It's weird because regionalism is as fundamentally American as the works of Twain and Faulkner and generally the drive to homogenize American culture has done, at minimum, as much damage to the actual spirit of the country as NAFTA did
If we were actually going to emulate 18th century Americans we'd be undoing the damage that the post-war--->vietnam decades did to the patchwork of American traditions and regional cultures
It's genuinely uncomfortable driving up the east coast or out west and seeing the exact same architecture, chain businesses, leveling of regional practices all the way through