IT’S an odd feeling when you find yourself effectively living on an island unconnected to people with whom you were once politically close. But it’s a feeling with which I’ve become very familiar.
Recent encounters with old political allies and friends have left me not just with a feeling of isolation but a sense that our islands are drifting farther apart. The reason is simple: I am highly critical of President Trump, and that puts me at odds with a vast majority of my fellow Republicans. One illustrative example occurred this summer, when I had several discussions with longtime Republican friends who support the president. These conversations focused on the meeting Donald Trump Jr. had with a person he believed represented the Russian government and who promised to deliver incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.
None of the people I spoke with were troubled in the least by it.