Ralph Northam And The New Puritans
Scott Morefield
Posted: Feb 03, 2019 12:01 AM
When a black-and-white picture that appeared below Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook page - of a bowtied man in blackface standing next to a white-robed member of the Ku Klux Klan - starting making the media rounds on Friday, it struck me at first like the most ridiculously cartoonish of fake news. Here was the Democratic governor of Virginia - by all accounts heretofore a good Leftist who openly advocates for every liberal issue under the sun including, of late, borderline infanticide - potentially being caught up in a racial controversy that would make Robert Byrd blush.
It was almost too surreal to be true, too seemingly contrived to not be a made-up meme from the bowels of the right-wing internet. But time told the tale soon enough. Was the picture real? Turns out, it was. Was the picture actually under Northam’s yearbook page? For sure. Was Northam actually in the picture, either in blackface or a KKK robe? Well, that one is a little more up in the air, especially after the Virginia governor’s Saturday press conference denying it. Whether or not Northam’s vehement denials are enough to raise more than a reasonable doubt in the minds of Virginians is yet to be seen, but regardless, the die has been cast. Make no mistake, Ralph Northam’s days as governor of Virginia are quickly coming to an end.
Now at this point, the ‘narrative’ for me as a non-left-wing columnist might typically be to demonstrate the difference between ‘Good Democrat’ Ralph Northam’s situation and that of, well, pretty much anyone right of center, like Iowa Rep. Steve King. Surely, there is a double-standard, right? They’ve obviously existed in the past. But in this case, while a cynic might say liberals have nothing to gain by replacing Northam with the even more liberal Justin Fairfax, the quick response from Democrats and liberals of every stripe, from Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi to Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the NAACP, suggests at least an increasing willingness to finally police their own.
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https://townhall.com/columnists/scottmorefield/2019/02/03/ralph-northam-and-the-new-puritans-n2540722
