The Civil War is over and we are now one nation.
That war is over but the cultural,economic and political battle is still being fought. It's no coincidence that the south played such a big role in the culture war that was the recent election.
You might want to check out Born Fighting by Webb and some of the Civil War research on the role of the Scotch-Irish descendants versus the role of English descendants in influencing political attitudes. Scotch-Irish are much more independent while the English are more accepting of big government. The South was heavily settled by Scotch-Irish. Even in the last election you could predict Bush counties in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania by looking at the Scotch-Irish settlement patterns.
As a proud member of Red State America, I'm really glad the South lost the Civil War. :)