No major cultural institution moved from New York or Los Angeles to the South. The federal political institutions were already there, but they remained within the Beltway. Yet culturally and politically, the America of today is unrecognisable as the America of 1960 for the national influence of Evangelical Protestantism, of an honour code worthy of Margaret Mitchell, of Southern hospitality, of agrarianism at least as an ideal, of militarism, and of an American nationalism even if that does sometimes express itself as Confederate sympathies. That last makes perfect sense to people who grew up with it, and the rest of us will simply never understand it.
What are our Northern, Red Wall equivalents? This time next year, Andy Burnham could be the Leader of the Opposition, as in practice he already is. Meanwhile, and not least in response, the Prime Minister could be Rishi Sunak, whose constituency of Richmond is well north of Burnham's Manchester. General Elections are now won and lost along the Red Wall, so those of us who were now over 40 might never live to see another major Party Leader from the South. No institution would need to move here, yet we in the North could entirely reshape the culture and the polity. But on what basis?
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