TV legal pundit Alan Dershowitz was widely mocked on Twitter after penning a column last week for The Hill about the decline of political civility in the Trump era — which included a complaint that his wealthy Martha’s Vineyard neighbors are shunning him for his defense of Donald Trump.
“That is all some people need to know to make judgments about you. I know this because I have experienced this firsthand on Martha’s Vineyard,” wrote Dershowitz, whose upcoming book “The Case Against Impeaching Trump” is due this month.
“I am a liberal Democrat in politics… but that is not good enough for some of my old friends on Martha’s Vineyard. For them, it is enough that what I have said about the Constitution might help Trump. So they are shunning me and trying to ban me from their social life on Martha’s Vineyard,” he continued.
Not quite the intense drama of “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” where Dershowitz was played by Evan Handler. But if he expected sympathy, he received the opposite on Twitter.
Some noted that in his column, Dershowitz talks about protesters confronting Trump officials without discussing what is being protested:
Alan Dershowitz needs our thoughts and prayers right now. Due to his support for Trump, his friends are shunning him from their fancy soirées at Martha’s Vineyard. So…
Womp womp.
Amen.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/ashleyn1cole/status/1013935377776771073
https://twitter.com/Diane_7A/status/1013909113082990597
Others focused on the Martha’s Vineyard aspect:
HAHAHAHA. I thought the Dershowitz op-ed about being shunned on Martha's Vineyard was some weird twitter meme and NOT AN ACTUAL COLUMN HE WROTE DOWN AND PUBLISHED.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/sarahw/status/1013897342624428032
Protip: no solicitation of sympathy should include the phrase "I have experienced this firsthand on Martha's Vineyard."https://t.co/3N8LY7U3H5
— WontonKillingHat (@Popehat) July 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/TVietor08/status/1013880179486126081
Others commented on the lack of perspective relative to other forms of incivility:
Socrates was forced to eat hemlock. Ovid, Dante, & Emma Goldman were sent into exile. Margaret Sanger was jailed. Rosa Luxemburg, Gandhi and Martin Luther King were killed. Spinoza was excommunicated. Alan Dershowitz can't find anyone to dine with at Martha's Vineyard.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) July 2, 2018
Who can forget when Rosa Parks and Marsha P. Johnson got the cold shoulder at a Martha’s Vineyard garden party in the late 70s. Worst thing that ever happened to them.
— R. Eric Thomas (@oureric) July 2, 2018
And of course, there’s this deep cut reference to Dershowitz’s best-selling book “Reversal of Fortune” (adapted for a 1990 film in which he was played by Ron Silver).
Wow, Alan Dershowitz is being shunned from the social scene in Martha’s Vineyard? One could say he’s experiencing a Reversal of Fortune… get it… ‘Reversal of Fortune’… I’ll be here all night folks…
— Cyrus McQueen (@CyrusMMcQueen) July 2, 2018