Free Republic

If you only read the title of the blog entry, you're wasting your time and missing the important details. I know I just jammed a big huge red button, but this really needs to be written. It's very important for understanding progressive ideology. First, who invented the phrase "American Dream"? It was James Truslow Adams. What, exactly, did he write? See, what the progressives don't want you and I to do is to actually go and pick up some of these books and commit the heinous act of actually reading them. In The Epic of America, Page 404, he writes:...

The American dream is given its name in 1931 James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream in his book, The Epic of America. He wrote, “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”

The American dream is given its name in 1931 James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream in his book, The Epic of America. He wrote, “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”

Now here's news you’re not likely to get from many commencement speeches, especially if they are given by Obama Administration officials, including the chief executive himself. Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, believes that U.S. income mobility, or the rags-to-riches story of the American Dream, is at a standstill. At a presentation and panel discussion at the Hoover Institution, Petrilli pointed out the problems that American families are facing in today's economy. He said that other countries, not the U.S., "tend to do better than we have" in income mobility. Petrilli said that the U.S. and the...

>Are you living “the American Dream”? If so, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate, because most Americans are not. In fact, as you will see below, a new survey has found that there is nowhere on the entire planet where the average wage earner is making enough money to live “the American Dream”. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now the middle class makes up a minority of the population, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year,...

This past week, I was honored to be asked to speak at Heritage Action's Conservative Policy Summit in Washington, DC. As the only House Member besides Speaker Paul Ryan, I was humbled to help cast a vision for decision-makers and thought-leaders on finding solutions for some of our nation's greatest social problems. The evidence over the past 50 years makes it indisputable: the federal government hijacked the American Dream and the family has been decimated. We see this plainly in our everyday lives. The American Dream is social at its very nature. It begins with life. Common sense tells us...

Americans say the American Dream is suffering - and that our laziness and low morals may be partially to blame. Searches for "American Dream" have fallen 24% since Google began tracking this data in 2004 -- and when you type "American Dream" into Google, three of the four top autofills are "dead," "a lie" and "leaving America," according to an analysis of Google Trends data released Friday in a report by brokerage firm Convergex.

Belief in the American Dream among millennials is dimming as the nation's largest generation continues to face steep socioeconomic barriers despite overall economic recovery, according to a new report. Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit organization advocating limited government to spur opportunity for young Americans, reported Tuesday that for the first time in U.S. history, a younger generation may be left worse off than the one preceding it.

As the holiday gathering got underway Wednesday morning, Syed Rizwan Farook joined dozens of his colleagues from San Bernardino County's public health department. Farook, an inspector, seemed quiet during the early hours of the event, then vanished just as a group photo was about to be taken.Shortly afterward, gunfire erupted at the Inland Regional Center where the employees filled a conference room. By the end of the day, police had identified Farook, 28, as a suspect in the massacre and said he was one of two people shot to death in a gun battle with officers. The other was 27-year-old...

OWNING your own house is as much the Australian dream as the American dream, and it's one that feels increasingly out of reach for many. But when one user on Quora pondered whether it was ultimately better to rent or own your own home, blogger and investor James Altucher penned this highly controversial response: I am sick of me writing about this. Do you ever get sick of yourself? I am sick of me. But every day I see more propaganda about the American Dream of owning the home. I see codewords a $15 trillion dollar industry uses to hypnotise...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Right here in the New York Times, even today. Paul Krugman -- who hates everything conservative, hates everything Republican, and despises personally Ronald Reagan -- has a piece called, "Despair, American Style." "A couple of weeks ago President Obama mocked Republicans who are 'down on America,' and reinforced his message by doing a pretty good Grumpy Cat impression. He had a point: With job growth at rates not seen since the 1990s, with the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance hitting record highs, the doom-and-gloom predictions of his political enemies look ever more at odds with...

"All men are created equal." But after that, reality takes over. People are different, and almost nothing is evenly distributed. Some are born in a culture of tyranny while Americans are blessed with a culture of freedom and opportunity. Some are athletically gifted; others are better at watching and cheering those who are. Even those who have exceptional skills are often mediocre in other areas. Some have families that encourage education and entrepreneurial achievement; others convey that opportunity is beyond their family’s grasp. We are all dealt different hands in the game of life. Some play those hands well; still...

People are constantly talking about the American dream, but I want to talk a bit about the New York City dream. As a first-generation New Yorker, I was struggling to support a family in this expensive city until I started partnering with Uber. Now, I’m supporting three sons and a wife and am able to pursue my real passion on the side — music. I was born in the Dominican Republic, and moved to New York City when I was 9 years old. I’m proud to have called The Bronx my home for 25 years. New York is the greatest...

On September 14, Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley indicated that gun control is part of his plan for restoring the “American dream.” O’Malley pledged that his gun control policies are designed to “[cut] all deaths from gun violence in half—homicides, suicides, and accidents—within 10 years.”

In the coming days, a million or more teenage boys will eagerly show up at their high school campuses weeks before regular classes start. They will plan to spend their whole day at school, pay close attention to their instructors, and work as hard as they can. They will spend time in the classroom and time in the field, and they will all be focused on a single, venerable all-American goal: becoming part of a winning football team. Football is America's greatest game for boys, not only because of the lessons it teaches but also because of the broad range...

The heavy federal hand in the housing market has been a disaster. Despite spending more than $13,000 for every household, Washington has record low homeownership to show for it, even among the middle class. In fact, a just-released report by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies not only finds more middle-class families renting but many also struggling to make rent, as homeownership rates plunge lower than ever. This is as shocking as it is depressing. It used to be that the middle class owned homes. Now it's increasingly feeling "the strain of rising rents," the reports says, as foreclosures and...

Donald Trump is running for president. The multi-billionaire announced his presidential plans today from his namesake tower in New York City. Trump, 69, was introduced by his daughter Ivanka as he formally declared his 2016 intentions, descending down an escalator with wife Melania to speak to the gathered crowd. In his remarks he attacked the Obama administration on everything from immigration and terrorism to Obamacare and the job market as he promised to bring back the American dream. He also released his financial information, revealing a net worth of $8.7billion. 'We need somebody that literally will take this country and...

n our home, we try to instill a life lesson for our kids best summed up in Latin: Nihil boni sine labore. It means, "Nothing good achieved without hard work." Few people I've met in my lifetime embody this motto better and more brilliantly than Tony Maglica, inventor of the iconic Maglite flashlight. The spry 84-year-old founder and CEO of Mag Instrument still traverses his 450,000-square-foot factory floor dozens of times over the course of his 12-hour workday, six days a week, beginning at the crack of dawn and ending after most of his 800 employees have clocked out. I...

With the announcement of Ted Cruz's candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination and his speech at the convocation of the ultra-conservative Liberty University, the country finds itself jilted to the right on the ideological spectrum. Ted Cruz is quite the curious ideological torchbearer precisely because he is Latino. The general assumption in politics is that growing Hispanic Latino participation in politics will only mean an ideological shift to the left. This makes Ted Cruz' candidacy a welcome reminder that Latino candidates won't, for good or bad, necessarily stray from traditional American politics any time soon. The son of Cuban immigrants...

The American Dream is still alive and well, a beacon of freedom, and will always attract new immigrants to be future productive citizens. I am proud to be an American, and proud of this nation’s history, culture, and accomplishments! America is a melting pot of immigrants who brought rich heritages to our shores, became immersed in American culture, and worked hard to achieve the American Dream. My first ancestor came to this continent ten generations ago, and the arrival of my most recent ancestor was four generations ago, so I consider myself an American-American! As far as I am concerned,...