What Is the American Dream?

What is the American dream?
That is not rhetorical — it’s a serious question that I hope you ask yourself.

At a conference recently, I was told that the American dream was dead. That the days where anyone could achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and a fuller life through hard work — some blood, sweat, and tears backed by determination — are gone.

The statement struck me as out of touch, but also shockingly in line with the current mainstream. It’s commonplace to seek victimhood in 2025. And I don’t just mean the average man or woman. Sure, in places like colleges and universities you’ll hear more from purported “victims,” but you also see this coming straight from the most important office in the world — the White House — and not just in the Trump administration.

The Presidency and the Politics of Victimhood

For decades, presidents from both parties have framed America as a nation being wronged, cheated, or taken advantage of.

• Obama said we needed to stop letting American workers get “ripped off.”

• Trump said the country had been “ripped off for decades.”

• Biden talks about middle-class families being “buried.”

• Reagan warned that America’s position had been “undermined.”

• FDR spoke of the nation being “outraged” by foreign aggression.

• Madison accused foreign powers of imposing “wrongs and indignities.”

The victim language isn’t new — it’s older than the country’s first paved road.
What has changed is how often we hear it, how emotionally it’s delivered, and how much our politics now depend on it.

Victimhood as a Product

Today, victimhood isn’t a moment — it’s a brand.
It’s marketing.
It’s identity.
It’s currency.

Both sides use it constantly:

• Campaigns use it to rally their bases.

• Movements use it to justify their agendas.

• Media uses it to trigger clicks and dopamine.

And the more we feed it, the more we forget what the American dream was ever supposed to be.

What the Dream Actually Was

The American dream was never a guarantee.
It wasn’t a birthright or a promise of equal outcomes.
It wasn’t a government program, a subsidy, or a headline.

The American dream was a bet you could take on yourself — and win.

It was an ethos built on three things:

Freedom — the space to try.
Opportunity — the chance to compete.
Responsibility — the obligation to own the result.

That last part is slipping away the fastest.
Because the more we frame ourselves as victims — as a country or as individuals — the less we remember the core truth:

The American dream requires agency.

You don’t achieve the dream by believing everything is rigged.
You achieve it by believing you can still build something anyway.

The Part No One Wants to Say Out Loud

The American dream isn’t dead.
What’s dying is the willingness to pursue it without needing to be rescued along the way.

America has always had challenges.

• Jefferson complained about foreign powers plundering us.

• Madison said our dignity was violated.

• FDR spoke of outrages on the high seas.

• Reagan talked about enemies undermining us.

• Obama and Trump — different eras, same complaint.

Presidents have been telling us we’re victims for 230 years.

Yet people still built railroads, farms, factories, companies, families, fortunes, legacies.

The American dream survives every time someone decides they are not a victim — that they still have a shot.

The Real Question

The question isn’t whether the dream is alive.
The question is whether you still believe it’s worth chasing.

And that part — the belief, the agency, the responsibility — no president can give or take away.
That belongs to you.