Wait Kentucky is now a separate country?
I see the US like the EU, but with its own standing military. That is, we are 50 separate “mostly” sovereign nations that are members of an overarching federation. The biggest difference between the US and the EU is that we mostly speak the same language.
That is why I don’t take seriously “US” statistics any more than I take seriously “EU” statistics.
We talk of Germany and France as separate countries. I talk of Kentucky and California as separate countries. And let’s be frank: Before the war between the states, people identified with their “state” more than with the nation. It’s why we called it “these” united states and not “the” united states as we have done since the war.
BTW, sometimes these differences between countries within the US can be dramatic. Like the kid from Arizona that was an award winning marksman and, on his way to his college in the northeast, he was stopped by a cop and the cop searched his car. They found his competition pistol in his trunk and he went to prison.
It’s healthy to see the states as different countries.