Is our dysfunctional political class helping to kill the American Dream?

A new survey by the Wall Street Journal and University of Chicago-based NORC showed just 36% of Americans think the American Dream is within reach, a number down sharply from 53% a decade ago. The poll, completed in late October, defined the American Dream as “the idea that anyone who works hard can get ahead regardless of their background.” 

Only one-third of the country thinks America still offers the tool for men and women to flourish, to pursue life with purpose and earn success. 

Instead, many think they are stuck trying to climb a ladder with broken, rickety rungs. And far from helping Americans rise, too many of the policies and priorities of the governing class tie a barbell to Americans’ ankles.   

The disconnect is discouraging.

If you’re worried about rising cost of living, the educational quality of your local schools, the rise of crime and the coddling of criminals and see cities that increasingly look more like downtown Mogadishu than middle-America, you expect government to take these problems seriously.

Stay up to speed: Sign-up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

Instead, we have the spectacle of elected leaders, here and across the country, who jabber on with empty slogans, enacting the progressive checklist on the environment, education, and the economy – all of which provide no real help for the real-world challenges citizens face. In fact, they make problems worse. 

They fist-bump each other over a gluten-free tofu salad, virtue-signaling COVID masks and Palestinian flags at the ready, divorced from reality and ducking the hard, difficult work of addressing their constituents’ daily, practical struggles.   

Exhibit A: Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. 

News arrived this week that the Colorado car theft wave arrived for the mayor’s car, at least the second time he’s been subjected to grand theft auto. This sends a signal things are so broken in Denver if the mayor’s property can’t be safeguarded, good luck to you. 

Johnston is a very nice man who seems to believe that earnestly and engagingly repeating campaign slogans will somehow revive a city in decay. It’s so bad he had to use LinkedIn job listings to find a cabinet. He’s not going to reach his self-set goal for housing the homeless this year. 

The tent cities are bustling.

The actual city isn’t. 

And then President Joe Biden rolled through the state this week with his “believe me, not your lying eyes” economic tour, letting us know if we’d just wake up we’d see life is a bowl of taxpayer-subsidized cherries.

In a word Biden would understand, most Americans – across the political spectrum – think what he is selling is malarkey. But at least he has helpfully branded this malaise-stew Bidenomics so voters will know who to blame in 11 months. 

We are being governed by walking Twitter pages. People who are immune to the difficult reality of the day-to-day grind of jobs they have sought – and the real world challenges of the people they represent.  

Politicians who dislike being called to account often cite Theodore Roosevelt’s essay “The Man in the Arena.” They cling to the opening line: “It’s not the critic who counts…” to dismiss the likes of people who, for example, write weekly columns loaded with complaints. 

But wait, there’s more. 

Roosevelt would be appalled at the crowd today who lays claim to the political arena. TR defines a leader as someone who “does actually strive to do the deeds.” 

That means a leader who is willing to do the hard work, and as a result, whose “face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly.”

Blood? These folks don’t want to break a fingernail.   

Truly being “in the arena” doesn’t mean standing in the center, asking people to look at you while you describe the fight, but never really get to the practical reality of the rough and tumble. Shadow boxing the air, fearing the engagement of an energetic opponent. 

Slogans are easy. Substance is hard. And to help Americans believe in the American Dream again, politicians need to reconnect with the real world, grab some common sense by the handful, and do the work to help, not hinder, the climb up the ladder of opportunity.

Sean Duffy, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.