This isn't really provocative. The Constitution was written to avoid Civil War. It accomplished this task for about 80 years. The Civil War was simply the argument actually taking place. As Americans, we have no historical reason to hold to a state ideology... they existed as functions of a past colonial reality... a reality which we sought to erase and destroy. Personally, I have no sentimental or ideological attachment to the idea of sub-territories or administrative divisions. There is no great historical tradition of state identity, and they are simply an aberration of European colonial administration. Our states are little more than administrative divisions like any other administrative division. Getting me to have any great feelings about that is just silly and stupid. I mean, get real.