USA 250: How the American Dream has survived – but only just

One nugget that stood out to me as I dug through all the various polls of the last several months was a survey conducted by The Times that suggested, despite the overall pessimism about the Dream in this moment, “61% of poll respondents said they believed in the concept”.

Brandon Patty, a 44-year-old clerk and comptroller in St John’s County, Florida and a Navy Reserve commander, is one such American who believes passionately that the Dream is alive and working. “I’m just honoured to kind of be a part of it,” he told me. “Even just by God’s grace, being born here, and being a part of American experiment”.

“When I hear the phrase ‘American Dream’, it means to me that the opportunities are limitless – that in America, you can go from nothing and find your way… it’s something that is intrinsic as an American in many ways.”

Brandon was the first in his family to graduate from college, the first in his generation to graduate from high school.

“I’m 44 now, and, candidly, I’m living it,” he said, he said of the Dream.

Gonzalo Schwarz, president and CEO of The Archbridge Institute, a public policy think tank, agrees that it’s important to focus on the positives of living in America.

The Archbridge Institute’s own polling found that majorities across various demographic groups agree that the American Dream is alive and well. The organisation says this is because it has a different methodology and asks more direct questions than most other polls, which it says are more conceptual in nature.

“If we focus only on the negative aspects and on the share of people who believe the Dream is out of reach, we risk making the demise of the American Dream a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Schwarz says. “We should step back, take a longer-term view, and be inspired to rekindle the American Dream as a beacon of hope for America’s next 250 years.”