The paradigm here is that the areas with all of the votes (CA, NY, NJ, IL) are in the north and have for a long time resisted voting for the party that the south prefers out of cultural differences.
It's not a new idea.
I'd say it's a heck of a lot more complicated than that. MS, AL and SC had no problem coexisting with VT, ME and NH politically for most of the period 1968-1988.
While they did for a time jump on the same political tickets, they never "coexisted politically," and never will.
Not to mention that those weren't the states I named.
