I also think that Americans have an audacity and confidence that many see as confidence and others see as arrogance. We have our own form of chauvinism in spite of the challenges we face.
I agree, except I would say we have the audacity
of confidence... meaning, we sometimes don't take
no for an answer. I know I don't like being told "no", and as soon as I am...I start figuring out how to get around it. I think this was true when Americans tackled World War II and the Marshall Plan, when we tackled the logistics of space travel and Civil Rights, and true with the current admonistration's mantra "Yes We Can". I'm not quite sure other countries, great and small, take that challenge in the same way that Americans do.
As for American culture...well I could go on for days about that. Let me just say the Navajo Nation, the Amish, the Gullah, New England Yankees, Little Havana, Louisiana Cajuns and Creoles, New York's Jews, SoCal, TexMex...and Harlem.