Ever since it became known that we had Governor Blackface in office, I have been of the opinion that he should resign, but that in case Governor Blackface did not leave office, that there was no way to impeach the Governor. The impeachment clause of the Virginia Constitution reads as this:
Article IV. Legislature
Section 17. Impeachment
The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, judges, members of the State Corporation Commission, and all officers appointed by the Governor or elected by the General Assembly, offending against the Commonwealth by malfeasance in office, corruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime or misdemeanor may be impeached by the House of Delegates and prosecuted before the Senate, which shall have the sole power to try impeachments.
While one could make the argument that the Governor was being neglectful in his duty by not resigning to help heal the Commonwealth, that argument would not convince a lot of people. However now the Governor has shown himself to be truly delusional. In an interview yesterday, the Governor said that Lt. Governor Fairfax and Attorney General Herring should both step down over allegations of sexual assault and Herring dressing up in Blackface as a 19 year old. But that he, Governor Northam, should stay because he’s a healer and that only a doctor can heal the people of Virginia.
Here is Northam’s record on race. At age 21 on his graduation from VMI, he put as his nickname “Coonman”. At age 24-25 he was dressing in blackface and putting pictures of him in blackface on his Medical School Yearbook. In 2013 he refused to shake E. W. Jackson’s hand during a debate (Jackson is a black minister from the Tidewater area). In 2017 he labeled Ed Gillespie and all his supporters as racists. When the VMI and Medical School yearbooks came out, Governor Blackface admitted that was him in the picture. Then the next day he gave a press conference in which he said those could not be him, and he knew this because he dressed in blackface/shoe polish to try and emulate Michael Jackson. He then offered to moonwalk during the press conference – until the 1st Lady told him doing so would be inappropriate.
Then Governor Blackface forgot the difference between indentured servants and slaves (usually it poor Scots Irish whites who were indentured servants and African’s coming here in a state of permanent bondage after being sold by Muslim slave traders). Now the Governor thinks that everyone else around him should resign because they cannot do their duties, but that he should not because we need him.
The definition of the term sociopath is a person who is a narcissist, has no moral scruples, and has a lack of conscience, and is quite often delusional about what is happening around them – usually thinking they can charm their way out of anything. While I am no psychiatrist, it is clear that in 2017, we elected a man who has sociopathic tendencies to be our governor.
The impeachment clause is very specific. One can only be impeached for malfeasance (defined as either misconduct OR wrongdoing by a public official), corruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime and misdemeanor. Being a racist or sociopath is not a high crime and misdemeanor, and it is not evidence of corruption. But being delusional (as the Governor clearly is) can be classified as misconduct (aka malfeasance), and it is also clear that the Governor is not able to carry out his duties because he is clearly delusional (aka neglect of duty).
For the record, while serious allegations have been leveled against Lt. Governor Fairfax, we do need a full investigation into these allegations. We do not know if these 2 women are lying or not. But they do deserve to be heard. And Delegate Hope of Arlington did the right thing in calling for impeachment hearings. That will give everyone a chance to hear Fairfax’s accusers (and Fairfax himselfr) in a controlled forum. Either Justin Fairfax is a rapist or he has a penchant for hitting on the wrong women. As for Attorney General Herring – we should all be disgusted at what he did as a youth. No one I knew in high school would wear blackface, we knew this was wrong by the mid 1970’s. Pretty much all Virginians are disgusted by what the AG did as a youth. He’s a hypocrite and has done a poor job defending the Constitution and laws of Virginia. Given the state of politics in Virginia, if I were him, I’d consider resigning. But there are very few calls for his resignation. And whether we like it or not, we need to be careful about overturning the results of an election.
However a plurality of Virginians believes that Northam needs to go. As do most of the elected officials in Virginia. The Governor clearly is out of touch with reality and can no longer perform his duties. And quite frankly, there is evidence of an impeachable offense, as listed above. If Northam truly wants to heal this Commonwealth, then he should do the honorable thing (something he has never done in public life) and resign and get psychiatric help that he likely needs.
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