This book is not intended as yet another sledgehammer for right to use against left or left to use against right. The point of this book is to help the reader to understand these competing narratives and to warn against the product of their inexorable and relentless spread through the American body politic. I grew up in rural America, I've lived in the heart of Trump country. I've lived in America's bluest precincts. I'm no longer a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. And I'm in neither tribe in large part because I feel that I understand both, and I believe both tribes can and must rediscover a sense of shared community and shared citizenship. But I don't think it's inevitable that they will. Simply put, we now face a renewed threat to our national unity. We're stumbling into the very state of being that James Madison addressed in Federalist No. 10: the "violence of faction." To understand how to go forward, we must go back-to the wisdom of the Founders, men who knew that factions could tear America apart and conceived (at least in theory) of a solution that must resonate today.... We tend to think of the First Amendment as primarily protecting individual liberty, but it's a mistake to underestimate its vital role in protecting the right of association, the right to form groups and communities that reflect and advance your fundamental values. And it's this right of voluntary association that is the lifeblood of true pluralism. Its message to Americans of all races, religions, creeds, and sexual orientations is clear: Not only do you have a place in this society, it is a place secured even against the oppression of hostile majorities. You and your community can thrive in this American republic. Book jacket.