How localism ignites the American dream
As the United States waged an ideological war against the Soviet Union in the latter half of the 20th century, the American dream became a symbol of prosperity, one which captured the imagination of millions around the world who sought a better life. My father, who grew up in a family of modest means in India, would tell my brother and I stories of how his parents struggled financially and regularly encouraged me to seek a life in America, even though I had enjoyed a comfortable upbringing in Singapore.
I moved to America for the first time in 2021, confident that I could live the American dream as many had done before me. The journey hasn’t been without its struggles, but in the past three years, I have met lawmakers, judges, scholars, and experts all across the country who have provided me with opportunities I never would have thought possible, opportunities available only in a country which sees its people as active participants in government and public policy rather than obedient subjects.
In college, my optimism stood in stark contrast to the pessimism of my classmates, many of whom believed that we lived in a systemically racist, sexist, and oppressive society, one which would leave us worse-off than our parents. Their gloomy outlook is reflective of a broader and more concerning national trend. While young Americans believe that ‘feeling happy and fulfilled’ is the most essential element of the American Dream, much of Generation Z is currently caught in the throes of a mental health crisis that has led to higher rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, and substance abuse than in previous generations. Among the many factors contributing to this crisis is a feeling of despair over social and political issues, including climate change, racial violence, and gun violence. How did we get here and what can be done to reverse course?
In “Democracy in America,” French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville highlighted democratic societies’ deep-rooted and insatiable desire for equality, even at the expense of freedom. He argued that in such societies, each individual becomes undifferentiated from the next, and any disparities which emerge engender intense feelings of rage and jealousy.
Rights, which guarantee individuals the freedom to forge their own path, must be subordinated to an omnipotent central government that uniformly rules over us all. The transformation of a government initially designed to protect individual liberty to one which saw its job as guaranteeing equality was according to Tocqueville, a ‘more secret, but surer path toward servitude.’ Tocqueville’s writings were prescient. Over the past 150 years, the federal government has gained significant power over American life, leveraging the power of the administrative state to cram down on the American people ‘equitable’ policies that would unconstitutionally guarantee equal outcomes across different racial and socioeconomic groups.
Tocqueville correctly predicted that as citizens became increasingly equal, so too did they become increasingly isolated from another. Today, a worrying number of Americans suffer from a growing loneliness epidemic, and the Third Places which provided people with a sense of community have become obsolete in an increasingly digital world, one in which almost every element of our lives has become politicized, shared cultural spaces have been turned into fierce political arenas, and the social fabric which held competing factions together has been torn to pieces. In the absence of genuine interpersonal connection, we turn to larger-than-life politicians, musicians, athletes, and celebrities whose images and posts fill our phones, computers, and T.V. screens from the moment we wake up, to the moment we go to sleep. But when those figures routinely decry the state of America’s national institutions, leadership, and culture, and lament America’s inability to combat the countless existential threats they claim we face, it is unsurprising that political engagement negatively impacts mental health so significantly.
Trust in the federal government has declined significantly over the past 60 years, and the re-election of President Donald Trump to the White House, a candidate who ran on a platform of large-scale deregulation suggests that Americans have had enough. Young people in particular, who voted in larger numbers for Trump than they did in 2020 would benefit significantly from a return to the republican ideology that held sway during the Revolutionary period.
Tocqueville, commenting on New England townships, described how local governance produces healthy civic engagement, and helps individuals find the fulfillment they currently crave. According to Tocqueville, a citizen is invested in his township ‘because it is strong and independent…because he cooperates in directing it,’ and ‘because he places his ambition and his future in it.’ When individuals are capable of addressing the multitude of concerns in their local communities, they are empowered to take their lives into their own hands, rather than passively devolve that responsibility to their government. Seeing their efforts rewarded with tangible change creates a positive feedback loop which encourages further participation in the political process. Unmoored from the toxicity and partisanship of national politics, local governance encourages face-to-face interaction with like-minded members of one’s own community who share their interests. Tocqueville understood that local governance ‘constantly bring[s] men closer to one another, despite the instincts that separate them, and force[s] them to aid each other.’ How welcome would that be in this era of intense political polarization?
Many areas of American political life are ripe for local control. The education system, which for too long has failed to provide young people with the civic education they deserve, is perhaps the most important. My colleague at the Pacific Research Institute Lance Izumi has written extensively about the shortcomings of our education system, pointing out how teaching methodologies promulgated at the state and national levels have failed children in reading and math. Students graduate high school not knowing how many branches of government there are, or how long congressional members serve for. Is it any wonder, then, that they stress excessively about the state of politics, when they don’t understand the most basic features of their own government? The failures of the public school system have led to a rise in demand for classical academies and charter schools which provide a traditional liberal-arts education centered around the Great Books of Western Civilization. These schools take seriously the philosophers whose shoulders we stand on and instill within young people a respect for the federalist, community-oriented tradition of America. Giving local school boards the freedom to reshape school curricula and investing in school choice policies such as education savings accounts (ESA’s), which allow families to send their children to such schools, would go a long way in correcting the failures of centralized public education, and would create a new generation of civic-minded Americans eager to get involved with politics at the local level.
Despite living through a period of 40-year high levels of inflation, and a sluggish housing market that has made homeownership increasingly unattainable, the spirit of self-government which has defined America since 1776 remains alive and well within young people who still believe that their hard work, effort, and character will help them realize their American dream. Their optimism, however, will slowly erode if we fall short of this country’s federalist ideals and fail to strike a healthier balance between national and local governance.
Nikhil Agarwal is a research associate at the Pacific Research Institute.
