governmental errors, and can freely criticizenwhen it suits its purposes. “Powernwithout responsibility” is not a badnposture for a populist party, but it is onenunlikely to last beyond this Riksdag’snthree-year term. Over the long run. NewnDemocracy’s leaders look toward a truen”right-wing” government in Sweden. Ifnthey can double their vote to 14 percent,na coalition of the Moderates, thenChristian Democrats, and New Democracynmight just be possible.nNear the end of my visit, newsnfrom America shook up everyone: PatnBuchanan had taken nearly 40 percentnin New Hampshire; George Bush wasnwounded. Business leaders and thenModerates were deeply distressed. Believersnin a New Worid Order resting onnBush-Baker internationalism, the CommonnMarket, and the World Bank, theynsaw one of the legs of their vision wobbling.nSwedish media commentators,nhowever, quickly reassured them thatnNew Hampshire was a fluke, and thatnBuchanan couldn’t possibly repeat his successnin another state. After all, GeorgenBush had won the war in the Gulf andnright-wing populism has no stayingnpower. Only time will tell.nAllan Carlson is president of ThenRockford Institute.nLetter From thenLower Rightnby John Shelton ReednA Sense of PlacenSome people, mostly Southerners and geographers,nlike to argue about how you canntell whether you’re in the South. This discoursen(if you’ll excuse the expression) cannbe more or less serious. My friend VincenStaten, for instance, once ran up a majornphone bill calling restaurants on the Interstatento see how far north you can getngrits for breakfast.nBut some heavyweight scholarship hasnbeen devoted to the question, too. AnPenn State geographer named WilburnZelinsky, for example, has compiled somengreat maps that show where people startnpainting their barns (roughly the samenplace where they once began to farmnwith horses instead of mules, just northnof the old National Road through Ohio,n44/CHRONICLESnIndiana, and Illinois). Zelinsky has alsonlooked to see where creeks stop beingncalled that (or branches, or runs) and becomenbrooks. (If you see the word “brook”nin a Southern place-name, you can bensure the real-estate developers havenbeen at work.)nThis game can go on and on, andnoften does. Literally hundreds of criterianhave been suggested, from kudzunto sweetened ice tea. My own contributionnhas been to look at phone booksnto see where people name businessesn”Southern” or “Dixie” something-or-other.n(Turns out there are a lot of hairdressersnnamed Dixie, but I didn’t countnthem.) My theory, if you can call it that,nis that folks outside the South don’t donthis much.nThe phone-book test works remarkablynwell, which is to say that it confirms mynprejudices—like the one that says southernnFlorida, northern Virginia, and westernnTexas are only marginally Southern,nthese days. If it hadn’t worked, though,nI’d have scrapped the technique and stucknwith the prejudices. After all, some of usnjust know when we leave the South.nIt seems that, just like folks with acutensensitivity to light or noise, some peoplenhave a hypertrophic sense of place.nSoutherners may be especially vulnerablento this inflammation, but it’s not justnanother regional malady, like hookwormnor pellagra. Here’s an Englishwoman,nfor instance, Jessica Mitford:nOn the train, through Kentucky.nThere’s already a marked changenof atmosphere. The women onnthe train seem to travel in Searsncatalogue dreamy date dresses.nOne is wearing a beige silknsheath, spangled semi-transparentntop, high-heeled simulated glassnslippers. She’s a great kidder.nThe conductor, checking onnreservations, just asked her, “Arenyou Mrs. Jennie Lee Kelley?” Shenanswered, “Can’t you see I am, bynmy browbeaten look?” Shrieks ofnlaughter from all, especially hernfat husband. •. . . Lovely palengreen, lush country outside. … Inna Louisville hotel: already thenpunctuation and spelling arenbreaking down. A brochure in mynroom says, “Derby Lounge.nStall’s are named and portraynfamous derby winners…” andnalso, “YE-OLE KENTUCKIEnBREAKFEASTE.” Why the hyphen?nnnBorrowed from you-all?nThis is exactly the sort of alertness I experiencenfrom the moment I get off thenplane at Newark. All sorts of everydaynthings take on special significance whennthey’re northern things. My wife finds thisnironic: she says she can move the furniturenor get a new hairstyle and I won’t noticenfor months. Maybe so (I haven’t noticed),nbut put me in a new place and bynGod I pay attention.nA while back I wrote that when I usednto drive north to college on old U.S. II,nchronic heartburn always set in aboutnHagerstown, Maryland, and it let up aboutnthe same place when I headed south. Anbook reviewer picked that out as annexample of my “characteristic exaggeration,”nbut—as God is my witness—it’snthe literal truth. What’s more, my buddynJake read the review and wrote to saynthat the same thing always happenednto him somewhere around Newcastle,nDelaware.nJake also sent along a photocopiednpage from The Web and the Rock. Asnusual, Thomas Wolfe does go on, but he’snworth quoting at length:nGeorge would later remember allnthe times when he had come outnof the South into the North, andnalways the feeling was the same—nan exact, pointed, physical feelingnmarking the frontiers of his consciousnessnwith a geographic precision.nThere was a certain tighteningnin the throat, a kind of dry,nhard beating of the pulse, as theyncame up in the morning towardnVirginia; a kind of pressure at thenlips, a hot, hard burning in theneye, a wire-taut tension of thennerves, as the brakes slammed on,nthe train slowed down to take thenbridge, and the banks of the PotomacnRiver first appeared. Letnthem laugh at it who will, letnthem mock it if they can. It was anfeeling sharp and physical asnhunger, deep and tightening asnfear. It was a geographic divisionnof the spirit that was sharply,nphysically exact, as if it had beenncleanly severed by a sword. Whennthe brakes slammed on and hensaw the wide flood of the PotomacnRiver,… he drew in hotnand hard and sharp upon hisnbreath, there in the middle of thenriver. He ducked his head a littlen