How To Hide a Tax Cut Behind a Wall

Fox News' Chris Wallace grills White House adviser
Stephen Miller on Trump's emergency declaration

Have you noticed how Trump's delusional anti-immigrant rhetoric has ramped up to "Defcon-1" just as tax season has begun to unfold and millions of Americans are now discovering the ugly truths of the Republican Tax Con Cut?

You know things are bad for the White House when they trot the unhinged, unapologetically white supremacist policy adviser Stephen Miller out on the Sunday morning talk show circuit - as they did this morning.

Politically speaking it's actually kind of like when the twisted character Zed orders his sidekick Maynard to "bring out the Gimp" in the unforgettable scene from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

Miller, who previously served in communications and advisory roles for right-wing Republican nut-jobs like former Minnesota Tea Party Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and ex-attorney general Jeff Sessions, is such a despised and divisive figure that the only real reason to put him on national television to speak is because he has the innate ability to draw media attention away from where the Trump administration doesn't want it to be.

You know how an octopus or squid has the ability to release a squirt of dark ink in the water as a way to temporarily confuse a predator to allow it to escape?

If you imagine the Trump administration as a squid, Stephen Miller is kind of like the ink.

When Fox News host Chris Wallace grilled Miller with facts and data that dispute Trump's rationale for taking the unusual step of declaring the situation at the southern border with Mexico a "national emergency", Miller simply responded as he usually does.

He launched into the predictably obtuse mix of right-wingy hate speech coupled with unhinged attacks on other politicians which usually has nothing to do with the question he was asked.

Trump announcing that his concocted half-truths
about immigrants constitute a "national emergency"

For example, as NBC News reported, in response to Wallace questioning Miller about the need for Trump declaring a national emergency at the border when immigration levels have plunged 75% since 2000, Miller responded by saying:
"former President George W. Bush's immigration policy was an 'astonishing betrayal of the American people'." 

As if Trump's emergency declaration can be blamed on Bush's policy decisions 18 years ago.

In my view Trump's obsession with the wall is little more than a convenient prop that serves as something of a political cattle-prod he can use to jolt his shrinking base of support awake whenever he needs to rile up the cult of personality that surrounds him.

When the brain trust at Cambridge Analytica, with the help of Republican billionaire Robert Mercer, produced data that showed that Trump's target core audience responded enthusiastically to the idea of a "wall" to keep the perceived "threat" of immigrants at bay - Trump embraced it.

To many of the disenfranchised working-class whites frustrated over an insular Washington political elite that has left them shut them out and angry over being left out of an economic system that's largely left U.S. manufacturing out of the equation and is tilted to benefit top earners, the wall became an easy symbol to grab hold of.

When Trump starts talking about the wall, his supporters know exactly what it symbolizes to them and it's a language they can understand; they can vent their frustrations onto it.

At this point, does it really even matter that it gets built?

Prototype sections of Trump's border wall east of
 San Ysidro, California near the Mexican border 

When Trump takes the podium to talk about the wall, those supporters are distracted from the dark reality of his administration.

When media headlines are filled with news of his former campaign associates pleading guilty to lying about their relationships with Russian figures associated with alleged interference in the 2016 elections, Trump starts talking about the wall.

When his popularity slips in polls, or a member of his cabinet resigns over ethical lapses, Trump starts talking about the wall.

And lets' be honest, does anyone really believe he cares about illegal immigration?

From the 200 undocumented Polish laborers hired to do demolition work on the Bonwit Teller building in New York back in 1980 to clear the site for the construction of Trump Tower, to undocumented Hispanic men and women who've been working at his various country clubs and golf courses for years, his companies have been knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants for well over a decade.

Where was his outrage about immigration when he was able to avoid the costs of hiring union workers by hiring those undocumented Polish laborers for $4.00 an hour?

The wall serves a purpose, and the cloak of bigotry needed to sell it slips easily onto Trump's shoulders - so my belief is that the government shutdown and the fake national emergency declaration were all orchestrated to distract people from the truth of the Republican tax cut.

The much-lauded (by Republicans anyway) tax reform bill was a secretive and widely-criticized piece of legislation that passed with no public hearings, and was quite literally drafted behind the closed doors of various Republican politician's offices just before Christmas in 2017.

So it's never really been out of the garage for a test drive so to speak - most Americans are seeing it for the first time this tax season - Trump certainly doesn't want any pesky questions about the ways in which the Republican tax cut benefits him and his family specifically.

