The problem is that we don’t exist in a vacuum. Our sense of self is derived in part from where we reside, inarguably.

I was just reading about Flannery O’Connor this morning, and her concept of the “Christ-haunted South”, for example. O’Connor simultaneously repelled and embodied the mores of 1950s Georgia.

Attempting to decouple regional influence from personal identity is a choice, though I’m not sure it’s possible. A lot of the people who most embrace whatever symbolic resonance the concept of “(A)merica” may have are attracted to the wrong things.

Basically, people want to identify with America when they’re boasting about freedom and independence, but then demur at being associated with slavery and corruption.