Union: A Democrat, A Republican, and A Search for Common Ground

Yale Law School classmates Blashek, a conservative former Marine, and Haugh, a liberal Berkeley, Calif., native, debut with an earnest and open-minded chronicle of their cross-country road trips in search of political common ground. Between 2016 and 2019, the authors visited 45 states and Mexico, meeting people of all backgrounds and engaging in long—and occasionally heated—debates over climate change, immigration, police brutality, government regulation, and Trumpism. In Portland, Maine, they talk with a lobsterman about the impacts of tourism, real estate development, and overfishing on the seafood industry. They volunteer at a service center for South and Central American migrants in Tijuana, Mexico; attend a Trump rally in Phoenix, Ariz.; and visit with recently paroled women making handbags at a nonprofit rehabilitation program in Detroit. Their conversations and experiences reveal numerous ideological fault lines across the country, as well as “a deep well of feeling” for America’s civic virtues and “a spirit of rebirth and renewal.” Though the book’s reportage is more scattershot than comprehensive, Blashek and Haugh’s portrait of their friendship reveals both the challenges and benefits of “argu[ing] passionately while respecting the other side.” Readers dismayed by today’s hyperpartisanship will find solace in this sober-minded yet hopeful account. Agent: Elias Altman, Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents. [em](May) [/em]