What’s important now is not to let what happened to Fishtown be ignored. For whatever reasons, the culture that used to characterize working-class America — indeed, that made working-class America the spine of America’s civic culture — has come apart. Recognizing that this has happened is the indispensable first step in figuring out what to do next.

At this Bradley Lecture, Charles Murray will discuss how the divergence in class is affecting American life and what we can expect in the future.

Rick Santorum won big victories in three small contests in the Republican presidential race last Tuesday. In doing so he reshaped the oft-reshaped nomination battle once again. But he has not installed himself as the favorite, and neither he nor Mitt Romney has established himself as the candidate who can do best in the general election.

Republican Jane Corwin’s defeat in New York is to Republicans what the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts was to Democrats: a warning of impending disaster if the party maintains its course. Democrats in 2010 refused to see this, blaming their loss on poor turnout and a bad candidate. Republicans cannot make the same mistake.

As critics see it, the loss of our common culture is a result not of cultural changes but of shifts in policy and the economy. There are two problems with this line of argument.

For months, former senator Rick Santorum has been talking about working-class woes and promoting a working-class-friendly economic agenda.

One constant factor in the 14 contests with exit polls is that Mitt Romney has tended to run best among high-income and high-education voters. His leading opponents -- Newt Gingrich in South Carolina and Georgia, Ron Paul in Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia, and Rick Santorum everywhere else -- have run best among low-income and low-education voters.

Despite great handwringing over America's anemic job creation, the president demonstrates little understanding of the damage his policies are doing to millions of unemployed American desperate to find work.