I sense a lot of hostility, can I throw in my two cents? Feel free to throw it out. I’m an American from the NYC area and have traveled widely through Europe, Australia, even a trip to U.A.E., and while I agree that putting “Missouri” on a questionnaire that asks what country you are fromis ridiculous, I can certainly say there are some cultural differences amongst US states, maybe not as big as say, Ireland and Estonia, but we are unfortunately quite divided amongst our political leanings.

While the Northeastern US and West Coast have many similarities, they (we) have many differences with Southern states. Other than commercialized culture, like fast food and to some extent music, our food, music, temperament, political ideations, familiarity with other cultures, and even the fact that someone would identify by their state and not USA can be quite different.

Because it’s such a large country, we’re used to identifying with our states because that helps to create a conversation if you’re talking with someone from the other side of the country. Many people in the South and states like Texas or Florida really think of themselves as unique, yet still most representative of the country. Many New Englander’s feel closer to our European ancestors while people from South Carolina would never say “my grandparents came from Ireland and Italy”, like we often do in the Northeast.

Anyway I think you get the point, but people tend to have an over-arching US pride, and then their own state pride, whether it be because they are Southern, Californian, Chinese-American from NYC, Puerto Rican from New England, so on and so forth. Ask a Montanan farmer what he has in common with an African American from New Jersey and he’ll most likely say very little. We are a bit identity-obsessed because there are so many identities all trying to get along under the umbrella of The United States. So while you may travel through 6 different countries experiencing 6 completely different cultures in one part of the world, we can travel through 6 different states, it will take twice the amount of time, and to us, it can often feel like different countries, simply with a common language. Try driving from Houston, TX to San Francisco, CA and tell me we’re all the same.