It seems like some of the biggest political arguments that arise in today’s society are no longer about actual life changing issues. First it was emails, and now it is a haircut. 

On Monday, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi went to a San Francisco hair salon and was caught on a video released by Fox News showing Pelosi with her face mask over her neck — not her nose and mouth. Since then, backlash has arisen from the owners of the salon claiming that it is a “slap in the face” for Pelosi to get her haircut when no one else can and many Republicans have been bombarding with claims of hypocrisy. 

While most people expected to hear the basic Washington apology from Pelosi followed by months of news coverage deeply investigating how and where she gets her haircuts, she took one of the most unorthodox stances on this issue and instead demanded the store owners to apologize to her for because of the “setup” that occurred. 

Pelosi defends her claim of being set up by talking about how the salon invited her to come for an appointment because they are allowed to have one person in the salon at a time. However, this is a blatant lie because these new rules were not set to occur until Sept. 1 in the city. So the moral of the story is that there is wrongdoing on both sides — not just by Pelosi. 

Yes, Pelosi is a hypocrite for being so forceful about the wearing of face masks when she herself has been clearly seen not wearing one. I agree with everything Pelosi has said about wearing face masks, and the fact that she could be so careless with her own mask does raise a question about how much she actually cares about the safety of others. She should have apologized for being so careless without her mask, but the salon also needs to apologize for the clear setup that did occur.

As for the Republican Party, I completely understand why they would want to jump on this video as an example of hypocrisy, but they need to realize that their presidential candidate this week made fun of Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, for wearing a mask in his visit to Kenosha, Wis. this past Thursday.

They need to stop acting like they care so much about face masks when the President of the United States, a Republican, is almost never seen wearing a face mask. If we are on the topic of hypocrisy, I am going to talk about news that broke earlier this week from The Washington Post regarding a scandal that is receiving little coverage in the American lexicon.

This week, it was revealed by First Lady Melania Trump’s former senior adviser that Trump used a private email to do official government business as the First Lady. Sound familiar? That is because throughout the 2016 presidential election, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party was unable to stop talking about the private email server that Hillary Clinton used as the Secretary of State. 

The core message of this blog today is clear: stupid political games that lead nowhere need to stop being focused on. They are detrimental to the prosperity of America, and they get us away from issues of actual importance. Focus on the pandemic, focus on the protests and riots that have arisen in recent months, focus on climate or just focus on an issue that actually matters. With over 180,000 Americans dead of the coronavirus and the social unrest that has sparked over racial inequality, politicians need to refocus their attention — not focus on emails or a haircut.