Viewpoint Diversity in Polarizing Times: A Conversation with Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Sullivan has been one of America’s most prominent political commentators for the past quarter century. Sullivan’s core appeal as a writer and thinker has always been his fierce independence. Readers of his weekly column know that though Sullivan is a conservative, he is as likely to criticize the Republican Party as he is the excesses of cultural liberalism. Recently, however, many in the media industry have come to see Sullivan’s allergy to consensus as a liability. On July 17 Sullivan announced that his employer, New York Magazine and Vox Media, decided to end their association with him, a decision widely attributed to Sullivan’s high-profile criticisms of progressive orthodoxy on race, gender, and sexual identity issues.