you do like to assume, dontcha
actually, i'm a cracker meself, bred n' buggered in the south and spent much of my life back there drunk as a skunk, stumbling 'round civil war battlefields (it passed for adventure in a very flat land)
i've never understood the splitting of hairs that goes on over the civil war origins - yes, to be precise, the origin of the war was in economics and property rights, but as the property in question, and the engine of the southern economy WAS slavery, it seems a pretty pointless distinction. of course the damn yankees were bigots too, but that didn't mean they approved of slavery - lincoln's party was incredibly clear on desire to halt the spread of slavery, and that was clearly the reason for the initial wave of southern secessions in 1860-1.
at any rate, the parallel to today is a fair one. 1860's crackers fought for a system that wasn't working for them b/c they liked the dream of being one of the select few that it did enrich - same as 2008 crackers (though the jesus is on the gop's side is a wee bit different)