And I have to say one more thing. No, the Southern culture is not perfect and never has been. No culture is. Yes, I DO consider it far superior to the Yankee culture, in every way, right down to their food.
One of the major causes of 9/11 is the widespread modern belief that no culture is any better than any other culture. Of course, no one really believes this, but one is supposed to feign belief in it, and chastise anyone who suggests that some cultures are better than others.
"Southern culture" today, like other cultures, is a hybrid. It benefited from a hearty dose of industrial technologies and ideas coming from elsewhere. There certainly are many good things about the South now, but a lot of that is due to the circulation of ideas and technologies. If you want to exclude what's come along since 1860, your life and society will be much worse. If you don't, you've already tacitly acknowledged some of the good things about other parts of the country.
My own belief is that every part of the country is capable of so much idiocy on its own, that we're better off hanging together, and letting our mistakes balance out.