Adam Boyd

“In theory, at least, the Union’s victory in the Civil War had reaffirmed the supremacy of the national government over the states. But of course the states of the former Confederacy had not come back willingly. They rejoined the union at gunpoint, and only after being forced to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and rewrite their state constitutions to ensure equal rights for newly freed blacks. Even then, it took the constant presence of federal troops, who fanned out across the South, to fight off attempts by the newly formed Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists to intimidate, terrorize, or murder black citizens who dared try to cast a ballot.”
― Jesse Wegman, Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College

“We drank wine, he was charming, but that’s all it was. Wine and Will & Grace. No touching! Finally, after a few weekends of laughing and watching Jack-and-Karen hijinks while sipping chardonnay, I asked, “So, uh, what’s going on here?” He then proceeded to tell me—are you ready for this?—that he was just trying to figure out if he still loved his husband while they were on a break. I have never left an apartment faster. I may have left a shoe behind. MEN!”
― Chasten Glezman Buttigieg, I Have Something to Tell You

“Campaign managers and other staffers point to at least three major benefits that would flow from a national popular vote: more public participation, more political moderation, and more presidential legitimacy.”
― Jesse Wegman, Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College

“But I was admittedly frustrated after Iowa. The conspiracies multiplied. Someone noticed that our campaign had purchased software from the same software company that made the flawed app in Iowa—enough to send the Twittersphere into a tailspin. A staff member on my campaign was married to someone who ran a company that invested in the company that made the app—clear evidence! No one really took the trouble to explain what all these tidbits were supposed to amount to, but then, conspiracy thinking is not obliged to answer questions; it merely asks them, insinuating.”
― Pete Buttigieg, Trust: America's Best Chance