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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/20\/opinion\/heritage-amercan-citizen-vance.html?emc=edit_na_20260921&nl=breaking-news&segment_id=226831",
    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTOpinionSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTDavid FrenchVance Has a Twisted Idea of What It Means to Be AmericanSept. 20, 2026Credit...Deborah BrightListen \u00b7 7:23 min Share full articleBy David FrenchOpinion ColumnistSee more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra m\u00e1s de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de b\u00fasqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google I am a \u201cHeritage American.\u201d To parts of MAGA America that means I\u2019m entitled to rule.For those of you who aren\u2019t familiar with the term, congratulations \u2014 it means you\u2019re not spending too much time online. But sadly, remaining ignorant of this label is no longer healthy. It\u2019s the not-so-hidden hand behind the birthright citizenship debate, and it\u2019s behind the bigot eruption in Texas I wrote about last week, when Bo French, the Republican nominee for railroad commissioner, posted a profoundly racist insult of South Asian students at the University of Texas at Austin.Even more disturbing, it\u2019s an idea that has at least a certain amount of appeal to the vice president of the United States and to many of the people who form the so-called Vanceguard \u2014 the collection of intellectuals and activists who are (again, mainly online) trying to pave the way for JD Vance to succeed Donald Trump as president and leader of the American right.A Heritage American, in their formulation, is someone who can trace his lineage back to the founding of the country, preferably even before. Not long ago, a person posted a chart online. You get an A grade if you\u2019re \u201ccolonial old stock,\u201d meaning your ancestors came here between 1607 and 1789. You get a B if you\u2019re \u201cantebellum stock,\u201d a C if you\u2019re an \u201cEllis Islander.\u201d You get a D if you or your ancestors arrived after World War II.And what do those grades mean? You should essentially view them as categories of citizenship, or as Vance put it in a speech to the Claremont Institute, arguably the foremost think tank of MAGA America, \u201cI think the 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\u2019t belong.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWell, by that standard, give me an A+. My grandmother belonged to the Mayflower Society, and our family lore is replete with stories of service and sacrifice running from Plymouth, Mass., to Valley Forge to the Civil War, and through both World Wars. Our roots in this country aren\u2019t as deep as they are for Native Americans, of course, but they are very deep.Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox.At the heart of the Heritage American idea is the concept of inherited virtue, the idea that public policy should orient itself toward benefiting people on the basis of their ancestry. My ancestors\u2019 very existence should then grant me special considerations and privileges.This is why, for example, many on the right are angry at the University of Texas for its diversity even after it adopted a colorblind, meritocratic admissions system that grants automatic admission to anyone who finishes near the top of their high school class.Conservatives once favored this policy \u2014 and many still do \u2014 but not the new right, not any longer.Too many Asians, especially from India and Pakistan, are gaining admission, you see, and that hurts the people whose families have been here a long time.It\u2019s a short trip from inherited virtue to inherited entitlement. And at its most extreme, the Heritage American idea bears an eerie resemblance to the so-called 14 words of white supremacy \u2014 \u201cWe must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.\u201dAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe entire concept is toxic and pernicious. A citizen is a citizen, regardless of his or her parents\u2019 ancestry. And while I\u2019m certainly influenced by my ancestors, I\u2019m not a more worthy person because they existed. The Declaration of Independence had it right: We are all equal \u2014 morally, culturally and legally.I\u2019m not writing only to debunk a poisonous idea \u2014 that\u2019s been ably done, many times, by others, including Vivek Ramaswamy last year in The Times \u2014 but rather because it\u2019s important not just to rebut bad ideas, but to counter them with better ones, in this case a better way to think about the role our history and our ancestors should play in our lives.I\u2019m concerned that ideas like Heritage American arise in part because we\u2019ve created a vacuum. By not instilling a robust sense of what it means to be a citizen of the United States and a patriot in our younger generation, we\u2019ve allowed malignant people and malignant ideas to fill the void. They\u2019ve turned something good \u2014 an interest in our roots and pride in our families \u2014 into something dark.I\u2019m the grandson of a history teacher, and she taught me our nation\u2019s history \u2014 and my family\u2019s history \u2014 with all its complexity. There was much to be proud of (I remember my heart soaring when she talked about our ancestors at Valley Forge), but it\u2019s hard to look back on your past with unvarnished pride when you also know that your ancestors wore gray during the Civil War.Learning that history gave me an immense sense of gratitude overall and \u2014 as I got older \u2014 a strong sense of duty. The gratitude is easy to explain. I enjoy the blessings of liberty and prosperity that I did nothing to earn.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTBut with great blessings come great responsibilities. At their best, my ancestors gave me an example to aspire to. I can learn from their mistakes and failures as well. Learning about my Confederate ancestors was important to my own moral development. That uncomfortable history has led me to remind myself that my community is not always right and that sometimes it is necessary to disagree with and potentially defy the culture and even the church from which you came.If I have enjoyed the fruits of sacrifices I did not make, don\u2019t I have my own obligation to \u2014 forgive the clich\u00e9 \u2014 pay it forward myself? I often think about the powerful conclusion to the movie \u201cSaving Private Ryan,\u201d when a dying Capt. John Miller tells Ryan to \u201cearn this\u201d \u2014 earn the sacrifice made on his behalf. We aren\u2019t called simply to enjoy the bounties of this country, but to continue the struggle to uphold its ideals.This brings to mind the words of C.S. Lewis, who defines healthy patriotism as a love of home, \u201cof the place we grew up in or the places, perhaps many, which have been our homes.\u201d But this type of patriotism, Lewis writes: \u201cis not in the least aggressive. It asks only to be let alone. It becomes militant only to protect what it loves. In any mind which has a pennyworth of imagination it produces a good attitude toward foreigners. How can I love my home without coming to realize that other men, no less rightly, love theirs.\u201dGratitude, humility, responsibility: Those are the virtues our overlapping histories \u2014 personal, familial, national \u2014 should instill. But the new right turns that upside-down. It replaces gratitude with a sense of entitlement, humility with arrogance, and a sense of duty with the will to power and the right to dominate.Think of MAGA\u2019s exploitation of young men. The movement has used the crisis of masculinity to paper over the emptiness in some young men\u2019s lives with a \u201cmanosphere\u201d that all too often encourages them to indulge their worst instincts. And now the worst parts of MAGA are doing the same thing with American history and American citizenship itself.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTOur history matters. Our heritage matters. But they should call us to service and virtue, not to power and pride. That is what Abraham Lincoln emphasized at the end of his first Inaugural Address. His words mattered then, and they should matter now: \u201cThe mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.\u201dThe Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We\u2019d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here\u2019s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-20T11:00:11+00:00",
    "author_name": "David French",
    "site_name": "The New York Times",
    "section": "Opinion",
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    "ai_headline": "Vance Has a Twisted Idea of What It Means to Be American",
    "ai_simplified_title": "David French Criticizes JD Vance's \"Heritage American\" Concept",
    "ai_excerpt": "David French critiques JD Vance's 'Heritage American' concept, which categorizes citizens by ancestry and suggests inherited entitlement. French argues this idea is toxic, divisive, and undermines the principles of equality and shared responsibility.",
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