The  introductory stanza  from the great poem “The Hollow Men” by T.S Eliot has no better description to capture the actions of all the men involved in the events of the last few days in the great Commonwealth of Virginia in the wake of the Ralph Northam revelations:

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

We see the true core beliefs of these people in the wake of Northam's medical school blackface and Ku Klux Klan photo scandal, and his even more scandalous statement defending infanticide. 

As a proud Virginia High School graduate and current constituent of Virginia's Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, I look on at what this Virginia Military Institute graduate and former doctor has said and done and can only say it's simply stupid and awful. But it seems to go beyond that, representing a historic sea change in the political landscape.

First, the governor advocated the actual murder of a baby, positioning the Democratic Party itself into that stance. That was evident from the spot-on critique of the matter from Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican:  

“This is morally repugnant,” Sasse said. “In just a few years pro-abortion zealots went from ‘safe, legal, and rare’ to ‘keep the newborns comfortable while the doctor debates infanticide.’ I don’t care what party you’re from — if you can’t say that it’s wrong to leave babies to die after birth, get the hell out of public office.”

Yet the governor’s position on baby murder only drew the normal political theater of “blah, blah, blah” -- words of criticism without any call to resign.  With no call to leave office, it was the expected normal political theater of shallow and meaningless political posturing by his fellow elected Virginia Democrats, which include Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, and Commonwealth Attorney General Mark Herring.

And then the photos of his medical school yearbook page came out.

Suddenly, everything changed.

As many throughout America could see in a bumbling and soon to be amazing historic press conference, Gov. Northam not only tried to walk away from his horribly racist yearbook picture, he also showed a willful blindness on his VMI nickname of “coonman.”

How could his defenders use the fact that he was a Virginia Military Academy graduate and Army doctor to defend his not resigning over the infanticide advocacy, and then pivot at light speed to call for his resignation only when the nickname and the photo came out?

Senior elected officials in Virginia, and others who had previously defended Northam's integrity by referencing his being a VMI grad and Army doctor found themselves at a truth-telling moment.

These Democrat hollow men came out to criticize and call for resignation because they had the picture. It was only when this picture was made public that they all changed their position. What they are now advocating is essentially: Leave, just leave, you fool, before you totally damage our party's political brand.

In my opinion, the Democratic Party is the party of certitude, with a trust us, know-it-all attitude on many issues, science and medicine included.  Thus, we all have to accept, in our need for medical assistance there is such a thing as an arrogant doctor. But no person in America has to accept the fact that there is such a thing as an arrogant and stupid doctor, and Dr. Northam is the new poster person for that role.

So far he has violated the VMI Honor Code, by making two factually contradictory statements. First, his contradictions about the picture. It is me in the picture, and then, it is not me, and oh yes, how did it happen?

Regardless of the ultimate truth, he lied, and the VMI Honor Code states: “A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do.”

He has disgraced his Army commission because I doubt he would have been admitted into the modern truly colorblind Army if a recruiting officer had seen the photo, even around 1984.

Finally, serving as an active duty Army doc, had he killed a living, breathing, baby intentionally, he would have not had a chance to be governor because he would still be in Leavenworth military prison.

As far as calls for him to leave who knows what he will do. If he doesn’t, the well-known ending to “The Hollow Men” may foreshadow the problem the modern Democrat Party finds itself in:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Image credit: Wonderferret, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0