{"id":137745,"date":"2019-02-04T19:53:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T02:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/04\/the-northam-thing-should-be-about-northam.html"},"modified":"2019-02-04T19:53:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T02:53:46","slug":"the-northam-thing-should-be-about-northam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/04\/the-northam-thing-should-be-about-northam.html","title":{"rendered":"The Northam Thing should be about Northam"},"content":{"rendered":"

The arguments that Ralph Northam, Governor of Virginia, should resign have a lot of layers, space for counter-arguments, but it's hard to see how he can hold on with any effectiveness, even if one thinks he should.[1]<\/p>\n

But significant irk I have about this particular scandal is the conflation of "Northam should go" and "Boy, that Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax is a really keen person we'd love to see as governor."<\/p>\n

Yes, despite the highly dubious sexual assault allegations that have conveniently cropped up, Fairfax seems like he would be a good governor, and certainly it would be an additional milestone in the history of Virginia having an African-American in that post.<\/p>\n

But that should have — does<\/i> have — nothing<\/i> to do with whether Northam should resign, whether the loathsome things he apparently did as a med school student in 1984 should disqualify him from political office in 2018, whether his contemporary actions belie the accusations made about his character, whether he's mishandled the whole contretemps, whether this is now "bigger than Ralph Northam," whether the scandal is such that he can't possibly govern … it is (or should be) solely all about Northam, and the judgment about what he did and his fitness to be governor. Who is standing in the wings? That's a matter of political calculus, not moral calculus.<\/p>\n

If what Northam did was awful enough to be dogged into retirement even if his successor was a staunch Republican, then it's the right thing to do. Being a bit too openly eager to reach that conclusion with an attractive "rising star" as Lt. Governor weakens the moral judgment people seem to be driving toward.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

[1] For the record, while I tend toward the proposal that "People in college, even grad school, do blitheringly stupid things, that should be weighed against their more recent actions to make a judgment about what kind of person they presently are," I also realize that I'm not of the groups that might be understandably most offended by this, nor am I a resident of Virginia. And certainly Northam's handling of the matter has been a spiral of personal discredit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n<\/a>
\nRalph Northam’s yearbook page: Virginia governor faces pressure to resign over racist yearbook photo – CBS News<\/a><\/span>
\nNortham said Friday night he is “deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Original Post<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The arguments that Ralph Northam, Governor of Virginia, should resign have a lot of layers, space for counter-arguments, but it's hard to see how he can hold on with any effectiveness, even if one thinks he should.[1] But significant irk I have about this particular scandal is the conflation of "Northam should go" and "Boy, … Continue reading “The Northam Thing should be about Northam”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134972,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/07\/tweetizen-trump-2017-10-07-weekend-update.html","url_meta":{"origin":137745,"position":0},"title":"Tweetizen Trump – 2017-10-07 “Weekend Update”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Oct-17 2:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Haven't had time to keep up on the Tweetinator this week, Donald, and I don't propose to touch every tweet now. 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