Hindu Candidate wants to define Americanness

Vivek Ramaswamy writes an op-ed in the NY Times:

There are two competing visions now emerging on the American right, and they are incompatible. One vision of American identity is based on lineage, blood and soil: Inherited attributes matter most. The purest form of an American is a so-called heritage American — one whose ancestry traces back to the founding of the United States or earlier.

This view is now popularized by the Groyper right, a rapidly ascendant online movement that argues for the creation of a white-centric identity. This is a predictable response — one that I anticipated in my 2022 book, “Nation of Victims” — to anti-white discrimination over the last half-decade, and it is no longer just a fringe viewpoint.

The alternative (and, in my view, correct) vision of American identity is based on ideals.

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.

He goes on to say that his top priority is to condemn White Americans like Nick Fuentes.

I am surprised that he regards his alternative vision as the binary one. Most of today's immigrants do not accept American values, and retain allegiances to their home countries. I guess he is also rejecting the Jews who claim dual citizenship with Israel.

I agree with some of what he says, but the idea that he defines the American vision is absurd.

He is rich, but I would not call it the American dream. He mainly profited by sell stock based on exaggerated promises that never materialized.