'What I would give to inhabit again a country where the gravest offense the president could be accused of was sartorial misconduct'

Contemporary American politics has been defined for decades now by zero-sum thinking: my enemy must lose completely, or I will lose. This has led to countless distortions and perversions of public life none of which irritate me more than the rank hypocrisy that manifests daily in the age of Donald Trump. And in my adult life, I can think of fewer instances of such hypocrisy than the fake outrage Republicans evinced over the most trivial sartorial choice.

In late August of 2014, President Barack Obama addressed the nation from the White House. He discussed the intricacies of the degenerating situation in Syria and the intensifying military response the United States would be taking to contain the threat posed by the upstart caliphate. During this conference, he wore a tan-colored suit. I thought it looked good when I saw it, clean and crisp against his suntanned face.

At that time, the Islamic State had been expanding rapidly throughout Syria seizing Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, two months prior. The group's insatiable, pitiless advance put numerous minority populations in the region at risk of mass concubinage, enslavement and even genocide.

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