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WASHINGTON – In front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Georgetown, a large white banner hangs on the black wrought-iron fence. “Love your neighbor,” it says.

In smaller print, it lists others in need of affection: your black neighbour, your female neighbour, your white neighbour, your LGBTQ neighbour. It also mentions Jews, Muslims, Asians, Latinos, veterans, immigrants, the disabled – even journalists, for whom love is presumably unnatural. Finally it asks you to love “your neighbor who didn’t vote for your candidate.”

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As if the list were not inclusive enough, some wit has proposed another recipient on a scribbled Post-it note. “Love your Republican neighbor,” it says.

Here, in the country’s most Democratic jurisdiction, that may be hardest of all. Last November, only four per cent of the District of Columbia voted for Donald Trump.

What Washington knows, the country is learning. The Republicans may control the White House and Congress, but it is becoming harder to be a Republican today. Less than 100 days into Trump’s presidency, the party is divided. Every setback brings headlines declaring “civil war in the GOP.”