The Politics of the American Dream This page intentionally left blank The Politics of the American Dream Democratic Inclusion in Contemporary American Political Culture Cyril Ghosh THEPOLITICSOFTHEAMERICANDREAM Copyright©2013CyrilGhosh Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-28904-9 Allrightsreserved. Firstpublishedin2013by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN® intheUnitedStates—adivisionofSt.Martin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. WherethisbookisdistributedintheUK,EuropeandtherestoftheWorld, thisisbyPalgraveMacmillan,adivisionofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabove companiesandhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnited States,theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-45005-3 ISBN 978-1-137-28905-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137289056 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Ghosh,Cyril. ThepoliticsoftheAmericandream:democraticinclusionin contemporaryAmericanpoliticalculture/CyrilGhosh. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1. Politicalparticipation—UnitedStates. 2. AmericanDream. I. Title. JK1764.G462013 323(cid:2).0420973—dc23 2012028020 AcataloguerecordofthebookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. DesignbyIntegraSoftwareServices Firstedition:January2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Forthosewhohelpothersanonymously... ButI,beingpoor,haveonlymydreams; Ihavespreadmydreamsunderyourfeet; Treadsoftlybecauseyoutreadonmydreams. —“AedhWishesfortheClothsofHeaven,”W.B.Yeats(1899) Contents ListofFigures ix Preface xi 1 Introduction 1 Part I 2 WhatIstheAmericanDream? 25 Part II 3 RhetoricandDemocraticInclusion 55 Part III 4 TheAmericanDreamas“LockeanSympathy” 85 Part IV 5 ConstitutiveElements 109 6 ThePoliticsofMultipleMeanings 131 7 TheAmericanDreamintheTwenty-FirstCentury 157 Notes 173 Bibliography 209 Index 229 This page intentionally left blank Figures 2.1 “Dream”(including“AmericanDream”)Utterancesin AmericanPoliticalTalk,1900–2010 40