We still don’t know: did Virginia Governor Ralph Northam dress up in Klan garb, or is he the fellow in blackface? One thing we do know is that if photos of any Republican surfaced wearing either, they would have already resigned five or six times.
Ask former Mississippi Senator Trent Lott. All he did is toast a 100-year-old senator from South Carolina on his birthday. Lott committed the unpardonable sin of lightheartedly suggesting that, had the country voted for Strom Thurmond for president, the country would be better off today.
It was an old man’s birthday. Lott never mentioned race. Strom smiled. And in a flash, Lott was gone.
There was no charity when it came to Trent Lott. He praised Strom Thurmond’s career, and that was that. Worst of all, Lott was a Republican. We’ll see shortly how important partisan affiliation is when distributing mercy and charity.
Ralph Northam declared war on white supremacists in 2018. In 1984, he may have been dressing like one.
Does the passage of time warrant a defense of Northam today? On one hand, charity, compassion, and mercy might color the black and white photos from 1984. The Ralph Northam of 1984 is different from the Ralph Northam of today, so the defense goes. A life has many moments of private redemption and reconciliation, and perhaps he is better because of those moments.
But charity and mercy aren’t what will fuel the defense of the Virginia governor. Charity and mercy give way to a more important theology in Northam’s party: leftist ideology and support of abortion.
What a week it was for Governor Northam. Just before photos of his Nathan Bedford Forrest impersonation were revealed, Northam was busy staking out the most radical position possible on infanticide.
Abortion after birth? Not until the doctor and mother have had time to consult while the struggling newborn is “kept comfortable.”
In the Democratic Party, that’s called reproductive rights.
In his extraordinary statements on pre- and post-birth abortion, Northam has secured his defense. Who needs mercy and charity when he’s already all-in on the NARAL agenda? Political ideology masquerading as forgiveness will carry Northam through with Virginia Democrats.
Three cheers for reproductive justice. It’s such an intoxicating theology for Democrats that it may even absolve blackface and KKK garb.
Both United States senators from Virginia have announced their support for Northam. Just a few days ago, old photos of Florida Secretary of State Mike Ertel in blackface emerged and Ertel was gone before the cock crowed.
Trent Lott and Mike Ertel weren’t the only victims of this crazy irrational disparate treatment over race. Meet, once again, federal court nominee Tom Farr.
Mr. Farr is a distinguished lawyer from Raleigh. President Trump appointed him to the federal bench in North Carolina. Farr has done more to get Republicans elected than just about anyone within 300 miles of Raleigh. He defended North Carolina’s election integrity laws, and for that the vocal racial left targeted Farr.
His nomination last year was derailed by someone in his own party – South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Scott listened to a small group of dishonest partisan Democrat lawyers and concluded Farr wasn’t fit to serve because of work he did in the 1990 Jessie Helms campaign, or so we are told.
Yet Farr was shown explicitly in a leaked internal Justice Department memo to have utterly zero culpability in the accusations. Anyone who could read could see that. That’s what led a group of conservative heavyweights – from Attorney General Ed Meese to Senator Jim DeMint to Ginni Thomas – to write a letter to Tim Scott begging him to support Tom Farr.
But the opposition to Farr was guilt by association. Tom Farr, as a young attorney, worked for Jesse Helms. Therefore Tom Farr, now an older attorney, is unfit to serve on the federal bench. No blackface necessary.
Mercy and compassion really are in short supply. So is proportion.
Unlike Senators Warner and Kaine, the NAACP is calling for Northam to resign.
But just last week, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing where a representative of the NAACP testified in favor of a new federal mandate that would let all felons vote. When pressed, advocates admitted that a full restoration of rights – including the right to run for office, such as Governor of Virginia – would apply to murderers and child rapists.
There you have it. Northam has to go because of the yearbook photo while the same gang wants to ensure that murderers and rapists can hold public office. These are things I suspect nobody in 1984 would have believed could ever come true.
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