Which makes the racist disasters from Democrats over the past month all the more surprising. First, we found out Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's 1984 medical school yearbook page featured a photo of one person dressed in blackface next to another in a Ku Klux Klan hood. While Northam initially apologized for appearing in the photo, he later backtracked and said he wasn't in it.
During what may have been the worst political press conference in recent years, Northam admitted he wore blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume for a dance competition in the 1980s, and appeared ready to demonstrate his moonwalk for reporters before his wife stopped him.
He also sought to ease calls for his resignation by planning to go on a listening tour aimed at healing. Just days after the yearbook photo emerged, Virginia's Attorney General Mark Herring, who is also a Democrat, admitted he too wore blackface during a college party. He said, "This was a onetime occurrence and I accept full responsibility for my conduct."
These events, in addition to charges of sexual assault aimed at Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax -- another Democrat -- made the state a national punchline as it caused heartburn for Democratic Party leadership and 2020 presidential candidates. Fairfax has categorically denied the allegations and called for a full investigation.
It didn't help when Northam's wife Pamela Northam came under fire for distributing cotton to African-American students on a tour of the governor's mansion, and suggested they imagine themselves as slaves, according to the mother of one child. She apologized on Wednesday and said, "I regret that I have upset anyone."
Closing out February on a low-note, Maryland's Democratic state delegate Mary Ann Lisanti was censured for calling another county a "n----- district." While Lisanti said she couldn't remember using the slur, she also added, "I'm sure everyone has used it.". She later issued a statement that said, "I deeply apologize to the citizens of my district, people of Maryland, all of my colleagues in the Maryland General Assembly and everyone reading this for my word choice several weeks ago."
That all of this occurred during Black History Month is an irony not lost on anyone.These kinds of racist comments, inflammatory acts, and clumsy explanations are what we have become conditioned to expect from Republicans. That all of these incidents involved Democrats was further irony.
Politically, such a calamitous Black History Month should have presented a wide open door for Republicans to make their case to African-Americans, along with other minority voters, including those who may be turned off by recent charges of anti-Semitism among Democrats.
If we existed in a world where the GOP followed the guidance of its own "autopsy" in 2012, seeking a bridge to minority voters, a President Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio might have been able to do just that. But that is not the world we live in. Republicans continue to be defined by their failure on race, whether it's Rep. Steve King's history of defending white supremacists or Donald Trump's "birther" lies that fueled the conspiracy theory questioning whether our first African-American president even had the legitimacy to run.
Minority voters have seen and heard so much racism from the GOP that they're often not interested in Republican talking points, even when the party touts improvements on issues that affect black Americans --like lower unemployment under Trump or advances in criminal justice reform through legislation like the First Step Act.
February was almost a political Halley's Comet, which burned bright and won't be seen again for a long time. Democrats handed the GOP the best opportunity that it has had with African-American voters in at least a generation. Which means the GOP, if it ever wants to win minority voters, has to be actually better both on the issues and the rhetoric surrounding race.
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