Truly Torn

[NanceGreggs]

I am truly torn over the situation regarding Governor Ralph Northam. I believe that people are capable of change for the better, and that maturity and life experience can lead one to revisit despicable youthful behaviour, denounce that behaviour in later years, and go on to contribute to society as enlightened adults.

While I find it difficult to ignore Northam’s obvious display of racism in 1984, I also find it difficult to dismiss his change-of-heart since that occurrence.

In this instance, I feel compelled to abide by the decision of those most personally impacted by Northam’s actions. The NAACP has called for his resignation, and it is people of colour who should be the ultimate arbiters of what they find unacceptable – in the same way I, as a woman, am in a position to decide what I find offensive to women.

Given the reaction of my fellow, non-white citizens offended by Northam’s behaviour, I do believe that he should resign. This is their call, not mine.

All of that being said, what I do not accept is any comment, any opinion, or so much as a peep from any Republican on this topic. The usual GOP spokes-whores are already out in force on the cable news outlets, decrying the fact that were Northam a Republican, the Democrats would be calling for his head on a pike.

The fact is that Democrats have been decrying the words, actions, and policies of the racist-in-chief, Donald Trump, for the past two years – cries that the Republican party have ignored while continuing to support, enable, and make excuses for their “pResident’s” blatant racist behaviour.

To hear any Republican weighing-in on the topic of racist behaviour is, at this point, laughable. In addition to Trump’s overt racism, there are many GOPers whose blatant racism is a matter of public record – along with the Republican party’s continued protection of the obviously guilty.

To hear any Republican call for Northam’s resignation on the basis of his “hypocrisy” is roll-on-the-floor-laughing material. Exactly where the fuck does the party that accepted the declaration that there were “fine people on both sides” after Charlottesville get off pointing fingers at the party that denounced the actions of white supremacists and KKK members?

What is mind-boggling is the attempts by Republicans to accuse Democrats of hypocrisy where Northam is concerned, while never acknowledging their own hypocrisy in having elected a homophobic, xenophobic, lying, stupid beyond all imagining, pussy-grabbing, Russian-colluding traitor to the Oval Office – while knowing he was all of the above.

The Democrats will sort out the Northam situation – and I suspect it will end with his resignation for the good of his party, the good of the state who elected him, and the good of the country.

Until the Republicans are willing to rid their own party of their blatant racists currently holding office, they are in no position to speak to how the fate of Ralph Northam should be decided.

This is beyond people living in glass houses being admonished to not throw stones. It is now a matter of glass-house dwellers being told – in no uncertain terms – that their new-found outrage is completely contrary to their own behaviour, and that of their “pResident”.

In summary, the GOP needs to STFU. They are doing the equivalent of marching in the streets with tiki torches, shouting anti-black/anti-Semitic slogans, while screaming that it’s the Democrats who need to step up to the plate and denounce racism and anti-Semitism.

When the Republicans call for the resignation of their own racists, their own anti-Semites, their own homophobes, their own xenophobes, their own haters of every non-white immigrant, every trans-gender member of the military, every non-Christian, every disabled American, every woman demanding her rights, and every American who has realized they have been played by promises of middle-class tax cuts, they will be in a position to call on Democrats to do the same.

That day has yet to dawn. And until that day arrives, the Republicans can take their hypocrisy and shove it up their respective asses. The only people listening to the GOP on the subject of racism are the racists among them.