Data shared on the Brookings Institution’s FixGov blog is a pretty good barometer of the country’s mood over the past two years: Americans everywhere, regardless of age, sex, education, party or ideology, are less likely to say that the American Dream – the notion that if you work hard, you’ll get ahead - still holds true today.
Among all Americans, faith in the American dream dropped by 11 percentage points between 2012 and 2014. As Brookings’ Bill Galston notes, members of Barack Obama’s coalition have become particularly disillusioned: “The decline of belief in the American Dream is concentrated among women (down 14 percentage points since 2012), young adults (down 16 points), Democrats (17 points), and liberals (16 points).”
Republicans and conservatives, on the other hand, experienced smaller drops, and their overall belief in the American dream remains significantly more robust: 55 percent of Republicans believe in the American Dream today, compared to only 33 percent of Democrats.
Galston concludes that the era of hope and change may now be officially over. “The rhetoric of hope that worked so well in 2008 would be ineffective now,” he writes. “In these circumstances, I suspect, citizens will be looking for leaders who offer concrete, credible plans for a better future – and who have what it takes to get the job done.”
