Is Americanness an Idea? Yes, But Not Entirely

For instance, we support Tibetan independence, or Tribal membership and rights in the United States based on these considerations, so nobody really believes that "blood and soil"—membership in some distinct group that is regionally based—is illegitimate in principle. 

But the United States has long been considered exceptional in this regard, and with good reason. We are a nation of immigrants and have a long history of assimilation, going back to our Founding. Several of the Founders were immigrants to the United States, such as Alexander Hamilton. 

Why America Is a “Creedal Nation,” not a Nation of Blood and Soil. by historian Gordon S. Wood https://t.co/0Q6HkIx1S9 via @WSJopinion

— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) November 24, 2025

Of course, it is true that the Founding generation was primarily of British extraction and built our country on Scottish and English principles and traditions, but there has been, for much of our history, a sense that what holds the country together is those principles and our common culture, not ethnic, religious, or similar ties. One's Americanness isn't defined by where your parents came from, or how far back their immigration occurred, but on whether you embrace American culture and our rules. 

That is the reason why those of us who are intellectual use terms like "credal nation" or "civil religion." One can be a Jew, Christian, Hindu, or even Muslim, but if you are culturally American and embrace our rather ill-defined "civil religion" or "creed," you are as American as anyone else. Harmeet Dillon, who runs the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department and is quite conservative in the American sense, is both Sikh and American. Usha Vance is Hindu. And Marco Rubio. And Elon Musk. And so on. They are all recognizably American. 

But the claim that we are a creedal nation is being used to justify policies that undermine that very creed. And, as a practical matter, you can't mass import people from cultures and nations that are based on blood, soil, tribal loyalties, religious discrimination, child marriage, oppression of women, or similarly un-American ways of life and expect that civil religion or creed to survive. 

When you go to Dearborn, Michigan, you are, in a sense, leaving the United States. Here in Minneapolis, we have a neighborhood called, informally, "Little Mogadishu" with good reason. 

And it's not just the result of mass migration. Many of the people who argue that America is not a nation of blood and soil also spend an awful lot of time telling us that the American way or life, culture, and creed are evil and oppressive. The argument that mass immigration is a great thing because "diversity is our strength" comes from people who also inform us that America is evil and should be decolonized. 

Tiffany Cross claimed "America was never great" on CNN last night.

This is why the Democrats continue to lose. pic.twitter.com/V5BdYcUgGf

— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) March 25, 2025

I would say you can't have it both ways. None of these people would argue that Americans should be flooded into other countries because it would be colonizing, but they reverse themselves when it comes to flooding America with people who have no desire to be Americans other than to get all the benefits that come from living in a culture and country that works. 

JD Vance has made the argument that there is an element of "blood and soil," or at least "soil," to being American, and he is not entirely wrong. Not in the sense that our country should be dominated by an ethnic group per se, but rather that the country depends on having a large majority of people who have lived here and been enculturated from birth. 

There is a limit to how many migrants a country or culture can ingest at once. It should be uncontroversial to say that we can absorb a few million migrants a decade more easily than tens of millions in the same period. If America is a melting pot, you can't dump a lump that is difficult to melt all at once. It becomes a lumpy mess. 

“The idea that America was never great is utter nonsense.” –Stuart Varney pic.twitter.com/SHLKDVGCGf

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) August 17, 2018

We have a lumpy mess right now. I truly believe America benefits from a certain level of immigration. Immigrants are, on average, more likely to be entrepreneurial and innovative than natural-born citizens. I get a bit teary-eyed when I see citizenship ceremonies. Many immigrants are more patriotic than a lot of Americans who have been here all their lives. 

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo faces backlash for saying America ‘was never that great’ pic.twitter.com/BTFwn6KZGX

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) August 16, 2018

But the American creed is being weakened, not strengthened, by mass migration and, frankly, a large cohort of America-haters who were born here. They support mass migration because they hate America, and say so openly. They want to wipe away the American creed. 

So, ironically, preserving the American creed means something like America First policies. That doesn't mean we can't absorb the best and the brightest from abroad who want to add to the common weal. But it does mean that mass migration is a threat to what makes America America.