After decades of slogans like "See the USA in Your Chevrolet" and "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet," General Motors has retreated from its overtly patriotic marketing approach since emerging from government-funded bankruptcy. Maybe that was a wise move, given that American taxpayers paid for the $50 billion bailout of "Government Motors" and not all of them were happy about it.

But another dynamic also seems to be at work: The auto maker has fundamentally shifted its focus. American taxpayers may have rescued GM...