In Vineyard spat, Trump is the elephant on the veranda

Alan Dershowitz’s spat with his Martha’s Vineyard neighbors was the focus of a front-page July 4 story (“The Vineyard gives Dershowitz a cold shoulder’’), but Donald Trump’s continued power to control social narrative was the real news. The specter of rich liberals grousing about one another at rival parties would be better placed on the Globe’s society page, but for the president’s divisive mastery. Dershowitz capitulated to Trump’s allure no less than most of the national press corps did during the president’s 2016 campaign. There is plenty of complicity to go around and no moral high ground in the Vineyard schism. We need to find ways to talk with one another across political divides — regardless of summer domiciles — or Donald Trump will be laughing all the way into his second term.

Geoff Wilkinson

Milton

Sure, stand on principle, but pick a more worthy perch

Re “The Vineyard gives Dershowitz a cold shoulder’’: As a champion of individual liberty, Alan Dershowitz says that he is being consistent in his defense of President Trump against the appointment of the special counsel, and that he is being shunned for his principles. However, there is something disconcerting about the way he has voraciously defended the world’s most powerful man when in fact it is the least powerful who most need defending.

I’d rather see Dershowitz lend his voice and considerable stature to defending the basic human rights of the desperate asylum seekers on our southern border, whose families have been torn apart by this president. Otherwise, I could care less who’s shunning whom among the high muckety-muck of Martha’s Vineyard.

Don Hanley

Plymouth

With ‘friends’ like these . . .

It is pathetic, really, that some of Alan Dershowitz’s “friends’’ on Martha’s Vineyard have shunned him based on their anger at his association with the president and their disagreement with his legally informed opinions on the special counsel and other matters.

The simple answer? These were never his real friends. A real friendship, based on shared values and memories and a reservoir of good will, easily survives differences of opinion on politics and other issues. Indeed, friendships are more interesting when the parties are not always in agreement.

To shun a friend based on such disagreements is inexcusable. It reflects terribly on these so-called friends.

Bruce Danziger

Edgartown

Liberal elite throwing mud pies from the sandbox

How ironic that the coastal liberal elite, safely ensconced on their summer playground on the Vineyard — the ones who constantly preach to the rest of us to be kind, loving, forgiving, and open-minded — are shunning Alan Dershowitz. Is this another case of do as I say but not as I do?

Armand Kazarian

Marshfield

‘Shun’ Dershowitz? With all this ink?

That people on the Vineyard give Alan Dershowitz a cold shoulder is hardly newsworthy. After so many years of getting attention, Dershowitz has tried to stay relevant and hog the limelight by praising Donald Trump’s “compassion,’’ supporting Trump for the sake of the “truth,’’ and using character assassination to undermine Robert Mueller’s investigation. It is understandable that this behavior would offend and drive away some of his acquaintances and that someone as self-absorbed as Dershowitz would use their response to grab more headlines.

The wisest course would be to stop encouraging this foolishness by not rewarding it with undue attention.

Thomas G. Worobec

Waterville Valley, N.H.