Better to talk about invading hordes of drug-dealing, terrorist-rapists than how the Treasury Department under Secretary Steven Mnuchin fought to prevent high tax states like New Jersey, New York and California from getting around the $10,000 cap on deduction of state and local taxes.

Remember when Trump promised to simplify the tax
code so the form would be the size of a postcard?

Many Americans who filed their federal taxes early expecting a refund are now realizing that the Republican tax plan simply fiddled with the withholding calculation that employers use to withhold x-amount of federal tax from employee's paychecks.

By definition that's not a real tax cut.

It's more of a shell game that gives some Americans the temporary illusion that their taxes were "lowered" because they saw a few more dollars in their paycheck.


When in fact, that money simply translated into many Americans owing more to the IRS simply because it wasn't taken out of their paychecks.

That's something that any American could change by taking 5 minutes to go to the IRS website, downloading a blank W-4 "Employees Withholding Allowance Certificate" form, printing it out, filling in your name, address and Social Security number and simply writing in the amount you want deducted from each paycheck on Line 6 - and submitting it to your HR department or whoever handles payroll.

Want more money back in your refund at tax time? Just increase that number by a few bucks.

Want more money in each paycheck? Then just lower the number and come tax time, you'll just get less back, or owe a little more - it's not complex or some secret, Republicans just figured that many Americans don't take the time to understand how withholding works.

Remember when conservative media was pushing the misleading narrative of average Americans cheering about "seeing more in their paychecks" as a result of the Republican tax cut?

It was basically nothing more than a W-4 withholding gimmick Republicans used to try and distract Americans from the fact the REAL tax cuts were for top earners, cash-rich corporations and of course, people like Trump with "pass through" income from real estate investment holdings, rental income, s-corporations or partnerships.

By the way, the changes in "pass through" income translated to about $17 billion in tax cuts to the millionaires whose wealth allows them to receive income derived from their stakes in real estate and complex partnerships - only that income is taxed at a much lower rate than the rate that the IRS taxes the paychecks of average Americans.

It's a selective tax cut by the few, for the few - but it's easy to disguise that with intentionally overly complex tax forms, especially when you can't see past a wall that hasn't even been built yet.

The Enduring Power of Blackface

Gayle King interviewing embattled Democratic Virginia
Governor Ralph Northam on CBS  

Earlier this morning I watched excerpts of Gayle King's interview with Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam on CBS' Face the Nation.

While the full version won't be broadcast until tomorrow morning on CBS This Morning, they did show a few interesting "teaser" clips.

A remarkably relaxed, and clearly well-prepared Northam opened the interview by pointing out the fact that they were only 90 miles from where the first enslaved African-Americans were brought to Virginia back in 1619.

It was nice to get a little history lesson but the fact that he called those slaves "indentured servants" offered some insight into the complex past of a southern Democratic politician who is facing calls to resign over the medical school yearbook photo in which he is shown wearing blackface while standing next to someone in a KKK outfit - if only irony could talk.

Interestingly, when King asked Northam whether he felt Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax should resign over allegations of sexual assault leveled against him by two different women, Northam claimed he hadn't spoken with Fairfax since the controversy blew up in the media last Monday.

Which struck me as a bit odd given what's at stake for him, Fairfax, Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring (who also admitted to wearing blackface while dressed as rapper Curtis Blow) and Republican State Senator Tommy Norment - who faced his own controversy after an article published in The Virginian Pilot on Thursday revealed that he edited the 1968 Virginia Military Institute yearbook which was strewn with students wearing blackface and a variety of racial slurs against African-American and Asian students.

Given the growing pressure over the blackface controversy, I decided to re-post a blog I wrote back in August, 2008 in the wake of some backlash over Robert Downey, Jr. wearing blackface in the Ben Stiller film Tropic Thunder - Now I don't normally re-post my blogs, but I was checking my stats and the blog has been getting quite a few hits in the last week so I re-edited some of the text and thought it offered some perspective (and links) on blackface that might offer a little insight.

"Actors in Blackface, An Enduring Hollywood Symbol" (originally posted 8/9/08)

Robert Downey, Jr. in the 2008
film Tropic Thunder

According to an LA Times interview by Chris Lee, actor Robert Downey Jr. was excited at the prospect of working with actor-director Ben Stiller on the comedy Tropic Thunder, but he looked at playing a role in black-face with trepidation.

Downey, (pictured left in character) plays the intense, self-absorbed Oscar-winning Australian Method actor Kirk Lazarus, who darkens his skin to completely immerse himself in the role of Sgt. Lincoln Osiris.

