Well, that didn’t take long.

The Lords of Karma seem on the ball for a change. A flock of confused but angry chickens just decided to come home to roost in Virginia. At Democratic Party headquarters no less.

Let’s set the stage. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has been outed for how he appeared in his 1984 medical school yearbook. The problem involves photographs that may or may not have involved him, of someone made up as a black man (blackface) next to someone hidden in a Ku Klux Clan robe. The governor first apologized for the photos, then claimed that while they did not involve him he had once worn blackface makeup in a Michael Jackson dance contest. Not to worry, the lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, a handsome, up and coming black man, would make an ideal replacement, if only Governor Northam would cooperate. But he hasn’t. Instead, somehow, not quite as old charges of sexual assault against Mr. Fairfax have resurfaced and Mr. Fairfax has accused Mr. Northam of stirring that unpleasant pot. The Democratic Party’s quandary: whom to betray: its permanently reliable black constituency or its equally reliable feminist cohort? Of course, feminists had little trouble sticking by good old Bill Clinton, no matter what (Juanita Broderick be damned, and all the rest of the Bimbo Explosion too) and there’s always Hillary to the rescue, cackle and all. Then again, blacks didn’t overreact to Bill’s anti-black criminal justice and welfare reform bombs, or just for laughs, neither did immigrants to his own border wall project. So, whom to betray? Mmmmm. Flip a coin and enjoy a good old dinner of Kentucky fried chicken (that’ll teach than damned flock). Karma? Maybe in another lifetime. Today, Democrats have the good old “mainstream” media in their pocket, or is it visa versa? Who’s using whom, how damned confusing.

But damned, a complication. In a stroke of horrible timing, the fortuitous opportunity to show just how self-righteous Democrats have become with respect not only to demonizing the current occupant of the White House but towards policing their own purity, has been sabotaged by uncooperative fate. While the initial Virginia gubernatorial blackface incident was artfully massaged and managed and the unfortunate sexual escapades of the governor-in-waiting had been somewhat minimized and contained, another long ago black face incident has been proactively confessed to by “Caucasian” State Attorney General Mark Herring (who would have assumed the Virginia governorship if both Governor Northam and Lt. Gov. Fairfax were “thrown to the dogs”). Unfortunately for Democratic Party prospects in Virginia, if all three “gentlemen” are forced to resign (as Democratic Party demagoguery would now seem to require), the new Virginia governor would be Kirk Cox, the conservative Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. Thus, the initial crescendo of self-righteous indignation needs to be forced back into Pandora’s box by the Democratic Party’s leaders and their media allies.

Principals be damned!!!! This must be another example of Russian meddling in internal United States political affairs, … it just has to be. So, hush, hush sweet Charlotte.

If only the GOP would cooperate the way the “mainstream” media does!

Fortunately for Democrats, apparently only Fox news has made the embarrassing connection that black and feminist leaders, and of course, the purportedly “mainstream” media studiously ignore: inverse Kavanaugh redux, fragmented and multiplied. Most of the allegations hysterically broadcast and multiplied against then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by purportedly outraged Democratic Party leaders are being faced in one form or another by that party’s most prominent Virginia leaders and the playbook doesn’t seem to have the right answers, at least not yet. What a confusing cascade of what for an instant seemed a curious political opportunity. Sows’ ears into silk purses? Perhaps not this time, but, then again, … there’s the MSM.

The “crux” is the man in the middle, the one who would have turned a manufactured embarrassing incident into a political coup (pardon the puns), Lt. Gov. Fairfax. Instead of a chance to reinforce ties to its captive black electorate, the Democratic Party now has to address the concerns of its thriving #MeToo constituency. How embarrassing. Indeed, the Fairfax incident seems much more serious than any of the incidents alleged against now Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, both in terms of the much more limited time lapse and the gravity of the situation, not to mention the lack of motive to dissemble: unlike the case of Christine Blasey Ford, apparently Vanessa C. Tyson, Mr. Fairfax’s accuser, is a fellow Democratic Party activist and made her allegations against Fairfax known to Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia over a year ago. But of course, the silence then was deafening, disclosure might have affected the ensuing 2018 Congressional elections. Couldn’t have that!! Greater good and lesser evil and things like that take precedence.

So, as to the media, the news and all that jazz. Whom to trust? No, Fox news is not a fount of veracity, it also happily ignores news that does not fit its own preferred profiles. How sick is it though that what is gleefully referred to by its detractors as Faux News has become marginally more reliable than MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc., etc., etc. Thank the divine for alternative news sources, but, of course, they’ve been straightjacketed by Google and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, etc., etc., etc. And Julian Assange and WikiLeaks? Apparently mere character assassination is not enough, real assassination seems a distinct probability, at least if Democratic Party leaders and their dowager queen have a say.

But what about the American public, especially real progressives; you know, those not tied by the umbilical cord to the Clinton – Obama diatribe clan. And feminists? One wonders what Brett Kavanaugh and his family are feeling but perhaps even more, what Christine Blasey Ford makes of this. Is she wondering if she was abused for political purposes, or, was she, unlike Dr. Tyson, an alacritous participant willing to take a bullet for the cause? Has she spoken up about this fairly loud echo of her own all too recent past? If so, I know of no one who’s heard. Nor, of course, do I know of any budding “mainstream” media journalists who’ve asked.

I wonder how the phrase “wake up and smell the roses” came to be? In this case, it would certainly not be the sweet smell of roses that social leaders really interested in racial and gender justice would be smelling if they woke up any time soon. It would be the fetid, untreated-sewage scent of hypocrisy assaulting their olfactory senses, assuming they had any: the scent of polarizing Identity Politics craftily employed by those all too willing to sell out those whom they claim to protect in the interests of attaining and retaining political power, and with it, the pats on the heads and bucks in their pockets granted by grateful billionaire puppet masters (think, e.g., of Carlos Slim and Jeff Bezos).

The moral of this putrid string of “incidents” is not that one should not throw stones in glass houses but rather, that we ought to open our eyes and see for ourselves what’s going on inside, and then, not only throw stones but throw the rascals out. All of them, Democrats as well as Republicans! Reboot and start over with new teams in a league of our own. And while we’re at it, boycott all products advertised on the malevolent fraud that passes for journalism in the “mainstream media”.

Pandora’s Box is wide open.

Maybe it’s time to rock!!!
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© Guillermo Calvo Mahé; Manizales, 2019; all rights reserved. Please feel free to share with appropriate attribution.

Guillermo Calvo Mahé (a sometime poet) is a writer, political commentator and academic currently residing in the Republic of Colombia although he has primarily lived in the United States of America (of which he is a citizen). Until recently he chaired the political science, government and international relations programs at the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. He has academic degrees in political science (the Citadel), law (St. John’s University), international legal studies (New York University) and translation and linguistic studies (the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies). He can be contacted at guillermo.calvo.mahe@gmail.com and much of his writing is available through his blog at http://www.guillermocalvo.com.