Reading Kevin Phillips’ American Theocracy, he is connecting some dots I hadn’t seen linked before.
My knowledge of English history is pretty thin, especially 17th century and earlier. So I would not have worked out that the Red state/Blue state divide and it’s corollaries — Dixie/Old Confederacy vs Yankee North, secular vs religious — can be traced back to the English Civil War and the overthrow of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell’s rule as Lord Protector, and the ensuing Restoration.
But Phillips makes the case that there were North/South hostilities at the time of the founding of the United States and they have never really gone away. They seem to be rooted in the makeup of the United Kingdom, with England on one side and Scotland and Ireland — the ancestral home of many Southerners — on the other. In fact, men from the Northern colonies fought on the Parliamentarian sides of the English Civil War. Virginia supported the Royalist side, welcoming Cavalier emigrés and evicting its Puritans. One battle was fought on US soil in 1655 with the Puritan side defeating the Royalists at the Battle of Great Severn.
There was also talk of secession by the Northeastern states long before the Confederacy made its move. The divisions persist to this day, according to Phillips, and underlie the current political landscape, with religion/faith the most visible aspect of them.