As far back as March, 2008 the images and promotional stills from the movie's trailer were fueling speculation about the possible backlash from a white actor in blackface in a comedy.

White actors portraying African-American characters in films, or performing in blackface isn't a new phenomenon by any means.

In 1927 entertainer Al Jolson performed in blackface in Hollywood's first feature-length musical, Warner Brother's hit The Jazz Singer.

If you've never seen it before, check out this brief clip of Jolson singing 'Mammy' in blackface that was typical of the period.

More recently, the decision to cast Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, the mixed-race Cuban-American wife of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in the 2007 movie Mighty at Heart stirred some controversy.

Particularly among critics who expressed confusion as to why an actual biracial actress like Thandie Newton, who'd demonstrated screen presence, range and ability in successful films like Crash and Mission Impossible II wasn't offered the role.

Especially given the lack of juicy parts that are available for an actress of color in mainstream Hollywood releases.

Angelina Jolie (right) as Mariane Pearl (left) 
in the 2007 film Mighty Heart

My take is that people who might be quick to react negatively towards Tropic Thunder because of Downey in blackface should step back and remember it is satire.

The entire point of having Downey's character choose to play Sgt. Lincoln Osiris in blackface is to lampoon the entertainment industry executives who routinely make the kinds of casting decisions that put white performers in roles that should arguably be played by an actors of color.

Downey is intelligent, socially responsible and hugely talented (If you haven't seen his performance in Chaplin put it on your Netflix queue right now) there's no way he'd take on a roll in blackface without knowing it was intelligently written, or that the black-face itself was an organic component of the story, character and script.

The film takes a comedic swipe at Hollywood actors and filmmakers who create war movies, in particular some of the over-the-top seriousness with which they prepare for fictional roles as soldiers and the assorted idiosyncrasies of the studio heads, producers and directors who bankroll and make these films.

Black-face is just one component of entertainment director/co-writer Ben Stiller lampoons in this film. I don't necessarily think it's inappropriate to use blackface in social satire, as Downey himself observed in an Entertainment Weekly interview:

“If it’s done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago. If you don’t do it right, we’re going to hell.”

Judy Garland performed in blackface
in Babes in Arms in 1939

This isn't the overtly racist minstrel-type of art of the late 19th and early 20th century. Minstrels were white performers who dressed up in black-face to lampoon the physical characteristics, dress, habits and lifestyles of African-Americans and more importantly; play upon and reinforce racial stereotypes.

But remember there were black minstrels too!

Black performers in blackface lampooning themselves to entertain audiences. What's wrong with that picture?

Director Spike Lee explored this question in his 2000 film, Bamboozled

What did blackface and minstrel imagery in entertainment and media look like?

Check out this montage of minstrel clips edited together by Spike Lee for his 2000 social satire, Bamboozle.

The speculative buzz about possible backlash in Tropic Thunder is just that.

Mostly from people who haven't even seen the movie.

It reflects the unhealed pain of this imagery - which was commonplace in America and other countries for years and has inflicted a lot of internal psychological damage to the psyche of black people.

Personally I think Downey's role is a positive thing, one of the ways we evolve culturally is to develop the capacity to look at ourselves, and view the past honestly.

Even when it's difficult to look at.

The Broken Shards of Liam Neeson's 4th Wall

Actor Anthony Perkins breaking the 4th Wall at
the end of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho

With three of the highest ranking members of Virginia's government all confessing to have worn blackface this week, it was a weird time for Irish actor Liam Neeson to shatter his 4th Wall with a stunning revelation of his violent, 40-year-old racist fantasy.

Take it from a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild with some experience on the New York stage, one of the cardinal rules of acting is never break the 4th Wall.


Now the 4th Wall is not a physical wall like the one Donald Trump is obsessed with building.

For any of you non-thespian readers, the 4th Wall is an imaginary barrier that exists between the actors onstage and the audience, or between the actor on a film or television set and the lens of the camera capturing their movements.

Like the famous scene where actor Anthony Perkins looks up and stares directly into the camera lens at the end of director Alfred Hitchcock's brilliant 1960 film Psycho - it's an excellent example of a master filmmaker knowing when to break the rule to create a desired effect.

One of the trickier but essential skills an actor must have is the ability to perform with other actors (or alone) on a stage or set and mentally tune out the audience or camera lens and pretend they're not there - but at the same time, maintain a constant awareness of it through concentration and focus.

The 4th Wall functions as the invisible barrier that actors use as a tool to help remind them not to directly address the audience or camera (or look right at them) - unless it's called for.

