[cuban leaf]

The states, individually, are sovereign entities, headed by governors elected by the people of their respective states

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thanks to the creation of the EU, I’ve modified my paradigm on this to a more “pre-civil war” perspective. I live in a country called Kentucky. It is a sovereign country with the exception of what it gives up in sovereignity to the overlying constitution of the union of countries of which it is a member. The US is like the EU and Kentucky and California are like France and Germany.

[Political Junkie Too]

Generally, yes, but there are some major differences:

1. The United States came first. The EU, perhaps, was modeled on us.
2. The EU members were mostly monarchies for centuries, even millennia. The United States was never a monarchy or conquered state, and began as the Great Experiment of a government by the consent of the people. This is what "American Exceptionalism" meant, as it was the first of its kind.
3. In the United States, everyone spoke the same language and had the same currency. The EU members spoke different languages and gave up their national currencies.
4. In the United States, everyone had the same loyalty. In the EU, cultural and ethnic identities remained under the surface, an may be about to burst back out into the open.

-PJ