Thank. What I wanted to say is that being proud of different things probably makes one behave differently. Indeed, our neighborous were historically more aggresive, being proud of their "glorious artillery'.

In your answer (which I imagine would be pretty common to Americans, regardless of red/blue divide - OK, some would add to "American dream" religious values, military power, "leader of the free world" thing) I don't see anything that would explain higher prevalence of violence compared to Canada. You mentioned different demographics - do you mean more minorities in USA, illegal immigrants, generaly wider social gaps, something else?

P.S. And I don't think I am able to adequatly explain why I am proud to be Croat, although I somewhat am (certainly not because of that 19th century nails factory and its successors, or because of our leadership ) Recently I also catch myself being a bit proudish of being European, too, probably because of feeling that my continent is finally going in reasonably right direction.