The essence of America - that which really unites us - is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion - it is an idea - and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.

Rice frames American national cohesion as civic rather than ethnic or religious: the country is held together by a shared creed—belief in opportunity and upward mobility. By contrasting “ethnicity, or nationality or religion” with “an idea,” she echoes a long tradition of American civic nationalism in which allegiance is to principles (liberty, equality of opportunity) rather than bloodlines. The closing claim—rising from “humble circumstances” to “great things”—invokes the American Dream narrative and functions rhetorically as an inclusive invitation: newcomers and minorities can belong fully by subscribing to the idea. It also implicitly argues that preserving America requires protecting the institutions that make such mobility plausible.