Dream big, work hard, and rise

The United States Declaration of Independence replica from the 1823 William Stone facsimile. (Second Continental Congress)

At first the assignment – writing a short essay on what America means to me – seemed like an easy one. But the longer I thought about it, the more difficult it became. How does one explain the love of country – especially this country – succinctly, completely, and appropriately? Here’s what I think. 

America is freedom. Here, the people rule. Our Declaration of Independence proclaims that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” That was revolutionary 250 years ago. Before 1776, kings, aristocrats, despots, and other potentates ruled virtually all the world. Now they don’t, and America is a large part of the reason why. 

Guided by the principles established in the Declaration, which were codified by the Constitution and put into law by the people’s chosen representatives in Congress and in what became 50 states, America grew into the world’s first continental democracy. And we’ve remained one ever since. For all our blemishes, we are still a model for the world, the shining city on the hill looked to by all who desire freedom. 

America stands for many things, but the most important is equality under the law. The Declaration’s most powerful words are that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 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.” Throughout its long history, America has hardly been perfect. Slavery was its original sin. But this promise is the lodestar of our nation’s existence and the yardstick by which we’re measured. 

America is opportunity. Our democracy – characterized by a government limited in power, a market economy, and the participation of the people themselves – has produced a country where individuals have the opportunity to achieve the lives they want. This freedom has made our economy the world’s most innovative, productive, and powerful. Today we represent just 4% of the world’s population yet produce 26% of its GDP. 

America is a nation of compassionate people who show their belief in the greatest commandment – to love thy neighbor – through their actions. No country does this perfectly, but America does it exceptionally well. Americans are widely known as willing to give of themselves and their treasure to make their nation, and the world, better, safer and more prosperous.

President and Mrs. Bush with Karl Rove on Aug. 13, 2007. (White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

Throughout most of its history, America has been a welcoming place. Over the centuries, the United States has taken in the losers, the discards, the dissidents, and the dispossessed. I’m the great-grandson of a Norwegian peasant who came to this country with nothing but the clothes on his back and dreams of a better life. He was the second son of a poor farmer who’d died. His older brother had inherited the family farm (it was the size of a soccer field). Olaf Rove would have faced a life of servitude had he stayed in Norway, but he managed to build a prosperous life here, learning English and working his way through college. He gave his progeny an unequaled gift: the chance to grow up in America. Always aware of his good fortune, he worked hard to help other immigrants and improve his community.  

One of the best descriptions I’ve ever heard of the meaning America came from a cab driver I met in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2009. I was visiting the city for a conference. My driver to the airport asked where I was from. When I said “Texas,” he answered in a wistful voice, “Ah, America. I want the American dream.” Intrigued, I asked what that meant. He answered, “dream big, work hard, and rise.” My Nigerian cabbie may not have known it, but his language echoed that of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, who also believed in “the right to rise” – the ability of every person in America to better their situation through hard work and self-improvement. 

More and more these days, Americans seem split between those who think the country should be animated by our foundational ideas and those who downplay the importance of its values. Prominent politicians attack the notion of “identifying America just with agreeing with the principles, let’s say, of the Declaration of Independence.”  To believe America is “a purely creedal nation,” we’re told, means we must open our borders to the “hundreds of millions, maybe billions of foreign citizens who agree” with that creed. 

This argument is absurd. As we’ve shown time and again, Americans can believe in our universal promises without admitting everyone in the world who happens to embrace them. America is an idea and a big, beautiful country. Immigrants are an essential part of both. If admitted in an orderly fashion, they strengthen rather than weaken the United States. And if more nations shared our creedal values, fewer people would try to steal across our borders. 

America’s first national document was the Declaration of Independence. On its 250th anniversary, we should all use its birthday to recommit ourselves to the hard work of measuring up to its promises. Only by doing so will the greatest country in mankind’s long history remain what Lincoln called it: “the last best hope of earth.”