That's ok. Even we Americans are taught that the states are like counties of a single monolithic capitol with a dictator at the head we call a president. That's how it often works too.
The united States was intended by the ratifiers of the federal as well as the state constitutions to be a kind of unified collection of what are called nation states in other parts of the world. It had an extremely weak federal gt which was subservient to the states. Each landowner was considered a king of his land. Following the civil war, the northern states, coopted by the federal conquered the southern states and changed the structure eventually to a corporate body. Now each segment of the states are not truly autonomous, but rather clones of the others in as far as structure and most legal codes (so called laws). The differences are usually in quantity of taxes. Land ownership is no longer run by the kings. They were conquered and coopted so that the public servants now rule over the kings. The exact extortion payments of varying amounts from the "owners" at purchase and again and again every year.
That's an interesting perspective. It does seem to be the case that the Republicans early on were the party of big centralized governments-- the idea that states should not be allowed to secede from the union. Teddy Roosevelt expanded the role of the federal government to intervene in a situation with a strike that could have left the nation without as much coal, creating national parks and the FDA. Later, the nation passed the 16th amendment, allowing personal income tax, which set the stage for the federal government to have much greater power than the states. Democrats were a big government party under another Roosevelt.
