Calvinball

The old comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, had a game called Calvinball, which was an anarchic exercise in chaos where the rules changed to suit whatever Calvin or Hobbes thought they should be at any given moment.

We are living in a prolonged game of Calvinball.

The various scandals coming out of Virginia are a case in point.  The photo on Northam's page is racist, but it's confusing exactly what Northam's relationship is to that photo.  What is not confusing is his terrible, terrible response to the crisis.  The allegations against Justin Fairfax are unarguably worse, as he is currently being accused of out and out rape.  Attorney General Mark Herring, on the other hand, looks like he just showed some bad judgment at a costume party.  Yet, the current climate means that he looks just as bad as Northam, which I don't exactly buy.

Meanwhile, Trump is in the White House.

It's as if Democrats are playing a game by one set of rules, and Republicans are off playing by an entirely different set.  This first came to light over a year ago with Roy Moore and Al Franken.  Moore was credibly accused to statutory rape.  Franken was credibly accused of groping women.  One is a crime, one is creepy and wrong, but in the context of most of the accusations, not a crime.  Yet it was Franken who resigned and Moore who stayed on the ballot (luckily going down to defeat).

Meanwhile, Kristin Gillibrand is the one who is paying the price - unbelievably - for Franken's ouster. 

Trump has boasted of sexual assault on tape.  He has pursued racist policies as president and as a landlord and business man.  While he is very unpopular, he retains the support of the Republican party.

Democrats, in short, are working to live up to the principles of racial justice and sexual equality that they profess, and it is extracting a price.  Republicans are apparently unconcerned with any principles, and perhaps it is extracting a price as well.

But it's Calvinball, and we have no idea what the score might be.