[DiogenesLamp]

Something Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah might dispute.

Yes, they are totally unlike the South.

[DoodleDawg]

Yes, they are totally unlike the South.

In oh so many ways.

[BroJoeK]

DoodleDawg: "Something Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah might dispute."

DiogenesLamp reposting his 2004 electoral college map: "Yes, they are totally unlike the South."

So let's count up some of the ways:

1. Ancestry -- Northern plains were/are populated by mostly Germans and Scandinavians, the South by Brits, Scots-Irish and Africans.
   

2. Transportation -- for many decades US railroads were laid out mostly East to West, far less North to South.
   The Northwest & Great Plains connected first to Chicago, then cities East.
   

3. Northern abolitionism: Northerners hated slavery and were not going to change their values and adopt slavery to join the Confederacy for the sake of "money, money, money".