Distractions from the right

Last week, as the president of the United States was meeting with foreign leaders in an attempt to gather additional support for disabling ISIS, one of the foulest and most brutal terrorist organizations in modern history, detractors on the right obsessed over Obama saluting a Marine while holding a coffee cup.

It was the topic du jour on Fox News as well as with certain conservative pundits, who chided the president for disrespecting the military so egregiously. Of course, this is the sort of distraction Fox News is known for. Why talk about the real issues when you can cater to the hatred of your core audience, tea partyers and other hard-right zealots?

The furor among those devotees over the so-called “latte salute” is unsurprising, but so very embarrassing to the nation considering the context of what was happening during the week in the Middle East and at our nation’s capital. While viewers sat in front of their TVs in the comfort of their safe homes debating a presidential faux pas, innocent people were being beheaded for not subscribing to an extreme Islamic ideology. Already, two American journalists have been killed in this barbaric manner.

If there was ever a time for the partisan bickering to end, it’s now, when our nation is on the verge of yet another war on foreign soil. Our leaders must see that we do not make the same mistakes we made in Iraq and Afghanistan—that’s going to take the resolve of a truly united nation. For those who cannot rise above the political infighting, we think the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart said it best: “Fuck you and your false patriotism.”