‘Something That’s Worth Fighting For’: Jim Banks Stresses Need To Preserve American Dream Despite ‘Sad Reality’

WASHINGTON — Republican Indiana Sen. Jim Banks said Thursday that Republicans need to fight to ensure that the American dream becomes more easily attainable for working class Americans.

Banks said during a speech at the National Conservatism Conference that elected officials need to prioritize “building an economy that puts American workers first.” The Indiana Republican added that he is concerned that the American dream is presently “slipping out of reach” for many Americans.

“Look, I have lived the American dream,” Banks said during the speech. “I’m the son of a union factory worker and a nursing home cook. I grew up in a trailer park, and now I’m standing before you as a freshman member in the U.S. Senate representing the great state of Indiana. I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t get any better than that. This is the greatest country in the history of the world. But I fear that that same American dream is slipping out of reach for way too many Americans.”

“We all want our kids to live a better life than the one that we had. And that’s what my parents did for me,” Banks added. “They worked hard so that my two brothers and I would be better off and have a better opportunity, a better shot in this country than what they did. So how do we do that moving forward?”

The senator went on to state that the “sad reality” is that the American dream has become “almost impossible for so many young Americans today.”

“And this is more than just about a political fight,” Banks said. “It’s about preserving the American way of life in this great country. If people don’t own anything and don’t have a home that they’re building and investing in, if they don’t have a place to call a home, and if we let that life slip away, we lose the heart of what it means to be Americans.”