In the week of December 18th 2025,Turning Point held its USA’s AmericaFest 2025 event in Arizona. A controversy and debate arose over the trope Heritage Americans being bandied about at that conference.
Some European Americans regard as Heritage Americans only those whose ancestors go back to the Mayflower, while other whites include all current American whites that are citizens here, and likely include people of color that are citizens too.
I want all American citizens, to be regarded as Heritage Americans. JD Vance at this same conference declared that we no long need to apologize for being white, and I approve, but all legal Americans need not apologize for the color of their skin or their country of origin either. Racial or ethnic group-identity significant and each American should be proud of her racial or ethnic nature, but we want all Americans to be individuals first, and group-affiliated second, so that means we neither put whites down, or exalt them for all of that noise distracts each American from doing her patriotic duty, to maverize and grow into being a supercitizen. Then, she is the Heritage American who I can admire.
From Breitbart News, 12/0/25, I got this article below which I copied and pasted: it is by Jasmyn Jordan and is entitled “
Vivek Ramaswamy Says ‘Heritage Americans’ Aren’t Real: ‘Either You’re an American or You’re Not’”
My response: White Americans are Heritage Americans but so are all people of color that are American citizens.
Breitbart: “
Vivek Ramaswamy dismissed the idea of “Heritage Americans” as illegitimate during remarks at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, directly challenging a narrative he says is gaining traction among some segments of the “online right.”
“There’s a different vision of American identity that’s emergent in certain corridors of the online right,” Ramaswamy said during his speech on Day 2 of the conservative youth conference. “And it says that your identity as an American is based on your lineage. That how long you have been in the country, your lineage and your genetics tied to the blood and soil of the country, determines how American you are.”
He described the “Heritage American” concept as the belief that the most authentic Americans are those descended from families present during or before the Revolutionary era. While acknowledging that the idea is gaining popularity, he dismissed it as “about as loony as anything the woke left has actually put up,” adding that “there is no American who is more American than somebody else.”
Ramaswamy framed his view of national identity in absolute terms. “It’s not like the left. They believe in this nonbinary stuff. There’s no nonbinary American. It is binary. Either you’re an American or you’re not.””
My response: Vivek seems correct, that the choice is binary, and all American citizens are real Americans, and Heritage Americans, no matter their skin color or how long their ancestors have or have not been here.
Now here is a second but related article from the same event, and it was an editorial appearing in Townhall.com on 12/20/25, and it written by Dmitri Bolt, and I copied and pasted the article below and will comment on it:
Townhall: “
Michael Knowles vs. Vivek Ramaswamy: Two Visions of What Makes an American
Dmitri Bolt | December 20, 2025 10:00 AM
Daily Wire Host and conservative commentator Michael Knowles defined what he believed was part of the true American identity at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest on Thursday night. “
I admire Knowles but there is only one American identity as Vivek claims.
Townhall: “
It "is not magically imbued through a few lines of philosophy," he argued, but is rooted in Americans' "real historical lineage and a real historical destiny," suggesting that those who arrived on the Mayflower fought in the American Revolution. Their descendants represent the core of American identity.
“To be on the team, you have to acknowledge that there is such a thing as the American people. We’re not just an idea floating in outer space. We are a real people with a real historical lineage and a real historical destiny,” Knowles said. "We came here on the Mayflower, which is a great cigar brand by the way, we came here on other ships as well. We landed at Plymouth and Jamestown, we fought a war of independence, and plenty of wars after that. We spread across the continent. We have a real historical experience and character that is not magically imbued through a few lines of philosophy or a naturalization pop quiz."”
My response: Knowles has a point that European Americans and their values are the core of the American identity, but we want to included in our big tent citizens of color who adopt The American Way.
Townhall: “
“At different times, we’ve taken in foreigners. When it’s worked, those foreigners have come to act, talk, and even look like us. When it hasn’t worked, they haven’t. If you prefer the flag of another nation or the customs and habits of another people, you are not on my team. If you are and want to be a member of the American people, you are on my team," he continued.”
My response: Knowles is right that immigrants who refuse to assimilate, to make the English language and the American majority culture their own and first language and culture, are not real Americans and should go home if it is so much better there.
Townhall: “
The definition of Americanism became a contentious issue this week after 2024 Presidential candidate and current candidate for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy wrote an op-ed in The New York Times arguing that the “American identity is based on ideals.” He also took a swing at the alleged right-wing neo-nazi Nick Fuentes.
Ramaswamy's vision argued that it might be "a few lines of philosophy" that define an American, as long as they are believed in by residents of other countries and by those who call themselves Americans, who dare to fight for them.
The latter, he wrote, is a characteristic of "the Groyper (follower of Nick Fuentes) right."
He went on:
Americanness isn’t a scalar quality that varies based on your ancestry. It’s binary: Either you’re an American or you’re not. You are an American if you believe in the rule of law, in freedom of conscience and freedom of expression, in colorblind meritocracy, in the U.S. Constitution, in the American dream, and if you are a citizen who swears exclusive allegiance to our nation.
As Ronald Reagan quipped, you can go to live in France, but you can’t become a Frenchman; but anyone from any corner of the world can come to live in the United States and become an American. No matter your ancestry, if you wait your turn and obtain citizenship, you are every bit as American as a Mayflower descendant, as long as you subscribe to the creed of the American founding and the culture that was born of it. This is what makes American exceptionalism possible.”
My response: Well said. I hope conservatives can work out there difference for their sake and for the well-being of America.
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