In the past two decades, I have been dumped by two friends who disagreed with my political opinions. The first because he didn’t like who I voted for in a presidential election; the other because I refused to sign a petition supporting a political cause I disagreed with. At first I was hurt because I had been friends with both for many years, and I have always subscribed to Thomas Jefferson’s view: “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” Eventually I learned that the breakups said more about them than they did about me.

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