Philip Gerard contended that the unhealed wounds and unresolved issues from the Civil War were a major driver of today’s Great American Divide. His next book idea, Toward a More Perfect Union: Why America Lost the Civil War and How to Win It Now, will remain unwritten. But he offers some of the ideas that would have gone into that book in other places. We take a closer look at his consistency and courage in this remembrance of a rich, well-lived, albeit abbreviated life.

On this episode: Rachel Keith helps unpack the Republican's sweep of the New Hanover County Board of Education. The four GOP candidates will effectively be able to make policy in the coming years — what might that look like? Then, Kelly Kenoyer joins us to get Republican and Democratic political perspectives on the 2022 election from Chase Horton, who ran Michael Lee’s campaign, and Carter Jewell, who ran Amy Block DeLoach’s campaign.