Union : A Democrat, a Republican, and a Search for Common Ground (9780316430289) by Blashek Jordan; Haugh Christopher

Author:Blashek, Jordan; Haugh, Christopher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: None
Publisher: Hachette Book Group USA
Published: 2020-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

Lorain

We pulled the car over in Denver at dawn. The night before, we had driven north on I-25 through the sand and scrub of New Mexico and into the evergreen forests along the alpine shelf of Colorado. We had just parked outside the house of a friend, who had agreed to take us in for a few days of rest after we dropped Richie off at the airport.

Jordan killed the engine, and we sat. We sat for a long time, listening to the muffled tuning of the new day around us. For the first time in a week, the two of us were alone, and we were exhausted. The trip through Mexico had taken its toll. But there was something else. Before we rested, we had some healing to do.

“Chris,” Jordan began, “I’m really sorry about Carlsbad.”

A car went by, its tires noisy on slick streets.

“Me too,” Chris said. “I thought we would’ve been able to handle that kind of thing better by now.”

A few days before, on our way from Los Angeles to Tijuana, we had stopped in Carlsbad, a town 35 miles north of San Diego, to see another old classmate. The four of us hadn’t seen one another in months. We found a bar along the Strand, ordered wings and fries, and settled in, trading bar-exam stories and ruminating about what lay ahead. As the night stretched on, the conversation turned to politics and things grew more and more charged until someone—neither of us can remember who of the four—said something about how Republicans are just much better at stealing elections than Democrats.

Chris glanced at Jordan.

“That’s ridiculous,” Jordan said, bristling. “Every Republican says the same thing about Democrats.”

“Well, at a minimum I’d say Republicans are just better at it,” someone said. “Democrats are way too disorganized to be effective.”

Jordan noticed Chris tense up, but pressed on anyway.

“That’s a silly generalization,” Jordan said. “Both sides are trying to win, and they’re both good at it.”

“Yeah, but only Republicans push policies that systematically disenfranchise people.”

“Like what?”

“Gerrymandering.”

“Gerrymandering is bipartisan. Both parties have done it for 200 years.”

“What about voter ID laws?”

“ID requirements don’t disenfranchise people. Electoral integrity is a legitimate concern. It’s completely reasonable.”

“Republican officials have been caught on camera saying those laws are designed to suppress minority votes.”

“Bullshit.”

“I can pull it up for you.”

“I don’t care what some idiot somewhere said. I can pull up any number of dumb quotes from Democrats. My point is that there are legitimate reasons why Republicans believe it’s important to have at least some kind of identification before voting.”

Contentions ricocheted across the table.

“Plenty of academic studies have shown no evidence of widespread voter fraud,” Chris said.

“And there is clear evidence that voter ID laws suppress the votes of low-income people, especially minorities,” someone else added.

“It doesn’t need to be widespread to be a problem,” Jordan replied. “Even a couple of hundred votes can swing an election. And every election, there are reports of dead people registering to vote. How do you explain that?”

“Even

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