'JD Vance: Some Americans Are More American Than Others' [View all]

"JD Vance was in San Diego...he was there to give a keynote address at a dinner hosted by the Claremont Institute, the southern California nonprofit that’s earned a reputation as a “nerve center” for MAGA thought...At the core of Claremont thinking is immigration. The think tank pushed for an end to birthright citizenship long before that objective entered the mainstream of the GOP; it claimed ownership over Vance’s thinking on the topic after Trump chose him as his running mate last year."

"During the 2024 Republican National Convention, Vance tried to sand down the idea of what it means to be an American citizen to a more European level: the country belongs more to those who share its 'common history,' he said, not just those who ascribe to its values. He put Claremont’s intellectual approach to nativism into action last year, stoking racial tensions over Haitian immigration to Springfield, Ohio."

"On Saturday, Vance took up the theme again. But this time, he had more to point to than theoretical arguments or viral campaign moments. The second Trump administration is pumping huge amounts of cash into the country’s detention and removal infrastructure for immigrants; it’s moved to end birthright citizenship; it’s staged high-profile civil liberties abuses with various efforts to remove people quickly and scare off others from coming; it is contemplating denaturalizations. Its radical actions do not undercut the fact that there was also a strong messaging component to Vance’s Saturday remarks: the administration wants to talk about immigration to the exclusion of nearly everything else."

"What Vance expressed to the friendly Claremont audience was a dramatically reduced vision of American citizenship. It’s one in which having ancestors who have lived here for generations entitles you to more; a vision of citizenship that’s long existed around the world, with a notable and aspirational exception in the United States."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jd-vance-some-americans-are-more-american-than-others