Heritage American vs. The Electric Cord
"When fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster"-Friedrich Nietzsche
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As we approach the 250th anniversary of America’s founding in 2026, debates about national identity have intensified. What truly defines an American?
Recently, the term “Heritage American” has gained traction in some conservative circles on social media and beyond. It typically refers to Americans whose ancestry traces back to the nation’s founding era. Proponents sometimes present hierarchies of “authenticity” based on how far back one’s family ties go—ideas occasionally illustrated in online charts (like this one below) suggesting tiers of belonging.
This concept strikes me as profoundly un-American. It evokes outdated caste-like divisions rooted in bloodlines rather than principles, divisions that our founders explicitly rejected in favor of a nation built on ideas.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s warning resonates here: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”
After years of critiquing the left’s racial and ethnic identity politics, some on the right risk mirroring it by prioritizing ancestry over shared values. This creates artificial hierarchies, implying that recent immigrants—or even those whose families arrived generations later—are lesser Americans than descendants of Revolutionary or Civil War veterans.
As a first-generation immigrant myself, I reject the notion that my Americanness is somehow inferior simply because my roots here are newer, and I didn’t have an ancestry linage to America’s founding.
Such nativist thinking is not new. In the 1850s, a wave of Irish and German immigration sparked the rise of the Know-Nothing Party (formally the American Party), a nativist movement fueled by anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant sentiment. Members famously responded “I know nothing” when questioned about their secretive organization. The party advocated policies to prioritize “native” Americans in jobs and politics, sidelining immigrants.
At its peak, it achieved significant local and congressional successes, culminating in the 1856 presidential nomination of former President Millard Fillmore. Though Fillmore won only Maryland’s electoral votes, the movement highlighted deep divisions before fading amid larger national crises.
It was against this backdrop of nativism that Abraham Lincoln, then a rising political figure, spoke in Chicago on July 10, 1858. Addressing the connections that bind Americans, he reflected on Independence Day celebrations and then turned to the immigrants among his audience:
We have besides these men—descended by blood from our ancestors—among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men... If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none... but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men... and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration, and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together...”
Lincoln’s words capture America’s uniqueness: We are united not by blood, race, or ethnicity, but by allegiance to the principles in the Declaration of Independence—what he called the “electric cord” of freedom. Anyone who embraces these ideals—equality, liberty, individual rights, self-government—becomes fully American, regardless of ancestry. A descendant of Revolutionary patriots holds no superior claim over a new citizen who defends those same principles with equal fervor.
It is true that not all immigrants fully adopt or uphold America’s founding values, and this warrants serious discussion. The answer, however, is not ancestry-based exclusion but stronger assimilation policies, such as mandatory civic education that teaches the Constitution, our history, and these core ideals. I laid out some recommendations in a previous newsletter and you can read it here.
The “Heritage American” framework reminds me of dangerous historical precedents elsewhere, like the blood linage theory populated by Red Guards during China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). In that era, every Chinese citizen was assigned a class identity that dictated their worth in society. The “Red” classes, including Communist Party members and People’s Liberation Army soldiers, were seen as virtuous and worthy citizens, while the “black” classes, composed of landlords, wealthy farmers, and those deemed counterrevolutionary, were viewed as undesirable outcasts.
This oppressive system especially deeply affected the youth, as they inherited their parents’ classifications. A notorious slogan of the time crystallized this harsh reality: “A hero’s son is a real man; a reactionary’s son is a rotten egg.” Children from the “black” classes suffered significant ostracization, hunted and humiliated by their peers and adults belonging to the “Red” classes. Such a system reminds us how detrimental and unjust societal divisions based on blood lineage could be.
America is far from such extremes, but the principle remains: Identity politics, from any side, erodes our national fabric by prioritizing group status over individual merit and shared commitment. It fosters division where unity is needed.
As we celebrate our semi-quincentennial and look ahead, let us reject hierarchies of blood and recommit to the moral principles enshrined in the Declaration. America thrives when we welcome those who cherish our founding principles, forging one nation from many through ideas, not ancestry. That is the true essence of what it means to be American.
I could not have stated this better myself, Helen. At the end of the day, these individuals are idolizing the past and more nefarious, things they have absolutely zero control over. No one chose their ancestry, ethnicity, or other immutable characteristics. It is immoral to idolize anything, but especially opprobrious to deem yourself better than others because of a past you were not even alive for. “Heritage American” is a nonsensical term that doesn’t mean anything substantive. Anyone who tries to ascribe any importance to it to prop themselves up is, in my view, malicious. Speaking frankly, your merits are far, far greater and your values are much more aligned with this country’s founding ideals than any nativist could ever hope to attain. Thanks for this, and I hope you and your family have a wonderful 2026.