Staples of American Identity

You hear it in country songs, see it in political campaigns, read it on bumper stickers: Proud To Be An American. But I've often wondered, what exactly does that mean? In a country as vast and multifaceted as the US, where traveling between states can feel more disorienting than travel between many European countries, what are the values and characteristics that 'make' someone 'American' and inspire such pride? And if the whole nation is in such clear agreement about this, how did I get left in the dark?

Curious, and eager for an excuse to procrastinate, I turned to Google and typed "american identity". I expected to find phrases like "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and "home, home on the range", maybe even a friendly Wikipedia article with a bullet-point list. (If you said yes to 10 or more of the above qualities, you are an American!) Instead I got 10 links to lengthly historical studies (and a few Amazon matches), but everything dealt with formative, aka 18th century, American identity.

And then, scrolling to related searches, I found it. "American Identity Staples". Jackpot. I clicked, and within seconds was redirected to...

Staples buys American Identity - Daily Business Update May 22, 2007 ... Office products retailer Staples Inc. said today it acquired American Identity, a distributor of corporate-branded merchandise, ...

That's right. Staples buys American Identity. With 9 identical hits.

You could argue that this is just a random coincidence, an unfortunate sharing of names, but the fact that my search for "staples of american identity" blithly informed me that american identity has been taken over by a corporate giant was inordinately depressing. And somehow very apt. Although I am no closer to finding the answer to my original question, I AM suddenly inspired to rewatch Idiocracy.