During a recent conversation I was asked if I was a patriot, my response was that it depended on how the person asking the question defined the word. To me an American patriot is one who believes in, supports, and defends the American Dream as defined in 1776 and the path forward given to us by the compromise of 1787, the American Constitution.
The only real American Dream was defined and written down by our forefathers in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence in 1776: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …
They had the courage to dream of a world and define a government that did not exist in 1776. A world in which all people were equal under the rule of law and all people had an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The government they defined to rule over that world was a government which derived its just powers from the consent of the governed, a Constitutional Democracy. It was the dream which many fought and died for, but in the end, it was not a dream which they were able to fulfill in their lifetime.
They lived in a world that was and had been ruled by monarchies and dictatorships in which human bondage was commonplace. Class distinction, inequality and bondage were a part of their lives and many within their ranks wanted to preserve the systems they knew and understood, radical change was not possible. They faced a choice of unity and strength through compromise or total failure. In the end, they chose compromise and in 1787 they gave us a Constitutional Republic and a path forward toward democracy, equality, and justice for all. A republic is a government which is ruled by those who have and control the right to vote. We began our journey as a dictatorship of the few in which only tax paying white male landowners ( approximately 6% of our population) had the right to vote. Every generation of Americans has had people who have shared in and fought for that original American dream and helped to push that dream forward.
The original dream as defined in 1776 has drawn people from all over the world and turned the United States into the melting pot of humanity. They were people who fought to be a part of the American Dream and push the dream forward step by step, state by state, amendment by amendment. From the birth of our nation until 1856 the battle was for white male suffrage. It was a battle that had to be fought state by state because state’s rights took precedence over the rights of the national federation (a part of the compromise of 1787). With the fall of property owner requirements in North Carolina in 1856 the battle shifted from voting rights to state sovereignty vs. national sovereignty. While the moral issues surrounding slavery were used for justification at the time, Lincoln made it clear in his letters to the press, the battle was over state rights vs national rights and the preservation of the nation.
After the Civil War, the battled turned to voting rights once again, but this time at the national level. In 1868 the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteed citizenship (thereby opening the door to voting rights) to all male persons born or naturalized in the United States. In 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prevented states from denying the right to vote on grounds of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. In 1887 the Dawes Act granted Citizenship (opening the door to voting rights) to Native Americans who are willing to disassociate themselves from their tribe. In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, gave voters rather than state legislatures the right to elect senators. In 1920, women were guaranteed the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In 1924, all Native Americans were granted citizenship and the right to vote through the Indian Citizenship Act. In 1943, Chinese immigrants were given the right to citizenship and the right to vote by the Magnuson Act.
In 1961 the residents of Washington, D.C. were granted the right to vote in U.S. Presidential Elections by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution. The quest for the American Dream has been a long slow painful process.
Our forefathers knew that the journey from a republic to a dictatorship is a very small step so they gave us a government with a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances to protect us from the corrupting influence of excess power. They gave us the best compromise they could at the time and a way to amend our constitution, change our government and move forward toward a world they could only dream of.
Unfortunately the ratification of the U.S Constitution in 1791 gave rise to an alternate American Dream which was a dream of shortcuts to wealth and power under the protection of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. While the Bill of Rights gives us protection from the excesses of power, it also provides a perfect hiding place for evil. Every generation has had American citizens and migrants from abroad who have been willing to break the law for personal gain. People who have used the protections of the Bill of Rights hide their misdeeds. Greed for wealth and power are endless and enough is never enough. Resent history should have taught us that corporations to big to fail are to big to exist in a Democracy. Individuals and corporations to wealthy to prosecute are to wealthy to exist in a Democracy. They simply lead to illusions of grandeur, entitlement, and empowerment which in turn leads to human suffering and misery. Unlimited wealth and power is not the American Dream, that is the American Nightmare which leads to abject poverty for millions, inequality and injustice for all.
It is time for all of us to stop and think about which dream we want to follow as a nation and where our priorities lie. With reasonable limits on wealth and power both dreams can coexist. Without those limits, the original American Dream will end and tyranny will reign.
I believe in, have supported, and have fought for the American Dream as defined and written down in 1776 and the process they gave us to amend our constitution to secure the progress we have made. It is time for all of us to take a step back from the gridlock of stereotypes and labels and think about what type of country and what kind of world we want to live in. What kind of world do you want for your children, grandchildren, and generations yet to come?