In his 2004 DNC Keynote Address, Barack Obama asserts that the U.S has common underlying beliefs and goals which unite it. He talks about the importance of looking out for fellow Americans as a means of protecting the rights and opportunities of the masses. While Obama’s vision of community and brotherhood in America appeals to a broad audience in theory, changes which would bring about such a society remain divisive and controversial. Obama proposes that “alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga…..A belief that we are connected as one people.” Yet these two beliefs are continually at odds with each other. This paradox goes all the way back to the ideas that the U.S was founded on. Drawing heavily from the ideas of 17th century philosopher John Locke, the Declaration of Independence states that all human beings are entitled to …show more content…
In his Keynote Address, Obama insists: “If there's a child on the southside of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother.” The U.S government has more than enough wealth to take care of it’s people through means such as health care and better educational resources. Even more collective wealth can be made available through methods such as progressive tax reform, government funded preventative health programs, and the removal of quotas in correctional facilities. However, these types of changes all require an expansion of government and the chance of slightly higher taxes. This is not only the long-standing antithesis of the modern-day Republican party, but as the U.S sees a recent ideological shift to the right, a requirement that even some democrats are hesitant to