Actor Matthew Broderick addressing the audience
at the end of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Now there are exceptions of course, after all rules were meant to be broken.

Some plays or screenplays specifically call for the actor(s) to turn downstage and talk directly with the audience.

Or face the camera lens and directly address the audience.

Some really good films break the 4th Wall rule constantly, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or the recent Marvel Deadpool movies.

And of course there's Woody Allen's brilliant Oscar-winning 1977 comedy Annie Hall which throws the "Don't break the 4th Wall" rule right out the window.

Allen's classic "Marshall McLuhan scene" in Annie Hall is one of my favorite examples.

So obviously the rule isn't set in stone or anything, but breaking the 4th Wall is generally considered a a no-no, because doing so "breaks the spell" that well-written scripts performed by competent actors cast upon the audience during a performance.

Think about one of your favorite films, rarely if ever will you see an actor stare straight into the lens and speak to the audience unless it's an intentional choice by the director, writer or cinematographer.

It's particularly true for film or television actors, the ability to understand one's "self" and one's relationship or proximity to the camera lens, and be comfortable with it, takes years to fully understand; very few master it.

Actress Harriet Andersson breaks the 4th Wall at the
end of Ingmar Bergman's 1953 Summer With Monika

In my humble opinion, I think breaking the 4th Wall on film tends to work much better and more effectively with comedies than it does with serious drama.

But it can work in drama too in the hands of a skilled director.

For example, master Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman famously had star Harriet Andersson break the 4th Wall in the final scene of his 1953 film Summer With Monika

In a way that almost makes the viewer a little uncomfortable - click the link above and watch it for yourself.

I actually just watched the Criterion Collection edition of the film on DVD a couple months ago - simply brilliant.

From the perspective of a person who has a passion for films, and quality television dramas, I've always felt like there's also a different kind of 4th Wall that exists as a barrier between an actor or actress that one really likes, and the reality of who that person might be in real life.

If you watch a particular actor or actress for years, then all of a sudden you see them in a televised interview, or read about something they said or did - it can be kind of jarring.

Like "the spell" they wove over you because you liked a particular character they did, can suddenly be broken because you learn something about who they are as a real person that conflicts with the idea you may have had of them in your mind.

One of the most disappointing aspects of being an avid film fan and amateur film historian is that moment when actors or actresses whose work I've admired in various movies over the years, suddenly breaks that "4th Wall" that exists between my personal perception of them as a performer and the reality of who they really are.

Actor Liam Neeson as the 18th-century
Scottish clan chief in the 1993 film Rob Roy 

Over the years I've admired Irish actor Liam Neeson's work ever since I first saw him onscreen in the 1981 hit film Excalibur.

Writer / director John Boorman's brilliant adaptation of the Arthurian legend chronicling the epic saga of King Arthur, his Knights of the Roundtable and his eccentric counselor and adviser Merlin the Magician.

Neeson's brooding Irish intensity works really well in the kinds physical action roles he's known so well for - films like Taken or The Commuter.

But his quiet intelligence and remarkable sensitivity gives him that rare ability to take roles to that next level in my opinion.

He was certainly exceptional in the title role of businessman Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg's 1993 historical drama Schindler's List  - which won an Oscar for Best Picture.

Personally speaking I think Neeson's best on-screen role is as the title character in director Michael Caton-Jones' 1993 historical drama Rob Roy.

As a historian I'm a sucker for sweeping historical dramas, and Rob Roy is about as good as they get with a brilliant cast that included Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt, Eric Stoltz and Bryan Cox.

It didn't get the box-office returns I thought the story, acting, cinematography, set design and costumes warranted, but he had great on-screen romantic chemistry with Lange and it was critically well received overall - and established Neeson as a legitimate A-List star capable of carrying a film.

The role encapsulated what I always liked about Neeson on-screen - the relentless hero motivated by a clearly-anchored morality and sense of justice that guided his choices and actions.

Liam Neeson discusses his controversial comments
with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America

That's why I found his shocking admission in an interview published in the British Independent on Monday that he once took a club and "went out deliberately into black areas in the city looking to be set upon so that I could unleash physical violence" in order to avenge a female friend who'd allegedly been raped by a black man, so disturbing.

Expressing the thought doesn't necessarily make him "racist", but the revenge fantasy he described is dark and disturbing.


