Freedom. The most famous line ever penned in America says it best: “…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

The American Dream is NOT billions of dollars, mansions and penthouses, sports cars and limousines, first class vacations, and all the other trappings of wealth – although these things are encompassed by the American Dream. These are the result of the American Dream.

The American Dream is NOT licentiousness, hedonism or greed. For the vision to survive, Americans need to have a sense of responsibility – not for the world, or the poor, or the environment – but for themselves.

In the 236 years since America was born the meaning seems to have become twisted. In his essay, “The American Dream”, (October 1973 issue of The Freeman), John Nestler said, "Whereas the American Dream was once equated with certain principles of freedom, it is now equated with things. The American Dream has undergone a metamorphosis from principles to materialism... When people are concerned more with the attainment of things than with the maintenance of principles, it is a sign of moral decay. And it is through such decay that loss of freedom occurs." Unrestrained by education, morals and ethics, freedom dissolves into licentiousness, greed and the glorification of the self.

The American Dream is NOT equality of outcome. Aaron Copeland and John Deere had different talents. Both were beneficial to the world, but in different spheres. As has been demonstrated over and over again across the world, when the government tries to make everyone equal there is little music and less food. The American dream allows visionaries and doers to bring their ideas into being, benefiting not just themselves but millions of others in the process. Sometimes these inventors and money men fail as spectacularly as they succeed; sometimes they fail and succeed over and over.

For George Washington, the dream was very simple. He wished to be, “…on the banks of the Potomac…under the shadow of my own Vine and my own Fig-tree.” (A reference to Micah 4:4.) A study I read once found that most Americans don’t want much more: a home (owned or rented), a car, the ability to go out once or twice a week to a restaurant or other entertainment and two or three weeks of vacation a year – and the freedom to achieve that in whatever way they choose. Plus, Americans are the most charitable people in the world. Those who have a little will help those who have fallen get back on their feet. We have historically poured oceans of money into helping people in need all over the world. We aren’t giving back – we didn’t steal the money we are giving, we earned it. It is not the responsibility government to steal peoples’ money to redistribute it to others to try to ensure the outcomes they espouse (which may be totally the opposite of the people they have taxed), nor for their re-election.

Our Founding Fathers had a vision, not a dream. They put their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the line to bring their vision into being. That vision is the opportunity for every man and woman to make what they desire from their lives without the interference of government bureaucrats or busy bodies from non-governmental organizations who think they know what is best for everyone. The American Dream is the opportunity to succeed or fail at whatever they choose to do themselves.

Today, there are those who want to protect their stuff at any cost; they will give up their freedom to be allowed to keep what the nannie staters say is acceptable so that everyone is equal. Not free. Equal. Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” (Emphasis mine.)

Alexis de Tocqueville, great historian and lover of America, said, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Some people are working very hard to make sure we cease to be good – at the same time we will cease to be free. George Washington said, “Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.”

To preserve the American Dream of freedom, we may have to give up some stuff. We may have to let huge banks and car companies fail so that someone else can pick up the pieces and start again. That is also the American Dream – creative destruction. It is equal opportunity – not protection.

The American Dream is alive here in fly-over country. We just need to get the nannies and the gi’me pigs out of the way.