This Thing of Ours

How American Civil Wars, like the one right now, end.

“Each side thinks the other is stupid as hell,” muses Hobo Huck. 

Huck is a vagabond of some renown—an itinerant fruit-picker and hopper-of-trains. He’s talking about American polarization. He’s probably right. 

We’re outside of Gettysburg, PA, just off the field where Civil War reenactors are staging the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg for its 161st anniversary. Huck’s lounging in high grass, on a break from selling crystals. I’ve flopped down next to him to talk modern politics.

“You got your technocratic Northern cities and the West Coast cities, and then you got rural America.” Huck shrugs, as cannons boom in the distance. “They just don’t see eye to eye.” 

I like Huck. He’s the hobo Ezra Klein.