Indeed. When a Euro is asked where he's from in the states he will tell you the country he's from, not Europe. An American in Europe will say the US, not the state he's from. Seeing it as a single entity isn't going to help understanding it, even in a country as small the Netherlands the north is completely different from the south. America isn't nearly as individualist as they like to think.
Except people from Texas. Or the occasional southern segregationist.