I lived in the United Kingdom for 10 years. My son speaks with a London accent. I am an Anglophile. During the Brexit vote he was a student at the University of Edinburgh. The rejection of the European Union by the British was the rejection of a central government that was too strong, large, and distant.

The elites around the world were horrified. Douglas Murray claimed in a recent Munk debate that the New York Times has not published a positive story about Britain since! This reaction by the elites to Brexit comes from the same place that results in denigrating the South and Southern history.

The challenge to powerful central government is a threat to modern elites. It threatens their power and even their livelihoods. The Southern political tradition is much more local than post-Civil War America. The government in Brussels was becoming like the one in Washington. Thus, the British said no thanks.

This increase in central government power is not a new development America. Even a cursory understanding of late 18th century and early 19th century history shows this tension. George Washington managed it in his administration. The Federalists, those for a strong central government, made significant headway led by Alexander Hamilton. The Virginian administrations, beginning with Thomas Jefferson, slowed the development of central power, but the natural state of any government is to grow.

Jefferson in an 1824 letter to Major John Cartwright:

“With respect to our State and federal governments, I do not think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. They generally suppose the former subordinate to the latter. But this is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and integral whole.”

Both the historic South and the modern South represent this belief. Denigrate the Southern tradition and you can dispose of this pesky counter to centralized power. Mr. Murry might spend some time studying the history of the South. It would make him an even better advocate for reducing the power of central governments.