What he is saying to me is that those who stand for the values of America against the tyranny of the repressors, like founders and the soldiers of the Revolution, including the black Americans and regiments who fought in the first foundational war, are more American than those who use denigrating political tactics to repress equality, justice and freedom for all. One example is the all white, single party state government of Georgia between 1876 and 1965. They passed 31 state laws preventing black Americans from marrying white ones, from traveling on buses and trains with whites, from going to white schools, from voting. Kentucky made 52 laws. The other 13 states that forbid by law school segregation made many as well. In the North they passed laws during this time period that forbid Desegregation, the exact opposite. When legislative bodies spend years making laws to stop integration, then they are acting anti-American, where the states in North were acting pro-American—which were harder to pass as there were two parties and one possessed some racist segregationist tendencies. So I think is talking about moving toward an ideal of America, not the place, but the dream promised at its birth but never achieved. Just because someone passed a bill ending slavery did mean slavery ended and racism ended. The 14th amendment passed, but white supremacist in the South repressed blacks from voting until 1965 using terror and control of legislation and the registration office (though one to three percent were kept on the registration books for tokenist proof). He’s not talking about the fact that one’s passport says American, but ones spirit, gained through their fight against repression and for equality.