Ok, so you are arguing that the South is the most liberal area of the USA. Good luck convincing anyone of that.
Well, no, I'm arguing that Southern bigshots have nearly always placed the interests of the State ahead of the interests of the individual and that's exactly what they were doing when they "seceded" from the Union. They used the term "state's rights" as shorthand for that Statist philosophy.
Their "secession" was designed to prtect slavery (which most people regard as repugnant to individual liberty). In addition, their "secession" constituted an attempt to immediately strip all U.S. citizens in the seceding state of their citizenship and every one of their rights under the U.S. Constitution.
I have a great deal of respect for ordinary Southerners then and now. They fought because home is, well, home. But, I don't have much use for the bigshot slaveholders who had become addicted to their parasitic lifestyles, supported by the serfs and slaves around them. And, I don't have much respect for the fact that those lazy bigshots were willing to push the entire country into a Civil War in an effort to avoid having to learn how to do the kind of honest work required to support themselves.
Slavery wasn't good for the self-respect of the slaveholder and it certainly wasn't good for anyone else. And, let me assure you - slavery isn't coming back. ;-)
If there was no Southern United States, there would be no conservatism whatsover in American politics.
Says the man from the Blue State.