On that same note, Im very saddened that the world and even Americans consider those things as being what IS American. When I think of American traditions, I dont think of Mickey Mouse, Walmart, McDonalds, or any of those things. I think of apple pie, quilts, small midwestern towns with 4 generations of family living on the same block, farm houses, cows, mountains and dense coniferous forests, etc. Why does the world define America by freakin McDonalds? That's annoyingly offensive to me.
They identify us with it because that's what we've exported to their countries. McDonald's, Starbucks, Levi's jeans, and stuff like that may be the only view they have of what America is like. How in the world would they know anything about small-town rural life here?

Of course, I'm sure every culture wants to face-palm over how the rest of the world views them. Just as the Scots tend to roll their eyes at the idea that Americans think of Scotland as a nation full of anachronistic kilt-wearing Highlanders with blue face paint and two-handed claymores, and just as the Germans perhaps cringe at the thought of the rest of the world thinking of them as pilsner-drinking, wurst-and-sauerkraut-eating guys in lederhosen (or worse, the WWII-era connotation). We all view our own native cultures differently than the world stereotypes us. Sadly, though, we Americans have not done a very good job of broadcasting who we are except for the worst examples of commercialised mass-marketed garbage.