[Karlsonn]

To be honest, I never lived in Switzerland and only know about it from my Swiss-German friends which, I imagine is a vastly different perspective than a Swiss-French, Swiss-Romansch or a Swiss-Italian would provide.

On the German side, there is a high sense of Community-First, where your neighbor will tell on you if you don't live according to regulations. This is opposite to individual-first mentality of the US where you won't tell on your neighbor for shooting fireworks in the back yard, in hopes that they don't call in on you for a noise violation later (for example). I imagine this mentality difference is the reason why direct democracy would not work in the US since everyone would pull the blanket to their end.

In terms of EU countries most similar to US, Ireland is most similar in terms of liberal economic policy while Germany is most similar in terms of culture imo.

[m_mueller]

Small towns here definely feel more community driven. I didn't want to claim it to be the most similar, just a bit closer than other continental European countries - the British isles definitely need to be excluded.