“Ah, America. I want the American Dream,” the Nigeriean cabdriver told Karl Rove. When Rove asked the driver what he meant by the “American Dream,” the driver sounded like Abraham Lincoln: “Dream big, work hard and rise.”

Abraham Lincoln, according to historian Gabor Boritt, believed in the “right to rise.”

America is a not just an idea” but “a particular place, with a particular people.”

Our country is more than an idea, but it began as one. Our people are particular, yet it makes no difference whether your forebear wintered at Valley Forge or fought at Gettysburg. What matters is living up to the Declaration’s promises.

“Ironic,” chastises Rove that JD Vance, a Catholic convert, would advocate “heritage Americans.”

This notion of “heritage Americans” is at odds with the Declaration. America’s birth didn’t include a new aristocracy based on inherited valor.

Rove asks readers of the Journal to consider some Americans without Revolution or Civil War forebears:

Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlize Theron, Hakeem Olajuwon, former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Salma Hayek, Henry Kissinger, Oracle’s Safra Catz, Bob Hope, Irving Berlin, Interactive Brokers’ founder Thomas Peterffy, Yo-Yo Ma, Alex Trebek and at least 40 winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

According to Karl Rove, one in seven American citizens is an immigrant.

For the other six, this Saturday should be a day for special gratitude. Through no action of our own, we were born here, and—alongside all who made their difficult way to America—enjoy the blessings of what happened in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776.

Happy Fourth, to every American.

God Bless, America.