The United States of America is not a nation of bloodlines, the common refrain goes. Brave patriots founded it on an idea — the idea of individual liberty, of shaping your own destiny, of leaving behind the dead weight of the past for a bright future. Modern American patriots say that most nations, whether in Europe, Asia, or Africa, place too much importance on bloodline and thus stifle their peoples through collectivism. According to them, a nation’s true spirit is in its values and ideas, so anyone can adopt any idea. Much of this is taken to be the highest expression of American exceptionalism.
But there’s a huge problem: For a proposition nation to work, most people have to think the same thing. And this requires greatly denying liberty, the very thing America runs on.