I grew up in a streetcar suburb of Cleveland. My favorite holiday was memorial day. Our neighborhood association would put on a parade for the veterans who lived on our block. We'd organize a little marching band of 5 or 6 of us playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and such. The suburb where I grew up was also a very liberal place for Ohio. I didn't know it as a kid, I thought EVERYONE decorated their gardens with peace stones and grew wild grasses in their front yard to support local agriculture. I thought it was normal to see a rainbow flag flying side by side with the stars and stripes.
It was also a very patriotic place-- not in the "my country right or wrong" sense, but in the way that people took voting so seriously. The way people would show up or civic meeting and speak their mind on issues in our schools and city. People seemed to feel a real responsibility for making both our suburb and the country work. It was a very "pro-America" part of America. It was, you know, real America.
I now live in the Bronx. People here don't have a lot of money-- more than half were not born in the US. But people take the American dream very seriously. If you want to talk about "hardworking Americans" I can think of no better place to look. People work very hard-- there are so many small business owners here. Livery cars, bodegas, shoe repair, nails, hair, fruit carts, repair men-- These are the most hard working Americans I've ever seen in my life. It's a very real part of America, you see. And I don't see that many elitists around here either.