Joshua Holland: Is it Finally Time to Let the South Secede?

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that cultural friction between the North and South persists to this day. After all, we fought an incredibly brutal, ugly Civil War. The battle-lines that were drawn then, continued to divide us through the Reconstruction period and well into the middle of the 20th century, as federal troops were once again deployed to enforce the civil rights acts. According to Chuck Thompson, a veteran travel writer who toured the American South, a degree of mutual enmity between Northerners and Southerners continues to be a source of cultural tension and political gridlock. We remain divided, even as we have grown to become the world's superpower. In his new book, "Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto For Southern Secession, Thompson argues that it may be time for a divorce, to shake hands and go our separate ways. Thompson appeared on last week's Alter Net Radio Hour to discuss his book. A lightly edited transcript of our discussion is below. Joshua Holland: Chuck, you seem to be channeling the frustration of a lot of Northern liberals. I may even have said myself that we should have let the Confederacy walk in 1860. But I haven't heard a lot of people calling to break up the Union today. You're known as a comedic travel writer. So my first question is to what degree are you being tongue in cheek here? To what degree are you being serious?  Chuck Thompson: I am being serious. I understand that the meta arguments here that call for secession can be received as somewhat absurd in some corners. I acknowledge that it is probably a remote possibility. Within the framework of that argument I think there is a lot of room to highlight a lot of these problems, and a lot of these frustrations that you refer to. One of the goals of this book really was to more or less articulate, to put some facts, figures and research behind a lot of this frustration of Northern and Southern liberals, of which there are many.