Vance keeps narrowing definition of a ‘real American’
He has a long history of claiming ancestral-based definitions of American identity.
During a WBEZ panel today on Reset, I heard a claim that Vice President J.D. Vance insinuated that “real Americans” have ancestors who fought in the American revolution and any side of the U.S. Civil War.
Even if he didn’t explicitly say it, he has a long history of claiming ancestral-based definitions of American identity.
This kind of blood-and-soil definition of American identity makes my stomach turn.
The idea that my worth as an American citizen depends on whether some ancestor fought in specific wars centuries ago is not just historically ignorant, it’s a deliberate weaponization of ancestry to create hierarchies of belonging.
In other words, we’re back to Christian nationalism again.
It’s not coincidental that these definitions of “real Americans” tend to exclude exactly the groups that Christian nationalists want to marginalize: recent immigrants, people of color, Muslims, Jews, and anyone whose family story doesn’t fit their narrow narrative of American heritage.
This rhetoric creates an in-group of “authentic” Americans whose claim to the country is treated as inherently superior and divinely sanctioned.
(Sounds like Nazism to me.)
It’s the same logic that underpinned Manifest Destiny and the idea that certain people were chosen by God to possess this land. Look at the history of both my homelands: Hawaii and the Philippines.
When you combine ancestral military service with implied Christian heritage, you’re essentially arguing that America belongs to a specific ethnic and religious group by divine right.
The fact that this comes from a sitting Vice President makes it even more chilling.
This isn’t just fringe ideology anymore. It’s being normalized at the highest levels of government.
His children must be very concerned about ancestral identity - they lack it on their mother's side. HYPOCRITE