Yearbooks of the Damned

Virginia governor Ralph Northam is expected to resign tomorrow. Everyone is calling for it—left and right.

This is one more indication of how insane public discourse has become in the US. And in Canada.

The demand comes because a photo was found in Northam’s medical school yearbook, showing him either in blackface or wearing the costume of the KKK. The photo shows two students—nobody is clear on which one is Northam, including Northam, but it is on his personal page.

Northam himself, of course, loses a great deal from this. The sudden end of a very promising political career. His political opponents do not gain: he will only be replaced by another Democrat of similar views. The democratic process loses, in significant ways. Northam was elected; this resignation would subvert that, and overrule the democratic process. The people of Virginia will be left with a governor they had no say in choosing. And the vulnerability to petty scandals in your past is sure to discourage others from seeking public office.

And over what? Over a bad choice of dress for a costume party? At the very worst, who was hurt?

Suppose that Northam was the guy dressed in the KKK hood. Does dressing up like that for a costume party imply endorsement? Since when? Does dressing up like a witch, a vampire, or Frankenstein’s monster for Hallowe’en imply support for witches, vampires, and monsters?

Or let’s say it does. Then how can anyone be upset if Northam turns out to have been the student in blackface? That implies endorsement. Then that must necessarily have been expressing his support of blacks. Supporting blacks is intolerable racism?

It makes no sense.

Let’s even suppose, although entirely unwarranted, that it was Northam in the white hood, and this actually was meant to show his own support for the KKK. Even then, so what? That was in, what, 1983, when he was 25 years old. What sense does it make to hold anyone accountable now for their opinions 35 years ago? What politician can you name who has been in public life that long and still supports the same positions? Don’t people’s ideas change? Since when do we no longer believe in redemption? Where would Moses or St. Paul or St. Augustine be by such standards?

This really all has to stop. I think this is a good point at which to take that stand, because politically, Northam’s ideas are antithetical to mine. He believes in legal infanticide, for heaven’s sake. So I want to plant the flag here.