Fantasizing about searching for an innocent black person to kill to avenge a heinous act perpetrated on his friend, reinforces the kind of ignorant racial attacks that have intensified in America since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 - like Timothy Caughman being stabbed in the chest with a sword in New York City back in March, 2017 by a deranged racist killer who hated inter-racial relationships searching the streets for an innocent black victim.

In some ways Neeson's words also kind of romanticize the same twisted logic that was used to kidnap, torture and lynch thousands of African-Americans in the 19th and 20th century.

Now I'm not going to condemn him as a racist, or judge his entire life based on one choice he made, but in this current era of racial division that's become the hallmark of Trump's presidency, I just think Neeson should have given a little more thought to how he described a disturbing incident when his own personal rage clouded his perception.

Maybe, as he's since tried to explain, he was simply trying to make a larger point about how racism and bigotry can manifest itself - I don't know, it's good that it's started a conversation about race.

But I'm not going to pile on the guy, Lord knows Neeson is getting enough grief as it is for admitting something like that.

Regardless of how this episode turns out for him, for me personally the 4th Wall is broken as far as Liam Neeson is concerned, doesn't mean I hate him or won't watch another film of his.

I'm just not sure I'll ever quite see him in the same way I once did, not necessarily because he said something "wrong" - but because he looked straight into the camera and broke the spell.

Paging Doctor Northam

Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam and his
controversial 1983 medical school yearbook photo 

"Virginia has told us to end the divisiveness, that we will not condone hatred and bigotry. It's going to take a doctor to heal our differences. And I'm here to tell you, the doctor is in!"

Hard to believe it's been just over a year and two months since the embattled Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam said those words to cheering supporters after soundly defeating Republican candidate Ed Gillespie back on November 7, 2017.

What a difference 15 months makes.

Over the past couple of days I've spent quite a bit of time buried in the hundreds of reader comments on Saturday's New York Times article on Northam's stubborn determination not to cede to pressure to resign from Democratic leaders on the state and national level - including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former vice-president Joe Biden and Senators Kamala Harris and Corey Booker to name just a few.

There's also growing grassroots pressure for him to step down from angry voters as well, as evidenced by the Virginia citizens gathered in front of the governor's mansion on Saturday wielding hand-written signs and calling on him to resign - as well as thousands of people expressing similar views on social media as well.

While more than a few comments on the NY Times article from conservative readers expressed the easily-provable falsehood that Democrats have dismissed Northam's racism as a "youthful indiscretion", a quick glance at media headlines makes it clear the consensus is that he has to go.

Is Northam a racist?

Personally speaking I don't think it's fair, or even possible to make a determination like that simply based on a black and white photo posted on his medical school yearbook page back in 1983.

Just because Northam grew up on a farm on the rural eastern shore of Virginia and speaks with a distinctive southern drawl (or donned blackface at a party) doesn't make him a racist.

A photo of the 1978 Oancock HS football team shows
a fairly integrated student body

According to a Washington Post article by Jenna Portnoy, Northam graduated from the predominantly African-American Oancock (Virginia) High School in 1977 where he was voted "most likely to succeed" and was one of the few white kids on the boys basketball team.

Take a look at this photo of the 1978 Oancock HS football team (pictured left).

It was taken the year after Ralph Northam graduated, but as a simple snapshot of the school environment in which he was raised, it does reveal a fairly integrated group of students.

If Northam was a racist, why would he play on a basketball team mostly comprised of African-Americans? And why would a group of his black peers vote him most likely to succeed?

Portnoy's WaPo profile of Northam also paints a portrait of a man who's held some pretty progressive political views during his time in Virginia politics - including support for a woman's right to make decisions in cases of abortion and support for a bill that would legalize marijuana to treat some childhood illnesses and conditions related to seizures (he's a pediatric neurologist).

Of course it should be noted that the much more progressive Democratic primary challenger for the governor's chair, Tom Periello did force Northam to shift his policy positions to the left out of political necessity.

But the fact that the now-infamous photo making media headlines was placed on Northam's yearbook page when he was an adult and a college graduate, and the fact that he made the decision to don a costume with clearly racist overtones, does raise questions in an era in which Trump's presidency has been defined by bigotry and contempt for, and hostility towards non-white people.

In his press conference on Saturday Northam admitted that in 1984 "I did participate in a dance contest in San Antonio, in which I darkened my face as part of a Michael Jackson costume."

But in the same press conference Northam also raised eyebrows by claiming that neither the person wearing black face, or the person wearing the Ku Klux Klan hood were him - just a day after apologizing for the photo.

2017 Northam campaign flier with the photo
of Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax removed 

Now if it is true that Northam is not in the photo, what's the photo doing on his yearbook page?

