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University Affiliation

Traditional written response: American history

Student’s Name

Course Number: Course name

Professor’s Name

Paper Due Date

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America comprises of all the lands in the Western hemisphere that include the North American

continent, and the South American continent. It is best known for its famous attraction sites like

the Grand Canyon, sports, and technological innovations. America has a huge imprint on global

culture because of its famous television shows, movies, and music. Moreover, America is unique

because of its social, and political systems. The systems ensure the citizens of America have a

wide range of rights and freedoms. Also, in America it is easier to move from one social class to

another than anywhere else in the world because America is known for its fluid class system.

America has ideas, ideals and visions that well define it as a continent. Throughout the American

history, America has always had a passion for freedom. The freedom has taken many forms over

the years. They include economic, religious, and political freedoms. Most Americans are in

search of the freedom to apply a new sense of order on the world that they find too disorganized,

and chaotic. They also pursue education relentlessly which links to the pursuit of freedom. It is

because education is the form of the opportunity to make a person into whatever they wish to be.

America also has unquivering faith in popular government is one of the many ideas that define

America. That is the democratic government. Americans never doubt the right of the people to

rule themselves. They believe in the “government of the people, by the people and of the

people.” (Epstein, 2011). Moreover, Americans have a willingness to try out new things. They

have a special welcome to the new and untried. America is exceptional. Its identity is linked to

the first large scale democratic republic in the human history.

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The American Dream is one of the ideals that define America. It is based in the Declaration of

Independence that proclaims that “all men are equal.” It includes a set of ideals that include

“rights, democracy, opportunity, liberty, justice, freedom, and equality.” (Kraushaar, 6). The

freedoms in the American dream include upward social mobility for children, and the family, and

opportunity for prosperity, and success. The American dream is also one of the visions that

America has.

Americans enjoy great liberty because it is one of the freest nations in the world. Liberty is

enjoyed thanks to the founders of the American government who set it in a way that supports

liberty. That is, they formed a republic that is one of the most important things about America.

Democracy is also one of the ideals that define America. It is a government where people get to

choose their leaders. In majority of the public offices, the winner of the elections is chosen based

on popular vote. Presidents are however, not directly elected, the reason why America is a

republic.

The rights and freedoms that Americans also enjoy is an ideal that defines America. They are

well laid out in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution, and also in the Declaration of

Independence. In the Declaration of Independence, it is noted down that, “all men are created

equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that include Life,

Liberty, and the pursuit to Happiness.” It also supports the American ideal of equality.

In the first ten amendments of the United States constitution, the ideals of the rights that citizens

of America enjoy are laid out. The first amendment is the one that provides several right

freedoms limiting the power of the law makers to act or change the rights. “Congress shall make

no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise thereof: of

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abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of people to peaceably assemble, and

to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (U.S Const. Amend. 1)

These rights and freedoms greatly define America in a positive way. Moreover, Americans

greatly value justice. It is one of the ideals that they live by. Their legal systems state that

“everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” (UDHR. Art. 11). America has a very stable legal

system where an individual only goes to jail if proven in a court of law to have committed a

serious offense.

The positive ideas, and ideals that define America that include freedom, rights, democracy,

liberty, justice, and equality are unique to America in their own way but also universally shared

by other nations in the world. For instance, the freedom, rights are democracy ideas are shared

by many nations as well. Unfortunately, being human, Americans have never been able to live up

to their ideals.

Over the many years since America’s Declaration of Independence, individuals and the

government alike have tried to live up to the American ideals. However, a gap has always existed

between the ideals that Americans believe and the institutions that included their practice. The

gap has generated continued disharmony in American politics. Moreover, no matter how much

Americans have been able to not live up to their ideals, they have been unable to abandon them.

Instead, they live in a state of confusion which they attempt to relieve through various blends of

self-satisfaction, mistrust, authoritarian, and hypocrisy.

A great illustration of how Americans have not been able to live up to their ideals is the rights

accorded to the African Americans in the United States. The fourteenth Amendment of the

United States constitution clearly states that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
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abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any state

deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law; nor deny to any

person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

However, the topic of racism in America is still a very burning one. The illegal shootings,

killing, and detainment of African Americans is common in America. For instance, the George

Floyd murder that occurred in 2020. Not forgetting the Trump presidency made the African

American rights situations even harder to enact. Moreover, the Coronavirus epidemic has

disrupted the nation’s effort to promote freedom, justice, and equality for all.

Some of the countries do embrace the American ideas, and ideals. However, other countries have

deemed them impossible to achieve and have resisted the ideas. The United Kingdom, Canada,

and Denmark embraced the American ideas. However, majority of the countries like North

Korea, Russia, China, Serbia, Bosnia, Bolivia, Mexico, and Venezuela among others have

refused to embrace the American ideas. They criticize them instead.

Even though America should play a role in maintaining as much freedom, democracy and

stability in the world, it should first focus more on creating freedom, democracy, and economic

opportunity in the nation. As stated earlier, America has not been fully able to live up to its ideas,

and ideals because of the gap between the ideals, and the institutions like the government that put

them into practice. America should focus on ways to breach that gap to achieve freedom,

democracy and equal economic opportunities for every American citizen.

Even though the American democratic system is one of the best and most successful in the

world, it is still not living up to the American ideals. The American government should put
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measures in place that help the nation in achieving freedom, democracy, and economic stability.

It is because currently, America has political divides, and income instability.

The income inequality has become a threat to the economy stability, idea of equal opportunity,

and democracy. America should invest in education, unionize low-wage workers, invest in

infrastructure, pay for the investments with higher taxes from the wealthy, and give all

Americans a share in the future economic gains. It will help in stopping inequality income, in

return reducing the threat it imposes on the idea of equal opportunity, democracy, and economic

stability.

In conclusion, America is a great and unique nation. Its set of beliefs, ideas, and ideals that are

known as the American Dream in other terms, drives many American citizens as they work

towards creating a better life for themselves. The certain freedoms and rights enable Americans

to pursue a life of happiness and success. Even if living up to the ideals and ideas has not been

quite possible for America yet, it is up to each and every American to help in achieving the

American dream.
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References

The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States. www.uscis.gov.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights- the United Nation. 2015. www.un.org.udhrbook

Epstein Richard A. Direct democracy: Government of the people, by the people, and for the

people. 2011. http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/journal_articles

Kraushaar Megan K. Secrecy and Democracy: The Conflict between American Ideals and

American Institutions. Department of Defense, 2014.