Well, that's a start. Can you tell me why it has been lost for those of us who live in the north?
ML/NJ
It’s very simple, during and after the war between the states, the federal government greatly increased its strength over all the states—what had been “these” united States became “the” United States. Governments always increase its grip during crises or wars, and so it was then—and now too (been to an airport lately?).
Roosevelt’s serious socialism only happened because the crises of the Depression seemed to make it desirable, then WWII also consolidated such control—and was in reality what ended the Depression. In the North too, particularly the North East, the influx of European immigrants in the later 19th and 20th centuries—made greater government control there more acceptable—as these persons were used to stronger governments back in Europe.
Up through the middle of the 20th Century too, various kinds of socialisms, especially communism became fashionable to the intellectual elites as the way to end poverty—and bring in a golden age. National socialism in Italy and Germany—where the government uses the market to consolidate power, instead of taking capital completely over a la communism, seemed the way to modern society to those involved....those who had always known heavy-handed governance. Democratic socialism—really the system of the modern “democracies” today, including our beloved USA, gradually came to be more and more assumed as the best way to go—and our courts made it easier, as they too expanded their power—letting the politicians also inexorably increase their power as well. In Europe of course the control was more, and the liberty less—as it always has been, and still, persons look to government on both continents to solve various problems which their great-grandparents never would have dreamed of.
In my opinion, it comes down to this: When people reject God as their ultimate provider, they look to the next biggest entity in their lives—usually government. This explains why places with the highest degrees of atheism or agnosticism also tend to have the most controlling socialistic governments.
Christian religion brings internal individual governance (self control), the lack of it makes for a demand for more external public governance, i.e. big government.