I don't understand all the hand wringing and hesitation about Northam

[Jersey Devil]

People do change and thankfully it is sometimes for the better. Northam certainly, in my opinion, can be forgiven as a person for racist acts in his past in light of his words and deeds in the present that demonstrate that he is no longer the person he was as a young man.

However, forgiving him as a person is not the issue. He is the Governor of the State of Virginia and the issue is whether his wearing blackface and perhaps referring to himself as "coonman" was a disqualifying event for anyone to hold the position of Governor in 2019. I think there is no question that it is a disqualifying event and no person who has ever committed such acts in their past, no matter how long ago and no matter what they have done since to perhaps make up for it, should ever be allowed to be a Governor in these United States.

Public office is a public trust placed in an elected individual. By hiding his past he has violated that trust and must forfeit his office. It is simple to me. There is no room for debate.

[Jersey Devil]

4. ad hominem

That is the extent of your argument.

[PSPS]

6. LOL. Yes, the pattern sure seems familiar, doesn't it?

[beachbum bob]

2. we have too many who wish purity tests on all, we lost Al Franken becasue of such

acts, made fools of us with others. What we do in our teens and early 20's in high school and college is not who we are in our 40s and 50s.

we seem to want to have people in eternal jeopardy. Plain wrong as it supports the argument that criminals can not turn their lives around....is that who we want to be?

Not I, as a lifelong democrat

[Jersey Devil]

5. I would not equate Northam and Franken

I think they are totally different things and cannot be compared.

[Trenzalore]

12. Yes Franken was in his 50s when the alleged misconduct occurred.

Robert Byrd sat in the Senate for decades as a reformed former member of the KKK.

I'm more interested to hear what the Governor's history on race relations has been in the past 20 years.

[tblue37]

13. Northame voted for Cheney/Bush twice, which is recent and, to me at least, troubling,

since there were perfectly good Democratic options both times, neither of them "extreme."

Furthermore, by 2004 the lies about Iraq were clear, as were other serious issues with Cheney/Bush.

[Trenzalore]

14. I don't know much about him

If he's a former republican that has recently "seen the light" since Trump than I have my doubts he has had much evolution on his thinking.

Nobody seems to be rallying for him. I'm guessing if he had developed deep ties in the African American community those leaders would not be calling for his head.

[treestar]

3. Tulsi Gabbard should also step down

She doesn't have much chance of being elected, but she shouldn't even run. Her anti-gay statements are far more recent. She's trying to become an elected official. In fact, she already is one, so she should resign her house seat.

[Jarqui]

7. I think many evolve on issues

Obama was not for gay marriage during his time in Chicago
I think Hillary felt marriage was between a man and a woman years ago.
They evolved on that issue as their awareness overcome their ignorance ..

I went to a private boys school and was homophobic - at the time, we all seemed to be.
Went to college, got to know a bunch of great gay people there and got my eyes opened - and joined them in their fight for rights.

My mother never saw a black person before she was 16. She was racist as was my father who grew up in similar circumstances. The Kennedys and MLK helped us begin the process of changing their attitude. Barack Obama became my mothers favorite politician of her lifetime. Every single day of his presidency, she had to watch what he was up to. She absolutely adored him.

People can change.

Yesterday and in his video from the day before and after a review of his history, I did not see nor feel Gov Northam has gone through that evolution on race. Parts of his press conference were tone deaf to that. It is a heartfelt internal process that you do not and can not hide. Until he gets through that, he does not belong in a Governor's office.

I would also say that Ellen Page is similarly right on the money with respect to Mike Pence and his anti-LGBT stance. People like that should not hold public office. A racist like Trump shouldn't either.

[Squinch]

8. I think the hand wringing comes from two sources. Some, even here, are still

completely blinded by their privilege to their own racism (and sexism, by the way).

Some, I think, see our insistence on intolerance for sexism and racism is an achilles heel that the republicans will exploit. I think they think that all republicans have to do is dig up some mistake, or plant false evidence of some mistake, any time a Democrat becomes too powerful or encroaches on republican turf, and we will jettison that person.

I don't think there is evidence that this second scenario is at work. It is not at work with Northam, whose actions in the past were disgusting, and whose reactions in the recent past did nothing to indicate he understands what he did and has changed significantly.

I don't even think it was at work with Al Franken. I loved the guy. I personally thought the "evidence" they had against him was flimsy, and I was in complete agreement with him when he said he would go through the process and defend himself. I think if he had done that, he would have come out fine. But he chose not to do that. He resigned.

We can either refuse to tolerate sexism and racism among our ranks, or we can become republicans.

And for those who are saying, "We should only make Northam resign when the republicans make trump resign," I will steal this best reply yet, which came from DUer TeamPooka who says (paraphrase) "And we should only stop killing others when murderers stop killing others."

[Nitram]

9. We have accepted far worse people, such as West Virginia Senator Byrd, when they

evolved for the better. He voted against the Civil Rights Act, but eventually come to see the error of his ways.

[mr_lebowski]

10. You mean ... as as Democrat. No GOP governor in a non-BLUE state ...

Would step down over a pic like this emerging from 1984.

Maybe the MD or CT Gov, but not one in Virginia, nor would one from most other states they're holding that office in.

I think for a lot of people here, that's a part of the rub. We're tired of eating our own and holding to them to MUCH higher standards than our power-grabbing, borderline-fascist political enemies ... do.

I for one am not convinced (at all) that National Democrats forcing out Northam as Virginia's governor over this one, 1984 (at the latest) photo ... is, on net, going to help us at the ballot box in 2020. I'm not saying we should 'sell our souls to win', but I am saying ... this offense by Northam doesn't rise to the level of selling our souls, in my estimation. Expressing strong consternation, condemning the costume, and demanding an honest and contrite apology, along with the ABSENCE of racism in the persons intervening voting record and actions in general ... TO ME ... is enough/appropriate.

Sorry ... to those who disagree.

BTW I don't wanna hear again about the FL SoS, that was much more recent, much more blatantly racist, much more public, AND he was already in public life at the time ... plus he was mocking Katrina victims on top of it.

And I think you're exaggerating slightly with the universal 'disqualifying event' assertion. What if they were ... 16 at the time, and it was Alabama in 1964, but that person had been married to a black spouse for the past 50 years, and had been keynote speaker every year since 2000 at an MLK memorial event hosted by Jesse Jackson and MLK's children? Still, then, totally Disqualified?

We also don't really know the extent to which he 'hid his past'.

[ooky]

11. Nor do I. The news cycle has been nothing but "Northam Northam Northam..." since this broke and

is hurting democrats. Trump loves it, its taking the spotliight off his problems. Republicans love it.
Whether Northam is a different person today to me isn't relevant. Strictly speaking politically now, I'm ready to stop talking about Northam 24/7. I don't think that is going to happen until he steps down, so would prefer that he gets on with it.

[akraven]

15. I was 6, so that was 58 years ago -

in Florida, and used the n word.

I've hated Ivory Soap ever since, and never said it again. Mom was a stickler for respect. Northam is in a position where trust is vital. He was of age when he made his "mistake".

He should have made it at 6 and had a mom with a bar of Ivory Soap in her hand.