Virginia megathread

[Big Abraham]

The only resolution at this point.

- Fairfax resigns and Northam replaces him with a female POC.

- Northam resigns a month later and the new Lt Gov assumes power.

- New Lt. Gov is picked who should be another female POC and there would be a special election in '19.

- Herring should stay put since if he resigned the GOP would pick his replacement, but his political
  career is over.

What is your obsession with female POCs?

In light of the #MeToo and racism scandals I think it would be best for optics to have them all replaced by female POCs. It at least ensures it won't happen again.

Changing the colour and pair of gonads won't prevent racism or sexual misconduct in the slightest.

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

Virginia has become the worst state in the union in such short-order. Outstanding.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The only resolution at this point.

- Fairfax resigns and Northam replaces him with a female POC.

- Northam resigns a month later and the new Lt Gov assumes power.

- New Lt. Gov is picked who should be another female POC and there would be a special election in '19.

- Herring should stay put since if he resigned the GOP would pick his replacement, but his political
  career is over.

What is your obsession with female POCs?

In light of the #MeToo and racism scandals I think it would be best for optics to have them all replaced by female POCs. It at least ensures it won't happen again.

Changing the colour and pair of gonads won't prevent racism or sexual misconduct in the slightest.

But the optics!

[Alabama_Indy10]

The only resolution at this point.

- Fairfax resigns and Northam replaces him with a female POC.

- Northam resigns a month later and the new Lt Gov assumes power.

- New Lt. Gov is picked who should be another female POC and there would be a special election in '19.

- Herring should stay put since if he resigned the GOP would pick his replacement, but his political
  career is over.

What is your obsession with female POCs?

In light of the #MeToo and racism scandals I think it would be best for optics to have them all replaced by female POCs. It at least ensures it won't happen again.

Changing the colour and pair of gonads won't prevent racism or sexual misconduct in the slightest.

[Badger]

The only resolution at this point.

- Fairfax resigns and Northam replaces him with a female POC.

- Northam resigns a month later and the new Lt Gov assumes power.

- New Lt. Gov is picked who should be another female POC and there would be a special election in '19.

- Herring should stay put since if he resigned the GOP would pick his replacement, but his political
  career is over.

What is your obsession with female POCs?

In light of the #MeToo and racism scandals I think it would be best for optics to have them all replaced by female POCs. It at least ensures it won't happen again.

Changing the colour and pair of gonads won't prevent racism or sexual misconduct in the slightest.

Well, in reality, in all likelihood it actually would. While not utterly non-existent, women using their positions of authority 2 sexually harass male subordinates is extremely rare. This hasn't changed even as women are increasingly in positions of power in business and politics. It is a rare rare exception to the rule. I will simply say a lot of this has to do with Biology, and a lot of its societal conditioning that affects even women in positions of power. But the end result though, is that statistically the likelihood of sexual harassment towards subordinates would drastically plummet.

Likewise, it's very rare for men or women of color to discriminate against non-white subordinates. Simply put, outside of small family businesses and rare exceptions like BET, it is almost unheard of for an African American supervisor to not have significant numbers of whites above them to whom they would have to readily answer to if they started unfairly favoring blacks over white employees. While the reverse is often tolerated, again, societal norms make it almost impossible for blacks to discriminate against whites without significant risk of repercussion to themselves. And I believe that carries over even to people of color who obtained very high office in government or business. Simply put, Society won't tolerate blacks favoring blacks over whites nearly as much as it will write off whites favoring whites over blacks as being "merit based" or " not giving in to PC racial hiring quotas" or some such.

[KaiserDave]

Question, does anyone actually think Herring will/should resign?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Virginia has become the worst state in the union in such short-order. Outstanding.

I still wouldn't go that far. It's an absolute mess and it looks like it will never truly outrun its Confederate past no matter how far and how quickly left it moves. But I will still direct you to my signature.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Unless one of the two sides presents some kind of evidence I don't see how anyone can claim to know what the truth is.

