Your author once co-authored a book entitled Official Lies: How Washington Misleads Us, about mountains of such myths and superstitions.  A case can be made that at the top of the list of statist myths and superstitions is the myth of American nationalism — about the supposed "superiority" of a virtually unlimited, centralized and consolidated government, coupled with the never-ending hatred and demonization of federalism, states' rights, nullification and secession, and anything else that challenges the notion of the "supremacy" of the central government.

In this regard American "nationalism" has nothing to do with the older concept of a people with a common language and culture, living within the borders of their own nation state.