Literally 6% of surveyed self-ID'd Southerners said Maryland was the South. Maryland is doing Workers' Party of Korea election numbers on Not Being Southern
Cultural geography is defined by shared identity. People who identify as Southerners don't consider Maryland to be the South. Ergo Maryland is not in the South, QED. It's not anymore complicated than that folks. You can argue about all sorts of other factors but Southerners themselves say no *shrug*
Like they went and asked the bouncer at the Southern Club if Maryland could get in and the bouncer said "no." It's not a scholastic exercise. The passport was denied