Everything Fairfax has done suggests he did what he’s been accused of.  Fairfax needs to go even if it means Republicans pick up all three statewide offices.

Behavior isn't concrete proof. Can you at least wait for other women to come out and make similar allegations before you convict the guy.

This isn’t a criminal proceeding.  I find Dr. Tyson’s allegations more credible than Fairfax’s denial and as such see no reason why he shouldn’t resign immediately.  And we both know you’d be humming a different tune if these were allegations against Mike Pence by a conservative activist from the 2012 RNC and Donald Trump has just been impeached.  Fairfax shouldn’t be treated with kid gloves just b/c he’s a Democrat.

[Beet]

The only resolution at this point.

- Fairfax resigns and Northam replaces him with a female POC.

- Northam resigns a month later and the new Lt Gov assumes power.

- New Lt. Gov is picked who should be another female POC and there would be a special election in '19.

- Herring should stay put since if he resigned the GOP would pick his replacement, but his political
  career is over.

What is your obsession with female POCs?

In light of the #MeToo and racism scandals I think it would be best for optics to have them all replaced by female POCs. It at least ensures it won't happen again.

Changing the colour and pair of gonads won't prevent racism or sexual misconduct in the slightest.

Well, in reality, in all likelihood it actually would. While not utterly non-existent, women using their positions of authority 2 sexually harass male subordinates is extremely rare. This hasn't changed even as women are increasingly in positions of power in business and politics. It is a rare rare exception to the rule. I will simply say a lot of this has to do with Biology, and a lot of its societal conditioning that affects even women in positions of power. But the end result though, is that statistically the likelihood of sexual harassment towards subordinates would drastically plummet.

Likewise, it's very rare for men or women of color to discriminate against non-white subordinates. Simply put, outside of small family businesses and rare exceptions like BET, it is almost unheard of for an African American supervisor to not have significant numbers of whites above them to whom they would have to readily answer to if they started unfairly favoring blacks over white employees. While the reverse is often tolerated, again, societal norms make it almost impossible for blacks to discriminate against whites without significant risk of repercussion to themselves. And I believe that carries over even to people of color who obtained very high office in government or business. Simply put, Society won't tolerate blacks favoring blacks over whites nearly as much as it will write off whites favoring whites over blacks as being "merit based" or " not giving in to PC racial hiring quotas" or some such.

Even if that's true, refusing to hire anyone whose not a female POC is no better than refusing to hire a minority due to negative stereotypes or statistics. It's racism/sexism, pure and simple.

[Flyersfan232]

You literally took this from a Snopes entry saying that this is not Hillary and Bill, so I'm not sure what the purpose of this is.

Snopes is bias

[KaiserDave]

Just in case my earlier question was mixed, I think Herring did the right thing here, and has the far and away best response of the three.
I do not think it would be fit to him to resign (goes without saying blackface is still awful), nor will he.

[Flyersfan232]

The Virginia Democratic Party needs to take a united front approach at this point and condemn these allegations for what they are: the right throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. This is a blatant coup attempt by a party facing extinction to keep its head above water. THAT is the message that we need to be conveying.

Do tell me about your impression of the veracity of the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.

Blasey-Ford passed a lie detector test and her allegations were found to be true after an investigation. This woman in Virginia claims she forgot about being raped until she saw his picture in the paper and conveniently waited until a right wing blog posted the blackface picture to say anything about it. There’s your difference.

Basing your argument on a lie detector? LOL

Administered by the FBI? Two tests iirc? I don't believe anyone here is saying that alone proves Ford's allegations, but it does go a long way, and when you add it to the mountain of other efforts she presented...

Well, best you not go there again.

The Kavanugh Allegations didnt meet the standard of preponderance of evidence

Yes they did. They also met the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt too.

Fairfax is a rapists must resign

[Big Abraham]

The only resolution at this point.

- Fairfax resigns and Northam replaces him with a female POC.

- Northam resigns a month later and the new Lt Gov assumes power.

- New Lt. Gov is picked who should be another female POC and there would be a special election in '19.

