The very fact that Americanness is transmissible via principles and ideas is a problem for those who prefer the simple profundity of the bonds that Lincoln called “blood of the blood” and “flesh of the flesh.” Such tangible essentialism can give groups a concentrated sense of purpose and meaning—and may be coupled with a powerful urge to persecute members of out-groups. Some on the right prefer to see the country in thinly veiled racial terms, as if white people—or “heritage Americans,” as some on the right have lately classified Americans with familial links to the Revolutionary and Civil Wars—are somehow more American than members of other races. Recent immigrants are naturally inferior Americans, if they are considered American at all. This is a silly gesture at indigeneity. Its absurdity was recently underscored by ICE’s confusing capture of five Native Americans in Minneapolis. But it also demonstrates an urgent desire for a mystical, blood-and-soil connection to the country that is both more concrete and more exclusive than some intellectual “cord.”