[Classicaliberalconservative]

Without the North it is probably the South that would look more like France since pre 1789 France and pre 1865 South had some of the same chracteristics. A landed aristocracy hostile to industry and commerce, a class based society with clear boundaries etc. Any change from that would result in European class style politics defined through a worker vs paternalistic conservatism dialectic as in many European states. Statism and socialism that is the result. It is the northeast that keeps America to its free market and classical liberal live and let live traditions.

[Ditto]

A landed aristocracy hostile to industry and commerce, a class based society with clear boundaries etc.

Sounds like Mexico to me.

[Ohioan]

It is the northeast that keeps America to its free market and classical liberal live and let live traditions.

You are being facetious--aren't you? It is the Northeast that has been historically most associated with protectionism. It is also the area where the notion of forcing all Americans--regardless of the values in their respective States--to live according to various forms of regimented centrally decreed values--have all originated.

As for the idea of the South degenerating into Class Warfare? If you look more closely, it was Northern agitation--the NAACP, for a prime example--which led to confrontation between the races in the 20th Century. The leader of the Southern Negroes--Booker T. Washington--advocated Conservative cooperation, between the Free Men and their former Masters--the absolute antithesis of the Class Warfare that broke out in France, between the one-time Feudal Masters & a manipulated mob.

Do not mistake my drift. As a Conservative Ohioan, I am very glad to have my Conservative Southern Friends in the Union. But there is no evidence that they would have been any less Conservative, had they left it. Rather, just the opposite.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site