- Herring should stay put since if he resigned the GOP would pick his replacement, but his political
  career is over.

What is your obsession with female POCs?

In light of the #MeToo and racism scandals I think it would be best for optics to have them all replaced by female POCs. It at least ensures it won't happen again.

Changing the colour and pair of gonads won't prevent racism or sexual misconduct in the slightest.

Well, in reality, in all likelihood it actually would. While not utterly non-existent, women using their positions of authority 2 sexually harass male subordinates is extremely rare. This hasn't changed even as women are increasingly in positions of power in business and politics. It is a rare rare exception to the rule. I will simply say a lot of this has to do with Biology, and a lot of its societal conditioning that affects even women in positions of power. But the end result though, is that statistically the likelihood of sexual harassment towards subordinates would drastically plummet.

Likewise, it's very rare for men or women of color to discriminate against non-white subordinates. Simply put, outside of small family businesses and rare exceptions like BET, it is almost unheard of for an African American supervisor to not have significant numbers of whites above them to whom they would have to readily answer to if they started unfairly favoring blacks over white employees. While the reverse is often tolerated, again, societal norms make it almost impossible for blacks to discriminate against whites without significant risk of repercussion to themselves. And I believe that carries over even to people of color who obtained very high office in government or business. Simply put, Society won't tolerate blacks favoring blacks over whites nearly as much as it will write off whites favoring whites over blacks as being "merit based" or " not giving in to PC racial hiring quotas" or some such.

The problem I had with this initial suggestion is that we would be handing the torch over to a woman of colour merely for the sake of avoiding scandalous accusations, when the standard ought to be to hand the torch over to someone (if indeed the torch must be passed at all) who is competent and trustworthy regardless. Also, your point that society somehow tolerates black discrimination over white discrimination is just absurd

[Progressive Pessimist]

Just in case my earlier question was mixed, I think Herring did the right thing here, and has the far and away best response of the three.
I do not think it would be fit to him to resign (goes without saying blackface is still awful), nor will he.

I just wonder if he's trying to preempt some more concrete proof of it that could come out. It seems like it can always get worse.

[KaiserDave]

Just in case my earlier question was mixed, I think Herring did the right thing here, and has the far and away best response of the three.
I do not think it would be fit to him to resign (goes without saying blackface is still awful), nor will he.

I just wonder if he's trying to preempt some more concrete proof of it that could come out. It seems like it can always get worse.

That's certainly, and honestly this is such a mess and it could very well get messier. Maybe there is a photo out there, but that wouldn't make me want him to resign.

[henster]

Herring resigning would be far more hurtful than his actions from 30 years as his successor would be a Republican. The AG is one of the most powerful positions in Virginia, we already how AGs can inflict damage looking at the ACA lawsuit they helped concoct.

[KaiserDave]

Herring resigning would be far more hurtful than his actions from 30 years as his successor would be a Republican. The AG is one of the most powerful positions in Virginia, we already how AGs can inflict damage looking at the ACA lawsuit they helped concoct.

Yeah I agree, he's clearly apologetic and his apology was very extensive.

[RogueBeaver]

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1093326454711091203

[OSR stands with Israel]

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1093326454711091203

Oh god

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

Is there a single good human being serving in Virginia politics right now?

[Crumpets]

Is there a single good human being serving in Virginia politics right now?

My queen Abigail Spanberger. Unfortunately she's not in line for the governorship, but is she capable of pulling all these conspiracies together to deliver the governor's mansion to some low-level bureaucrat? Yes.

Also Danica Roem.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Lee Carter is the best Virginia politician.

[Thatkat04]

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1093326454711091203

Oh god

"Oh god" what? What was he supposed to do with this information?

Edit: It should always be the victims decision to go public.

[Fight for Trump]

Is there a single good human being serving in Virginia politics right now?

Some, I assume, are good people.

[henster]

Does nobody remember when somebody tried to MeToo Bobby Scott a year ago?

https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/reese-everson-accuses-bobby-scott-of-sexual-harassment