"... the era of cheap shots, where the mean-spirited personal attack is more valuable than the substantive political debate."

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Examining Lattegate: Why political pissing matches must end
By David Steury, October 3,2014

Last week, a scandal broke in Washington. A major instance of inappropriate interaction between the Executive Branch and the Armed Forces surfaced, shocking Americans from Berkeley to Bangor. The incident, which involved players from enlisted men all the way to the top of the chain of command was the latest in a series of controversies that have shrouded the federal government in a cloud of shame.

What was that scandal, you ask? The Commander-in-Chief made an unconscionable display of disrespect towards our men and women in uniform. What specifically? Now that you make me say it…he forgot to take his cup of coffee out of his hand to salute while disembarking Marine One.

The reasonable observer sees this picture: a Commander-in-Chief who had just recently started bombing a radical organization that has made a nasty habit of beheading journalists, steps off his helicopter wondering when the Ebola virus would hit America. He distractedly bungles a custom that’s been around for a tenth of our nation’s history by failing to transfer the beverage that, if I were him, would be keeping me alive, to his other hand. Whoops. Then he gets back to the business of blowing up people who have stated that they not only want to destroy the United States but have also begun a rapid conquest of Iraq and Syria.

But in today’s polarized and caustic political environment, such a silly mistake is taken by an extreme and unfortunately large fringe as further evidence for why the President—elected twice by the American people and grateful beneficiary of the American dream—is a traitor and uses the American flag as a Kleenex. 

What in any sane political climate would garner a couple laughs and a shout-out on late-night television attracted attention from multiple cable news networks and (allegedly) serious political figures like Sarah Palin and Karl Rove.

It seems to be the era of cheap shots, where the mean-spirited personal attack is more valuable than the substantive political debate. Many Americans seem to truly believe that this President’s mundane actions are threatening their way of life, and have resorted to the basest of rhetorical tactics to assert their points.

In targeting mistakes like a bungled salute or resorting to name-calling—like Fox’s in-house quack Keith Ablow did this summer when he called Michelle Obama fat on national television and went on to assert that she “dislikes America”—the extreme element of the debate appeals to the worst side of people and introduces controversy where none belongs. 

When the debate is consumed by irrelevant bits and pieces, the marketplace of ideas ceases to function and is replaced by a rhetorical cage fight. In the blogosphere, all too often a Hot Air writer will call the President a socialist and then someone at the Daily Kos will fire back that, well, Michele Bachmann is an utter psychopath. Pundits at Fox and MSNBC ridicule one another and compete to see who can accuse the other of hating freedom more. Instead of analyzing the policies proposed by each side, the political process is reduced to a pissing contest on the national scale.

Distractions like lattegate (apparently, it was actually a chai, enraging Karl Rove, who apparently can’t say chai without visible discomfort) degrade the national political discussion and lead citizens and media elites to waste time slinging mud instead of learning how the person for whom they cast a vote will work for them and for the nation.

Focusing on such silly things and calling each other names fuels the discontent that many Americans feel towards our political system and trivializes the political process. 

We shouldn’t focus on which cup was in whose hand while they did what. Clearly, we should focus on the contents of that cup. 

I, for one, am disgusted that it was not coffee.
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