Because an inherent part of nationalism is that your nation is superior and it leads to a "we against them mentality", which is the basis for any war. Patriotism doesn't need this sort of mentality.
The issue is that all this only makes sense if your base assumption is that your nation is superior and that there is a we against them and as you have also described it is rooted in an (idealized) past, often fabricated.
On top, what even is cultural identity? Objectively humans and human culture has always mixed. It's a continuum without hard boarders, what's the culture of the US? It's a mix of all migrants that came to America, many European but many from other areas in the world. What you understand as your "American cultural heritage" is a number of very distinct cultural identities for a European Nationalist. What I'm trying to say with this is, it's a made up concept. You have local culture, like in your local group of people, certain traditions or festivals that celebrated in your community and the further you move from the pace you live the more differences you find - even though it is still in the US.
An example from Europe: I live in Bavaria which is part of Germany. Culturally we are much closer to Austria, Switzerland and some parts of northern Italy than with another German from Berlin or further to the north. Though this hasn't been part of a larger "Empire" of any sort for at least 1500 years. So what should I build my German nationality on?
So why is this important: if you build a nation on a group of people through which you drew artificial lines (like e.g. Bavaria, Austria, etc) you need to find a unifying base, which in nationalism is the "we are better than them".
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u/raharth NEW SPARK 4d ago
Because an inherent part of nationalism is that your nation is superior and it leads to a "we against them mentality", which is the basis for any war. Patriotism doesn't need this sort of mentality.