I was reading the comments following a blog post at Front Porch Republic about possible future scenarios, when the past and the future seemed to merge. It seems that the North/South Divide is very much alive and well in the North.
In the comments, Valli Genevieve said:
I have to say, here in New England, there is conversation in my community, for the first time I can ever remember, along the lines of “When the South wanted to secede, we should have let them go. They have been nothing but a thorn in the side of the republic. The North would be better off without them = higher education levels, environmental responsibility, more rational healthcare system, etc.”
Let the south go their own crazy tea party way, they seem to value lower taxes against all “common goods”. It may be time for them to live with the consequences of their politics and reactionary world views. But, it may be too late. The virus has spread and we may be looking at a civil war based on progressive versus regressive beliefs – a far messier and destructive outcome.
I agree with Mr. Genevieve. North and South would both have been better off without the other – at least as far as being forced together under the same government. There is much that we have in common, and there would be mutually beneficial trade and treaties, but we are two very different cultures that will never become one.
So often, it is Southerners who are accused of crying “Never Forget”. What we really forget is that there are two sides of this, and Northerners are the other side of this issue. I do not point this out to criticize Northerners, but to remind folks that the same cultural differences that split us apart are still there, just below the surface. This comment very clearly illustrates the stark differences that still exist between the conservative Southern culture and the liberal Northern culture (or, as Mr. Genevieve likes to put it – progressive versus regressive).
The original post at Front Porch Republic is a brief but fascinating look into the possible future of America.
1) If the Southern states were to break away from the Union, I would hope Ohio, Indiana and southern Illinois would join with them, as we have far more in common with the South than Massachusetts and California.
2) If Mr. Genevieve and his New England friends believe that traditional Southern culture, strictly limited government and fiscal sanity are a “virus,” then I think we have our answer.
Thanks for the great post, Colonel.
southern Illinois
Yes, your part is as far South as much of Virginia. Do you know T by any chance?
Dear Sirs,
Most of rural California is culturally and socially closer to the South,
than to the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas,
due to those that moved there from the South and the non-Pacific West.
Los Angeles and San Francisco tend to dominate the State, however.
Yours truly, would like to help suppress L.A. and the Bay Area,
making California a Confederate State of the reconstituted Confederacy
of the future. Dream on.
A New Jersey Copperhead
You can put Montana and Wyoming in that group as well. We value the individual and state rights as well as fiscal responsibility and family values.
@James: I think it would be perfectly reasonable and beneficial for the non-communist/progressive portions of California to secede and either join with other portions of the country or to form their own republic. I would wish them God speed and great success.
What I wouldn’t give for a chance to “live with the consequences of [my] politics and…reactionary world views…”
React on, my friends.
Mr. Starrett, I believe that you have summed up what all of us here are thinking. Thank you, sir.
In brief: The only remaining place of a Jeffersonian tradition (out to be renewed hopefully) is the South. Dixie’s basis is rooted in Classical Tradition, by way of dignity and reserved civility. In my humble view: her core identity could never meld with the predatory urban dysfunctions of the North. Finis.
Dear Sirs,
Yours truly, having been forced-fed egalitarianism in the University of California system, and to my shame, sampled several questionable ideologies, has come full-circle
(though within limits at work, due to brainwashed staff members).
Yours truly, is proud to be disparaged as a reactionary, by the Marxists, quite proud, since we are defined by our enemies. No rainbow or U.N. flag flies in my house, the flags of the Confederacy, the Algerian Departments of France, the Dutch East Indies, the anti-Communist Freikorps and Rhodesia do.
A New Jersey Copperhead
I was going to post this comment at another post of yours as it was related,however, here goes…
As God raises up nations and puts them down, his original intent was not that “America” be one nation from sea to sea, but rather at least two separate nations, or we would not have had this continuous war since almost the beginning of which the War of Northern Aggression was but the initial overt violent act.
That war is still on going and will, like a boil coming to it’s bursting point, explode in more violence,because of the never ending pushing and prodding of one group against another. The pushing and proding group,like Lincoln and his abolitionist/radical republican minions, are continuing the same process today. The Bible refers to it as “seeking an occasion”; ie, a pretext for war.
The beast on the Potomac does the same thing with the nations of the world, like a female that goes about meddling in everyone elses business.
The war continues because the situation of forced union is not TRUE.
I meant to include a related post of mine on the subject….
http://bclaym.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/provocations-pokes-prods-feints-and-shit-tests/
Great post and fantastic comments. I suggest, if yall havent read it, “Albion’s Seed” by David Hackett Fischer. He goes into great (and often hilarious detail) about the radically different cultures that created the North and the South. Apparently, despite being almost completely descended from British stock, the American colonies already contained 4 distinct ethno/religious groups from the very beginning. Quakers and Puritans in the north, and Anglo/Scottish borderers (aka. Scot-Irish) in the Highland south and Cavalier aristocrats in the southern lowlands.
We were never truly united. This *thing* we live under was a Frankenstein freakshow from the start.
Im glad to see our northern cousins getting the picture…finally.