As America hits its 250th birthday, this piece argues that our founding freedoms still matter, that the American Dream remains real for millions, and that the left’s narrative of inevitable failure is dangerous. It highlights immigrant success stories, points to stalled schools and political incentives that hurt poor kids, and insists we must defend a nation of opportunity rather than trade it for a bigger welfare state.
July Fourth is more than fireworks; it marks two and a half centuries of a country built on basic liberties: religion, speech, assembly and those protections in the Bill of Rights. Those rights drew people from every corner of the globe and still do, because they offer a framework where ambition can thrive. That beacon quality is not nostalgia; it is the engine of American progress.
The phrase American Dream has a history and a promise. The term was first coined in 1931 by historian James Truslow Adams, who wrote in his book “The Epic of America” about a society where people, regardless of background, could chase their ambitions. That idea helped Americans rebuild hope during the Great Depression and it still speaks to why millions choose to come here.
I’ve met people who make the argument real: a cab driver from Egypt who arrived with nothing and now watches his son pursue a master’s in engineering, and a building doorman from China whose daughter became a doctor despite language barriers. New arrivals from Cuba, Yemen and other repressive places often tell me they cherish the freedoms many Americans take for granted. Those stories are practical proof that opportunity still works for those willing to work for it.
On the other side, progressive leaders are selling a different story: that the Dream is dead. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has said the Dream has “turned into a nightmare” and accused elites of saying “billionaires have rigged the system to avoid being accountable to us.” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has railed that the “right wing’s entire political agenda …[involves] a politics that involves lying to and screwing over working and middle-class Americans so that they can steal from our healthcare, Social Security and veterans’ benefits to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest and bailouts for their crypto billionaire friends.” Those lines feed anger and erode belief in self-reliance.
That messaging matters. A recent poll showed only 46% of Americans now agree that everyone in this country has a shot at the American Dream, down from 51% the year before. Losing confidence in upward mobility changes behavior and breeds dependence, which is exactly what career politicians want when they promise big government fixes. The real risk is not debate; it is surrendering the notion that effort pays.
Consider the innovators who came here and built vast enterprises. Elon Musk left South Africa to pursue ideas that required American scale and creativity. Sergey Mikhailovich Brin arrived from Russia as a child and grew into a leader in technology after public schooling and college. These are examples of people who used the system’s openness to create enormous value for themselves and the rest of the world.
Everyday Americans also live this promise: parents who scrape together money for tutors, teachers who push kids hard, entrepreneurs who start small and grow. One story from a former foster kid-turned-executive shows that grit matters; Matt Proulx described a childhood in a large adoptive family that took in 250 foster children over the years and said “they’re actually thriving.” He summed up his life bluntly: “I live it every day. I literally had nothing. Came from dirt … but the house was always full of love.”
That does not mean opportunity is perfect. Failing schools block the path for too many children, especially in minority communities where literacy rates are shamefully low. When more than half of Black kids in New York don’t learn how to read, those kids are effectively shut out of the promise of upward mobility. Democrat politicians who prioritize donor relationships over school reform should be called out; Shame on them.
The left’s incentive is clear: erode confidence in the traditional route to prosperity and justify a sprawling state to manage people’s lives. A nation of independent, productive citizens is harder to control than a nation dependent on government checks. As Ronald Reagan warned, government should care for “the truly needy” while preserving the independence of everyone else.
On this anniversary, as towns light fireworks and families gather, remember the values that made America attractive to the world: liberty, individual responsibility and the chance to rise. Defending those principles is the only reliable way to keep the Dream alive for the next generations and to make the next 250 years brighter.
