The hypocracy of the democrats concerning Northam.

It’s probably for the best that Ralph Northam seems determined not to resign as governor of Virginia. He may have done something ugly and dumb many years ago, when he was a young man and prevailing notions of socially permissible behavior were uglier and dumber than they are today. In the face of a political and reputational disaster he has stumbled badly in explaining himself. If he weathers the scandal, it will mainly be because all of his potential successors have grave compromises of their own.

In the 35 years between those two points he has, by all appearances, lived an upstanding life without a hint of racial bias. If we are going to embrace a politics where that’s not enough to save a sitting governor accused of no crime, we’re headed toward a dark place.

I write this as someone who isn’t a Democrat and doesn’t share many of Northam’s views. Nor do I think he covered himself in glory when he accused his Republican opponent, Ed Gillespie, of “racist rhetoric” during the 2017 gubernatorial race, while an advocacy group allied to his campaign ran an ad that made out Gillespie supporters to be homicidal bigots intent on harming minority kids. What goes around comes around, and the temptation for schadenfreude is great.

Then again, each of us might want to perform an internal audit before we join the cast-the-first-stone coalition.

Ever told — or laughed at — a bigoted joke? I have, and I cringe today at what I once found funny. Ever used one of the more common ethnic or sexist slurs — “gypped,” for instance, or “bitch” — or dropped the f-word as it commonly refers to gay people? I’ve been guilty of this too, to my shame. Have ugly generalizations or snap judgments based on ethnic stereotypes perambulated through your mind, even if they didn’t fall out of your mouth? Guilty again.

I admit to all of this not as a form of moral — or immoral — exhibitionism, but because I think it’s true of the overwhelming majority of people irrespective of their race or gender. (If you don’t agree, audit yourself twice.) Few of us are proud of these lapses. Many of us are trying to be considerably more mindful about them. But most of us don’t rip ourselves to pieces over them, either.

That’s because we believe that our worst moments and dumbest utterances shouldn’t define us. That our youthful behavior is more of a reflection of what is around us than a representation of what’s inside. That we deserve to be judged by the decency of our intentions and the totality of our deeds. That we are entitled to a presumption of innocence, a measure of forgiveness, a sense for our times, and multiple opportunities for redemption.

We also believe in some version of what in Europe is called the right to be forgotten, based on a 2014 legal ruling against Google that your past sins, if they are no longer relevant to your present, shouldn’t haunt you forever — at least not digitally. That right doesn’t exist in the United States, and it wouldn’t apply anyway to a public figure such as Northam.

But how about a corollary to the right: A reasonable expectation of receding relevance, at least for non-criminal acts?

Should Jesse Jackson’s entire life come down to the anti-Semitic words “Hymietown,” uttered by him in 1984 (and comically immortalized by Eddie Murphy)? Should Prince Harry forever be remembered as the royal who dressed as a Nazi? What about Joy Reid’s virulently homophobic blog posts, or Joe Biden’s racially condescending description of Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean”?

The list goes on. It will get considerably longer as more people continue to commit their dumbest thoughts to Twitter and their most embarrassing selfies to Instagram.

Maybe at some point the sheer abundance of embarrassing material will render us insensible to what’s truly unforgivable in the past behavior of public figures. Or maybe we’ll just stumble along, calling for someone’s head merely because we happened upon his frozen image at his worst and immediately forgot the rest of his life. For those not thus caught, it won’t be because they are innocent, but because they are lucky.

As I said, this is taking us to a dark place. It is hard enough for ordinary, decent people, aware of their shortcomings and capable of shame, to contemplate a career in politics; why would they ever do so if the statute of limitations on past indiscretions never expires? And if they won’t run, aren’t they just ceding the field to those with no shame?

Ralph Northam needs to clear up just who’s in that photo, so Virginians won’t think he’s lying. And he has an opportunity to speak powerfully about the legacy of a casual racism that tainted his generation of Virginians, and about the need for repentance and redemption. The best way for him to do so is as governor.

Mark Shields and David Brooks discuss the Virginia turmoil.

‘It was great he was ashamed:’ Trevor Noah on Liam Neeson and the missed conversation about racism

Actor Liam Neeson’s admission of a racist pursuit of revenge moved at the speed of social media, rocketing from an offhand comment to condemnation and a canceled red carpet premiere amid the fallout.

That left Neeson grappling with an invisible behemoth of digital rage, leaving few lessons about the value of confronting and admitting racist beliefs, “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah said in a video released Friday.
Neeson, star of the “Taken” movies, said in a recent interview that about 40 years ago he was overtaken by rage after a close friend told him she had been raped, prompting him to roam the streets, hoping to get into a confrontation with a “black bastard” so he could bludgeon him. In follow-up interviews, the actor said he regretted that response and sought help.

Noah, a biracial comedian raised in apartheid-era South Africa, was exasperated: first over the comments themselves, then at the fury and condemnation that filled a space where honest reckoning could have been.

“You think you get past the age of lynching, then there’s still blackface in 2019,” Noah said in an extended sequence between televised scenes later published online, appearing to reference the racist yearbook photo scandal embroiling Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D).

But consider the time and place of those comments, Noah explained. It was during a promotion for the revenge film “Cold Pursuit” — hardly a place for a nuanced discussion over deeply rooted racist beliefs and how society may confront them.

“I think if Liam Neeson had told that story on Oprah, and then there was a conversation,” Noah said, “we would have seen it as a person admitting to a time in their life when they allowed their anger and hatred to fester into racism that they were ashamed of.”

Neeson appeared on “Good Morning America” to blunt the negative reaction of his comments and his eventual regret that he ventured into black neighborhoods a number of times ready to use violence to exact revenge on an unsuspecting black man.

“And I did it for, I’d say, maybe four or five times until I caught myself on, and it really shocked me, this primal urge I had. It shocked me, and it hurt me. I did seek help,” he said.

Neeson’s representative did not return a request for comment. It is not clear where Neeson’s failed vigilante mission occurred.

Those acknowledgments were an overlooked aspect of Neeson’s “powerful admission,” Noah explained.

“I hope he and people who hear the story understand the gravity of the situation. If you’re not careful, you can have inside of you a hatred that is encouraged or grown by the society that you live in,” he said. “I think it was cool that he said he looked for help afterward, I think it was cool no one busted him; he volunteered the information. I think it was great he was ashamed.”

The red carpet premiere of “Cold Pursuit” was canceled after Neeson’s comments were made, followed by a cancellation of a scheduled appearance on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. Neeson on “Good Morning America” emphatically said he was not racist.

But that misses an important aspect of admission: That it accounts for fear of how it may tarnish one’s character and subverts the significance of the claims themselves.

“People are afraid to admit they had a racist thought because then society says ‘You’re racist forever, and that’s it,’ " Noah said, “so there’s no value in atoning.”

As I said, this is taking us to a dark place. It is hard enough for ordinary, decent people, aware of their shortcomings and capable of shame, to contemplate a career in politics; why would they ever do so if the statute of limitations on past indiscretions never expires? And if they won’t run, aren’t they just ceding the field to those with no shame?

It's amazing how few people apparently have the maturity to deal with these cultural embarrassments.

It is amazing we let he MSM tell us what cultural embarrassments are in the first place.

When are people going to start thinking for themselves again?

Maybe you should start thinking for yourself

If I agree with someone does not mean I did not arrive at my decision by myself.

But anyone who disagrees with you couldn't possibly have come to that conclusion on their own.

Where's he buried? We can desecrate his grave!

We call for the resignation of racists,