The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War

by Jeff Sharlet

Stetson brim to brim with The Man’s Navy ballcap. “What about those guys that tore down that guy’s fence?” The Man looked confused. Tom shouted, “Got in his yard and him and his wife came with guns to chase them off”—Tom mimed aiming two pistols, one in each hand like a gunfighter—“and they went to jail, not the fucking convict!” “Around here?” I asked. The Man shrugged, as confused as I was. “Another state!” said Tom, embarrassed that he didn’t have the details. I made a guess: “St. Louis?” St. Louis, Tom agreed. Ah—the McCloskeys. Who did not go to jail. By “convict” Tom meant “Black protesters,” who he felt should have been imprisoned. Who were in the street, not the yard. But what about Ashli? Did she not cross that line?