Claremont McKenna College student Dhriti Jagadish writes at Persuasion:

On July 10, 1858, Abraham Lincoln reminded Americans that half the country couldn’t trace a connection to the signers of the Declaration of Independence by blood or by soil. That half is now the vast majority. For most, our ancestors didn’t walk down Philadelphia’s cobbled streets, let alone hunch over that document in Independence Hall.

 

If having such a connection is all that defines an American, most of us wouldn’t be American at all. Thankfully, Lincoln argued, the one “electric cord” that runs through us all is a love of freedom and equality, irrespective of ancestry. An embrace of the Declaration’s sentiments is as good as blood relation to its signers, for it’s the American creed that “link[s] those patriotic hearts” together.

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Civic education programs ought to teach young Americans that their futures are bound up together, even when separated by physical and digital chasms. National service opportunities must place adolescents into diverse communities across America so they can see just how unrealistic—how undesirable—the Heritage American conception is. New projects in technology and infrastructure should be emblems of America as the land of ingenuity and excellence, not merely the land of a particular people and custom.

 

Consciously reaffirming Lincoln’s creedal conception will require embedding the electric cord in everything taught and everything built. His conception is certainly demanding, asking Americans to orient their understanding of citizenship towards a humble, yet self-assured, commitment to shared ideals. But Americans can do this. They can aspire to more exalted civic virtues—even if they need the occasional reminder. Vance’s “people won’t fight for abstractions” refrain does not have to win out. His tribalism does not have to be our endgame.

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