The American Dream isn’t just the stuff of legends and folklore; it’s a tangible belief system that guides our everyday.
Hard work, risk-taking, and a willingness to persist amidst challenges are distinctly American traits. With effort, anyone can be anything and success can be self-defined.
As the son of two blue-collar immigrants, I’ve lived the American Dream. But frankly, my parents have too. They came to this country with nothing and have lived to see their son announce that he was running for the U.S. Senate. I don’t know any parents that don’t want their kids to have a better life than they’ve had. And while I have had untold opportunities, I wonder if my kids will have similar chances to excel. The American Dream is becoming, it seems, just that, a dream.
I am running to restore the American Dream. This great country of ours has inspired generations of immigrants, like my parents, to seek a better life—one free of restrictions, one full of liberty, and one that doesn’t define you by the color of your skin or your parents’ professions. My dad is an auto-mechanic by training, and my mom is a dietician. They struggled to make ends meet, but they provided my sister and me with opportunities that those around the world can only imagine. I went from pumping gas at my dad’s Mobil station to advising corporate boardrooms about the future of energy markets.
Sadly, the American Dream is slipping away. It’s not a cliche; we see destructive evidence everywhere. The opportunity that inspired generations of immigrants to come to America is drifting towards an equality of outcomes demanded by radical progressives on the Left. We cannot allow this to happen. I’m running for the US Senate to fight against these socialist ideals and to expand opportunities for all. Our kids and grandkids deserve it.
Let’s be honest, today’s politicians are killing the American Dream. They’ve bankrupted the country and now they are bankrupting us. $5/gallon gas with a shaky energy supply, skyrocketing inflation all around, weakness on the world stage dealing with hostile actors…the list of failures goes on and on. And while it’s convenient to dismiss these issues as passing or transient, here’s an inconvenient truth: today’s policies are putting the American Dream out of reach for more and more people.
How does the single waitress putting inflated gas in her car put enough money in her savings account so she can one day buy a home? How does the new college graduate handle an inflated grocery bill when he is still searching for his first job? How is the family with a child on the way able to furnish their home without taking away from their retirement savings? It did not have to be this way.
We are the greatest, most prosperous nation in the world. We should not have to lower our standards because of dumb decisions by our leaders. We should not be dependent upon countries that hate us for energy. America has more than enough natural resources. We should not be dependent upon China for pharmaceutical ingredients or rare earth materials. And we should not be subject to runaway inflation because our leaders fail to stop the Washington spendathon.
Look, I’m a businessman, not a politician. If I ever ran a business the way Washington runs our country, I’d be out of a job quicker than you can say “Mansharamani” (even if it takes you two or three tries!). We need to restore sanity to the situation.
My approach to handling Washington’s toughest challenges is to use a three-step process that serves me well in business. First, insist on transparency in all activities the government touches. Second, ensure accountability and a reconciliation of what was promised with what was delivered. And lastly, use the power of markets and competition to drive costs down and quality up.
Think of how this would apply to education, one of the most concerning issues for many Granite State families. First, parents should have transparency on what is being taught to their kids; we deserve insight into the curriculum. Second, we must demand accountability, comparing what was taught and learned against the objectives. Lastly, we need competition and school choice so we can seek other options if we are unsatisfied with the curriculum or outcomes. That’s how a business approach would improve education, and I’d apply the same approach to healthcare and almost all areas of government spending.
The definition of insanity, it is said, is to do the same thing over and over again and to expect a different outcome. Let’s stop the insanity. The promise of equal opportunity for all must not be an elusive goal – it can and should be a reality. To do that, we need to restore common sense in Washington and adopt a fresh approach to many of our long-standing problems.
We can and must restore the American Dream. Frankly, career politicians are proven failures and they’ve destroyed our economy. It’s time for a businessman to fix it.
