Which of the 50 States is the Most "Stereotypically American"?

[pinochet]

Yesterday, I had a funny conversation with an insurance salesman from Winnipeg, Canada, over the allegations that Ted Cruz is a Canadian. The man lived in America for more than a decade. His reply is that Cruz speaks like a stereotypical Texan, and that Texans are the most stereotypical Americans. He feels that if Ted Cruz went to Canada, he would be "too American" to blend in easily in Canadian society.

That conversation got me thinking. Texas is a state associated with cowboys, who are viewed by foreigners as "stereotypical American tough guys". But Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas are also cowboy states. But blue collar industrial workers are also part of the stereotypical American image, which makes Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, to be the candidates for the "most American" state.

Religious fundamentalism is another trait associated with America, which would make Iowa, Utah, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi as the "most American".

Which state is viewed by foreigners as the most stereotypically American?

[Behind the Blue Wall]

Good question. I would think Texas is too stereotypically Texan to hold that distinction, you’d need a more generically American state. The Deep South is too Southern, etc. Somebody said Missouri which I could see, seems to have a bit of South, Midwest, West, urban, rural, figures faily prominently in US history and culture, borers the Mississippi River, surely our most iconic river. I’m going with Missouri.

[ABN 505]

I feel my State is probably the most UnAmerican State in the USA. We more closely resemble a Satellite state of the Soviet Union from the 50’s or 60’s. One party rule and to the left of Joseph Stalin.

[Eagles6]

I believe that Florida has, or had, the most cowboys.

[mad_as_he$$]

I traveled the world on business in the 80’s and 90’s. Used to ask a variation of this question as an ice breaker. I general here is the responses I got:

Texas = cowboys in the negative connotation.
California = women, beach and cars.
The South as one lump. Redneck.
New Yorkers = rude, fast talking.
Hawaii = Magnum.

After that at the time much of the rest of the US was no there. Might find a European that had been to Chicago to visit some relative.

[Hawthorn]

>> Chinese and Pacific Islanders control it <<

>> I think it’s more along the lines of *Japanese* <<

Last I heard, Filipinos were the biggest ethnic group in Hawaii.

Moreover, they are the politest people on earth, and they are strongly pro-American.

[Hawthorn]

>> I say Ohio <<

I’d have to flip a coin between Ohio and Missouri!

[rockrr]

Drive 40 miles away from any major city in any state and you’ll find cowboys, boots, and American flags ;’}

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

America is pretty different by region, but as far as what region exemplifies what is special about America (freedom, faith, and firearms!), today, I think Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. 150 years ago, I think it would have been New England.

[arkfreepdom]

Oklahoma by far. Not a single county has voted for Obama in either election.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Small town U.S.A. in pretty much any state.

[Hawthorn]

>> Using the Mason Dixon line doesn’t work.
>> Maryland and West Virginia are south of the Line.
>> Make it anywhere north of the Potomac River at DC

Maybe you haven’t spent much time on the backroads of southern Maryland, esp. Charles, St Marys and Calvert Counties. Most of the natives there are still about as southern as anybody you’ll find in my home state of Mississippi.

Then in West Virginia, anything south of Beckley is redneck country through and through. Yankees and liberals are definitely out of place in those hallowed hollers!

[ZULU]

BINGO!!!!

[faithhopecharity]

Not worth reading any articles which defies our Dear Kenyan Leader — we have 57 states, don’t steal from us the seven nice new states he’s so generously given us !!!!!!!!

[MuttTheHoople]

Missouri. Has Minnesota winters and Mississippi summers. was the home of rabid pro-Slavery guerrillas and where U.S. Grant lived at the start of the Civil War. It's bordered by strong pro-Union States and strong pro-Confederate States, with a couple that were in dispute. You can hear Southern accents and midwestern accents. You have a strong african-American presence in St. Louis and Kansas City.

I'm saying this as a Texan...Texas isn't a "typical" State...it's better.

[oldvirginian]

I agree.
Driving a truck long haul gave me the chance to see most parts of each of the “lower 48”.
Each one is wonderfully different and is inhabited by people as different as the continental geography.

I met good old boy southern sympathisers in New York State, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.

I met hard left communists in Virginia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

Texas! Oh Texas!
You start with lush grass in the east and end with desert canyons in the west.
Your attitudes change with the geography, but you tend to be self reliant and “different” all across the state.

Eastern Ohio has more in common with West Virginia and Pennsylvania than it does western Ohio.

Illinois, south of Chicagoland would fit in nicely with any southern or western rural state.

Arizona, the drop from the pine forests of Flagstaff to the desert of Phoenix is phenomenally breathtaking.

Utah!
Everyone should visit Utah at least once. But only in the summer, snows too much in winter.

Minnesota is beautiful, simply beautiful. The average Minnesotan takes a perverse pleasure in being odd.
Jesse Ventura?
Really?

I have met NBC’s whose families left Europe generations ago who hate the US and want nothing more than to go back to socialist Europe.

I have met recent legal immigrants who love the US more than I can describe.
I saw a man who looked like he just swam the Rio Grande cuss out a group of illegals in El Paso, he hates “wet backs”, his description of them. His accent was definitely west Texas!

I used to occasionally run with a fella whose handle was the “Mad Hungarian”. He escaped socialist Hungary to come live the American Dream.

Each state is different and the personality of it’s citizens differ from other states.
The one thing they all have in common is the Idea of the United States of America.

We can gripe and complain about each other amongst ourselves, but Merciful Lord help the deluded group of outsiders who would attempt to hurt our fellow Americans.

We can come together quicker than any other nation on the face of the planet.
To paraphrase Toby Keith, we’ll put a boot in your ass cuz it’s the American Way.

[wita]

I like Wyoming, lots of conservatives.

I do too, and with the exception of Cheyenne, the Rez, and Jackson, I agree.

[Exit148]

NJ.
You got a problem with that?

(? Lol?)

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

How do you define "Yankee?"

There are very few true Yankees left -- living in a northern state doesn't make someone a Yankee, and Yankees are the frozen opposite of liberals. I'd take a true Yankee over any other type of person any day.

[who knows what evil?]

Having lived here all my life the only thing I can say for sure is that it *ain’t* Massachusetts.

But it says 'Spirit of America' on your license plates...

[oldvirginian]

I tried my best to stay out of both Maryland and West Virginia.
I probably know less about those two states than I do any of the others.

Just having Baltimore disqualifies Maryland.

We older Virginians still think of West Virginia as “the occupied western counties”.
Seriously, Virginia and West Virginia didn’t recognise state borders until around 1987 or 1988.