American Dream or Gypsy Curse

Any child in the United States can grow up to be president of the nation.

Chances are, lots of children still hear that in the nation’s schools. It speaks to the opportunity, the equality, and the hope of American social ideals.

But close to half of Americans today wish that childhood nostrum were not true. Donald Trump proves that anyone can grow up to be president. He is not a career politician. He didn’t spend lots of his own money (so we heard during the campaign) to buy the election. He was part of a campaign that didn’t seem to be well organized. He didn’t play by the rules.

So why aren’t more Americans who believe in the nation’s Horatio Alger qualities not more encouraged by yesterday’s election results? The obvious answer is that we don’t want any child to grow up to be president. We only want the right kind of children to grow up to be president.

So shouldn’t we be telling children what are the right kinds of people to be president? And shouldn’t we figure out what “right kind” means? What if that involved telling children we don’t want them to grow up to be like Lena Dunham or Donald Trump?

Our problem is that the right kind of people don’t say things like don’t grow up to be Lena Dunham or Donald Trump. And that’s why we have Lena Dunham and Donald Trump.

You gotta love ‘Merica.

Image