Back in the beginning of the US, the nation was highly decentralized and was considered as a federation of states who exercised great autonomy. At the time, states could do things that are unheard of today, such as print their own money etc. But with the result of the civil war, state autonomy increasingly diminished both politically and socially. Today, states operate as though they were provinces of a nation-state, and American people no longer identify themselves with their state, but their nation.
So in function the US operates like a nation-state, but we still have some remaining things of the long-dead federation. I think we should remove them and fully embrace the political and social reality that the US is now a full blown nation-state, not a federation of autonomous states as it was in its infancy.
Lets stop calling ourselves United States of America, and lets rename state to province.
Now we could call ourselves America, but that would seem odd since we are located in North America, and there is a South America beneath our own continent. The Canadians are equally justified in calling themselves Americans with this logic.
In the past, states have called themselves by the their tribe, such as France (Franks) or the dominating city Roman Empire (Rome) or Athens (Athens). However, no such option exists in the US. Though we could call ourselves the New Yorkan Empire, nobody would go with that. However, since we are in fact the most powerful nation in the world with military bases on every continent and in many nations, with the ability to pursue a unilateral foreign policy, I think it's very fitting to call ourselves the Empire of America. In that way, we can still call ourselves Americans and it would still be fitting to do so. Now the problem with this is that past empires in history were usually ruled by an emperor, however the British changed all that because they had a powerless king and the parliament was the main governing body of the British Empire. So lets take a step further than the British and call ourselves an empire with only a republican government and no emperor.
Long live the American Empire! The Empire will strike back at you!
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