and the President holds it in his hands.( that is why it is important to choose a good president # not trump) I think partially, that is why the United States is increasing in inequality, Simply because the most powerful man in the United States is racist, therefore many believe it is acceptable and encouraged to be racist aswell. Anyway, going back ti the identity. The American Dream is the idea that you can achieve anything you want, and that is exactly why our soldiers fight, why immigrants come here and why our nation is among the greatest in the world.
I am also doing the president's effect on the American Dream, but took a little bit of a different spin on it. I'm focusing on how American's look to the president to embody the American Dream, pay homage to the American Dream, and pursue policy which expands the scope of the American Dream. I think Obama is an excellent example of this. He certainly embodies the dream. He certainly pays homage to the American Dream in his speeches. He also attempted to pass legislation which expanded the scope of the American Dream (though most of his actions were via executive order) such as with ObamaCare/affordable health care act.
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