Should Virginia governor Ralph Northam resign?
Recently a photo from Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook surfaced purportedly showing him as one of two people dressed in racist costumes (one in blackface, one in a KKK robe). Northam originally admitted he was in the photo and apologized for it, though he refused to step down.
He now claims that he had never seen the photo before this week and that he is not in the photo. He is still refusing to resign.
Should one regrettable photo preclude you from political office? Clearly Republicans and Democrats have different standards for the “purity” of their own. Steve King flirts with white supremacy and yet he remains in office; Northam may or may not be in a racist photo and the demands for him to resign are unanimous.
Should you be defined by your bad decisions?
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27 Answers
Absolutely. He has lost credibility.
Absolutely not! The cries for him to quit is just more political correctness gone amok. He isn’t in the pictures. He apologized for anything he may have done innocently, unknowingly, unmaliciously. Let it go!
Yes, and so should McConnell and Trump.
His denial, as @kritiperalluded, is hollow, since it was on his own yearbook page, selected by him. This wasn’t in the fifties, sixties, or seventies, this was from medical schools in 1984! Anyone 25 years old in 1984 would know it was a bad idea.
@zenvelo If what you say and assume was true, then you’d better be prepared to figuratively hang every single person there is if you really want to punish all of the guilty, of any color.
@kritiper, unless you want a designated “thought police” squadron, you should probably learn to recognize the difference between discretion and blatant stupidity. He chose to have these views published. Whether or not he’s changed his views (and he didn’t acknowledge any of this til he was caught) his credibility is completely destroyed now. He wasn’t 11 years old, parroting the views of friends or family, this was a med school yearbook, he was officially designated an adult at that time, with all the responsibilities, privileges, and consequences that go with that.
Yes, he should resign.
Oh, sure. I think everybody everywhere should resign. After all, who hasn’t done something regrettable at one time or another? And these days, having a picture taken of it (and stored permanently) is all the more likely. No one should ever be forgiven for anything, even after they’ve apologized, paid their penalties, and made amends as well as they can, because of course they might do it again, and anyway the deed tells us all about their defective characters. We can’t have that.
No, I would much rather have our laws written and our court cases judged by people who have never done anything wrong and know they’re more virtuous than the rest of us. That way they’ll know all about righteousness and justice. ~
Really, I don’t condone misconduct (well, maybe just a little harmless naughtiness now and then), and I think bigotry and racism ought to be taken seriously. I am not defending this particular offender. But not all misdeeds are equal, and genuine character flaws are not the same thing as foolish mistakes. (By the way, you don’t have to be young to make foolish mistakes.)
I don’t think moral terrorism is a good thing, nor is mob justice. I think we as a society have to err on the side of mercy when there’s genuine doubt and give the erring a chance to make amends.
“Should one regrettable photo preclude you from political office? ”
It shouldn’t but we all know how it ended for Al Franken.
But to admit it was him in the picture and apologize and the very next day deny it makes me think he is not trustworthy.
Do we dump him because of the picture or because he lied about it? I can’t answer. WV had a very long term senator, Senator Robert Bird that was an actual KKK member in the 50’s and admitted to it in many occasions. But he said he realized it was wrong and denounced the group. He served in the senate well into his 90’s and served our state well.
People were already pretty adamant about dumping him before he changed his story. I agree changing his story doesn’t help and creates a new reason to call for his resignation, though.
@Jeruba Agreed completely. GA.
He should resign because I don’t think he said the words “I was a racist but now I’m not and it’s wrong, I despise it, I am so sorry. I want to make up for it by advocating now against our racist President and politicians like King. And let me tell you now how I got rid of my racism. It started when….( insert convincing story )
If he says that, maybe he should stay.
Claiming that he isn’t in the photograph doesn’t mean much having already admitted it might be him. I, like most people, can be categorical that I have never posed for a photograph in a KKK robe.
If he’d admitted to it and offered an explanation and an apology he might have been forgiven. As it is that isn’t possible and I think he should resign. It may be harsh but in the racially charged atmosphere in the US at present public officials must appear trustworthy and unprejudiced.
Yes. He screwed up as an adult, it was not a “youthful indiscretion”. This picture was taken in the 80’s. This type of thing was not considered acceptable, at least not where I lived (California) at that time. It wasn’t the 1940’s.
He hasn’t made his career out of trying to stamp out racism, or standing up for the rights of people of color.
He might not be the worst bad apple in the basket, and he has plenty of time outside of being a so called “public servant” to prove what a great guy he is (if he is), but he got caught, and he’s throwing spin onto it.
He needs to go.
And the yearbook page had his name on the top. So even if the photo wasn’t of him the fact that he had it on his page and thought it was funny is telling.
I haven’t seen the page, but I never heard of a school yearbook (including when I was on staff myself) that printed pictures selected by each student other than the formal headshots. That would call for a terrific amount of organization and coordination. Student yearbook editors, photo editors, and other staffers usually do the selecting and placing. In many cases I’ve seen students’ head shots placed on pages where there were completely unrelated candid and group shots, all arranged by the layout editor. So—maybe it was “his” page, but maybe it wasn’t.
@Jeruba When I was in med school I don’t remember even having a yearbook. Or if we did I never bothered getting one.
Voluntarily dressing in clan gear &/or dawbing yourself as blackface, means you are of a racist nature, undeniably so. Of course he should resign, nothing to do with forgiving or if he feigns regret.
Imagine if photos emerged of a similar nature involving Trump…think about it, he’d be slaughtered.
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
@canidmajor Are you without sin?? Anyone else??? I’m not…
I don’t believe in sin, in the religious sense. I don’t believe in a god, or a religion. I think this dude is a closet racist and needs to resign now.
I have never dressed in KKK clothes, or blackface. In my area, in California, neither of these two costumes would have been acceptable in the time frame when they were comitted. It’s a joke to think that this guy had/has no clue.
He’s hoping that the Good Old Boys will help him. He needs to resign now, and dedicate his life to service.
@kritiper I am without that level of stupidity, I am not (nor do I ever intend to be) in public office, therefore subject to that kind of scrutiny.
My post was not about “sin”, it was about being an idiot.
@canidmajor Excuses, excuses…
Everybody else does bad stuff, but you never do.
Bullshit!
@kritiper She did not say she has never done anything bad. She said she did not want to live with that kind of scrutiny. Why are you changing the meaning of what she is saying?
@chyna, it’s what he does. He misreads in order to be annoyed. I will give you examples in private.
@chyna She’s obviously open to the idea of persecuting the guy just because he is an elected official for some stupid thing he did in college BEFORE he became an elected official. She’s probably also open to the idea of persecuting any and all adults who, as children, said stuff like “Eenie- meenie miney moe, catch a nigger by the toe.”
Yeah, that’s justice…
@kritiper Governor Northam was an adult when he pulled this little racist stunt, not a child. I don’t know where you live, but in the 1980’s, at least in my area, this kind of thing was not considered cute, or funny, or acceptable.
Maybe it was in the 1940’s, but not in the 80’s. Plus, the man is changing his story back and forth, which means something he is saying is a lie. If he had owned up to this, I might have a different reaction.
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