For many outside of it, even from 'cousin colonies' (I'm in Australia) there is much about the USA that is simply bewildering. I can recommend Kurt Andersen's

For many outside of it, even from 'cousin colonies' (I'm in Australia) there is much about the USA that is simply bewildering. I can recommend Kurt Andersen's book 'Fantasyland', published around the time of Trump's ascension, to help you make some small sense of it all. He writes persuasively, and describes a history full of (perceived) persecution and exceptionalism-inspiring events that, almost ineluctably, led them here. "America was the dreamworld creation of fantasists, some religious and some out to get rich quick, all with a freakish appetite for the amazing. Beyond our passionate beliefs in various kinds of magic and destiny, our particular religious DNA, supercharged, was the source of other defining American habits of mind as well, such as the craving for the mysterious to be literal, and the hair-trigger sensitivity to persecution by elites. In addition to being the first designed-built Protestant nation, America was also the first designed-built Enlightenment nation. The two fed each other—and sometimes became toxic in combination." [0] https://www.kurtandersen.com/fantasyland https://www.kurtandersen.com/fantasyland