Remember the Civil War? Most of us have assumed that once the union was restored, it meant that our nation would remain united indefinately: Yes, we remain one country 160-odd years later, but that's a very small increment of time in the history of human governments.
I'm a trained geologist; a scientist. Geologic time relegates historical time to a blip in the vast event that is our universe, so I have a slightly different point of view of what is going on in the U.S. today. Everyone agrees that something is going on, but what exactly?
I don't think we have to look farther back than the Civil War for a good answer, but the cultural rifts we struggle with do go back to Europe - to religious wars - more on that later.
Historical maps of the U.S. demonstrate a glaring fact: the radical right of today is concentrated in former Southern slave states; this is no coincidence. The Old Testament is not a document that pushes rights for anyone outside ruling males, and certainly not for women, children and minorities. Nor is it a coincidence that these are the same states in which radical Christians are aiming for a theocracy.
Rick Perry is the blatant spearhead for the goal of the Christian South to leave the union: this is what they wanted in the 19th Century, and a theocratic nation that is outside modern liberal government is still their goal.
It is not likely that the rest of Americans, religious or not, who do believe in a secular basis of government based on the Constitution, will in the long run put up up with the erosion of civil and personal rights that the radical right is attempting to execute - the fact that the radical right has resorted to political terrorism, dirty tricks, legislative coercion, and fearmongering to establish "validity" reflects their awareness that appeals to common sense, reason, tolerance, and cooperation are alien to their message.