This is getting ridiculous. GOP Speaker Paul Ryan is facing a lot of heat at the moment for his trillion-dollar spending deal with Democrats. Which is to be expected. But take special note of the last sentence here, via The Hill:

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter says Ryan, just seven weeks on the job, is ripe for a primary challenge. "Paul Ryan Betrays America," blared a headline on the conservative site Breibart.com. And Twitter is littered with references to the Wisconsin Republican's new "Muslim beard."

Okay...

Listen, whether or not you like the man or his politics, this sort of rhetoric is absurd. It's a beard. That's all it is. We weren't particularly fond of the wimpy facial hair when Ryan was growing it out, but at this point, it's not that bad. And it certainly doesn't say a damn thing about his religious leanings; it just says that the Speaker is a man in possession of hair on his face, and that he has decided to stop shaving that hair off each morning.

Equating simply having a beard with being Muslim is stupid. But equating being Muslim with somehow being inherently bad or anti-American? That's dangerous, and indicative of a deeply disturbing trend in the way we as a country think about a huge and varied religious community.

Anyway, if you're going to jump to conclusions about the provenance and meaning of Ryan's newly hirsute mug, there are far better comparisons to make:

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wow Paul Ryan grew out a Drake beard and now conservatives are saying hes turning muslim. They used to call him on their cellphones... — villalobos 🌹🦂 (@RamonVillalobos) December 29, 2015

Jonathan Evans Jonathan Evans is the style director of Esquire, covering all things fashion, grooming, accessories, and, of course, sneakers.

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