Republicans won one single election almost entirely on cultural issues. President Trump as he ran for president in 2024 vowed to oppose transgender surgeries for minors, keep men out of women’s sports, deport illegal immigrants, and end the crimes they were accused of committing. He promised to eliminate DEI policies, put American workers ahead of foreign workers, defend American heroes and statues from defamation, and challenge the wokeness that had defined much of former President Biden’s tenure. In other words, he promised to protect America.
But somewhere along the way, some people, mainly young people, seem to have forgotten what America actually is.
On Tuesday, the College Republicans at Boston University officially endorsed Democrat Amy Acton for Ohio governor over Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, arguing that she is “more respectful of American cultural norms” and “more committed to protecting American workers from foreign competition.”
The translation is simple: Ramaswamy is Indian, and he is less stridently opposed to H-1B visas than some other Republicans. Add a dash of racism, and you arrive at the idea that any Indian American will inevitably favor Indian workers over American ones.
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We unequivocally denounce this attack. We will also be endorsing @amyactonoh for Governor of Ohio, as she is more respectful of American cultural norms and more committed to protecting American workers from foreign competition than @VivekGRamaswamy. Country over Party
— College Republicans at Boston University (@BU_CR) September 7, 2026
@uscollegegop So if we don't support candidates who think American culture is mediocre and promote the H1B replacement of American workers we're traitors? Also, "panican"?? Cut the LARP bro
— College Republicans at Boston University (@BU_CR) October 13, 2026
Thankfully, the national organization condemned the move, calling it “grounds for expulsion from the College Republicans of America.” But it raises a question Republicans will have to confront: What does it mean to be American, and what "culture" are groups like the College Republicans at Boston University trying to protect?
America is defined by its creed: freedom, self-government, self-reliance, and the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is not defined by skin color, ethnicity, sex, or religion. Yet for too many young people, it apparently is.
In their telling, to be American is to descend from the Europeans who arrived in the thirteen colonies, a view Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles has advanced. It is not enough to love this country, work hard, and uphold its freedoms; one must possess the right bloodline, the right characteristics, or the right allegiance to particular characteristics. That vision leaves no room for anyone to become American. It runs on an us-versus-them mentality and the fixed-pie fallacy that dominates socialist thinking: the belief that one person’s success must come at another’s expense. That is not conservatism. It is culturally conservative and bigoted socialism.
Immigrants can become American. That is rather the point.
We often forget that when the Trump administration targets fraud, or when it scrutinizes refugee and welfare programs, the issue is not, say Somali immigrants as a people. It is dependency, fraud, and entitlement: the belief that others owe you the American dream rather than the opportunity to build it. The objection is to a mindset, not the nationality.
But too many people have forgotten that. They have replaced the American creed with an ancestry test, as though liberty were something one could inherit from a great-great-grandfather rather than something one must choose to uphold.
By that logic, are Democrats who have lived in this country for generations more American than an immigrant who builds a life in the United States and devotes it to hard work, independence, and freedom? If ancestry is the measure, the answer is yes. To me, the immigrant is more American.
America is not defined by a culture rooted in skin color, ethnicity, or any other immutable characteristic. It is defined by a way of living: faith in liberty, responsibility for oneself, and allegiance to the principles that make self-government possible. By that standard, Vivek Ramaswamy is more American than the Boston University students who voted to endorse Amy Acton, and their endorsement is an abomination of what it means to be an American.