Growing up the child of Democratic parents in a Republican community, I would always find myself frustrated and confounded to find that – having failed once again to persuade my middle-school friends of their wrongheadedness in yet another political conversation – good friends can honestly disagree.

Fast-forward to the 21st century. Republicans heartily acknowledge the explicit intentions behind gerrymandering: winning elections you’d probably lose if you just played fair. A candidate attempts to rig the results of a presidential election.

The inevitable finding: My friends and their families were honorable citizens. Their successors on the current political stage are just as evil as the Democratic Party segregationists of the post-Civil War.

David Karraker
Portland