Interestingly, the yearbook photo isn't the first time Northam has received criticism for imagery with racial overtones.

During the 2017 race for Virginia governor, the Northam campaign caught flack for removing a photo of his then-39-year-old African-American lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax from a version of a campaign flier (pictured left).

Basically I agree with the crux of the public statement released by Fairfax, who recently made headlines after exiting the legislative chamber while Republican members of the State Senate honored former Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Following a Saturday press conference in which Northam asked for forgiveness, Fairfax, who would become governor of Virginia if Northam resigns, said on Saturday (in part):

"Like so many Virginians, I am shocked and saddened by the images in the Governor's yearbook that came to light yesterday. They are an example of a painful scourge that continues to haunt us today and holds us back from the progress we need to make.

I cannot condone the actions from (Northam's) past, that, at the very least, suggest a comfort with Virginia's darker history of white supremacism, racial stereotyping and intimidation."

Outside of the optics of the photo itself, one of the most troubling (and ironic) aspects of this controversy is that Northam was elected governor in part on his ability to portray his Republican opponent Ed Gillespie as racially intolerant.

It was a label that stuck as Gillespie willingly embraced inflated racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric and phony MS-13 fear-mongering during the Republican primary in an effort to woo Trump supporters.

Ralph Northam (left) and Republican candidate
Ed Gillespie during a 2017 gubernatorial debate

The 2017 Virginia race for governor wasn't just a gauge of voter's feelings about the first year of the Trump administration - it was a snapshot of a much broader cultural divide in America and a contest with clear national political implications for the 2018 midterm elections.

Election Day in Virginia, November 7, 2017 took place just over two months after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in which white supremacist James Alex Fields, Jr. intentionally rammed his car into a crowd of protestors, killing 32-year-old Heather Hoyer and injuring 19 others.

It also came against the backdrop of the closely-watched special "off year" election for the Alabama Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions when he was nominated for Attorney General.

A race between the Republican candidate Roy Moore, the controversial former Alabama chief justice known for his right-wing political and social views, and the Democratic candidate, former U.S. attorney Doug Jones.

Jones' eventual upset victory in December, 2017 flipped a reliably-Republican Senate seat Democrat for the first time in decades, a victory spurred in part by some Alabama Republicans and independents expressing their disapproval of Trump by voting Democratic.

It was a costly and contentious political race that drew national attention and was widely viewed as a repudiation of Trump, who'd publicly defended Roy Moore against multiple allegations of improper sexual relations with girls as young as 14-years old.

The United States was already politically divided over Trump's embrace of anti-immigrant fear mongering, racism and authoritarian world leaders.

Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (left) and
then-lieutenant gov. Ralph Northam in happier times

So the 2017 Virginia governor's race became something of a lightening rod.

Not just for hot-button wedge issues like the removal monuments of Confederate leaders, but also for support for the Affordable Care Act as well as sanctuary cities and protections for undocumented immigrants.

Northam was relatively unknown on the national political scene when he won a 2013 election to serve as lieutenant governor under the popular Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe.


McAuliffe, the charismatic former head of the Democratic National Committee, had famously served as co-chair of Bill Clinton's successful 1996 presidential campaign, and was the chair of Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful 2008 bid for president.

Because the state of Virginia limits governors to one four-year term in office at a time, Northam announced his intention to run for governor in 2015 with the blessing of then-governor McAuliffe and the national Democratic Party.

Much like former Republican vice president George Herbert Walker Bush's rise to the presidency in 1988 following Ronald Regan's 2nd term, it's fair to say that Northam's political rise in 2017 was on the coattails of McAuliffe - a well-connected, veteran Democratic political operator - as much as it was on voter's displeasure with Trump's first year in office.

But that progressive platform on which he successfully ran for governor in 2017, and the perception of him as the centrist-progressive Democratic candidate standing in opposition to the racial division of the Trump agenda, has been overshadowed by a 36-year-old photograph.   

And in the wake of the widespread condemnation of Republican Iowa Congressman Steve King's recent (latest) controversial comments defending white supremacy, and his continued use of his official House website to promote a blog known as a platform for known white supremacists like Richard Spencer, the pressure on Ralph Northam to resign from Democratic leaders will only intensify in the days ahead with the 2020 presidential race on the horizon.

Only Ralph Northam can answer the question of why he would don blackface or a KKK robe at a party, but that image could very well spell the end of a promising political career - and cast a dark shadow on his political legacy for years to come.