My position is that "America" is a concept that is different in everyones' minds, and only assumed to be held in common.
If 100 people were asked "what is America?" there would be 100 different answe...
I've mentioned before that the Great Founding Mistake was the centralized constitution which was cast for the purposes of commerce, so that even at the earliest instance the message was sent:
-Commerce>Nation
The Civil War formalized that into actual law. FDR later tried to found a new national ethos during WW2 (really, to try and justify WW2) but it was all paper mache and fell apart in the 60s.
-Commerce>Nation
The Civil War formalized that into actual law. FDR later tried to found a new national ethos during WW2 (really, to try and justify WW2) but it was all paper mache and fell apart in the 60s.