Are You a 'Heritage American'?

""You could find their last names in the Civil War registry," MacIntyre explained. This ancestry matters, he said, because America is not "a collection of abstract things agreed to in some social contract." It is a specific set of people who embody an "Anglo-Protestant spirit" and "have a tie to history and to the land." MacIntyre continued: "If you change the people, you change the culture.""

"During a speech at the Claremont Institute in July, Vice President J. D. Vance said that "people whose ancestors fought in the Civil War have a hell of a lot more claim over America than the people who say they don't belong," referring to those on the "modern left" who conceive of American identity "purely as an idea." And here's Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri at the National Conservative Conference last month: "We Americans are the sons and daughters of the Christian Pilgrims that poured out from Europe's shores to baptize a new world in their ancient faith." America, Schmitt said, is "our birthright. It's our heritage, our destiny." (Spokespeople for Vance and Schmitt did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Carlson or MacIntyre.)"

Right-wing media figures and some politicians are promoting the concept of "heritage Americans," defined by ancestral ties traceable to the Civil War and an Anglo‑Protestant spirit rooted in land and history. Proponents claim that ancestry confers a stronger, more legitimate claim to the nation than civic or ideological belonging. Prominent conservatives have argued that descendants of Civil War fighters or of early Christian Pilgrims possess greater birthright to America. The idea is spreading across social media and conservative events, reframing American identity in ethnic and historical terms rather than as a civic, idea‑based membership.

Read at The Atlantic