Could Mark Robinson Become North Carolina's First Black Confederate Governor?

God, we hope not.

North Carolina’s Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is a vicious bigot who loves guns and hates gays. He compared queerness to "filth," andhe declared before a Charlotte-area church congregation that "we are called to be led by men" not women." He launched his insulting and dangerous campaign for governor last month.

“I’m running for governor because we the people of North Carolina need someone who understands us,” Robinson declared to supporters in Alamance County. “We don’t need another politician who’s spent their life climbing the political ladder.”

Robinson was elected lieutenant governor in 2020 and is running for governor in 2024. He’s not just climbing the ladder. He’s practically sprinting to the top.

Polls show him as the clear frontrunnerfor the Republican nomination, in spite — if not outright because — of his extremist views that some pundits argue will alienate independents and suburban women in the general election. Republican strategists also worry that Robinson will "nationalize" the race for Democrats on account of how he's a big jerk.

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A former rightwing commentator, Robinson apparently realized he “was conservative and always had been” when he read a book by Rush Limbaugh, who is still dead. At least Scientologists are brainwashed by slightly better material.

Robinson's political breakthrough came when he delivered a pro-gun tirade shortly after the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He's called the survivors who advocated for gun safety legislation “spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN,” “spoiled little bastards,” and “media prosti-tots.”

 During a 2019 interview, Robinson suggested that mass shootings were somehow “karma” for legalized abortion: “When you spill that innocent blood, that blood is going to come back as a stain on you and it's going to come home to roost.”

“Karma” is a Hindu concept so kind of a weird term for a Christian fundamentalist to invoke when making his unhinged, sociopathic remarks. He went on to blame liberals for all the gun violence, not the people make these weapons easily accessible. “They have nobody to blame but themselves, and the policies that they've been pushing that devalue human life across the country.”

Robinson is Black — no relation, I think, though it’s possible when my ancestors ran, his released the hounds — and he’s made some deranged comments about race that would delight the average Fox News viewer mourning the loss of Tucker Carlson.

 CNN reports:  

In a CNN KFile review of his media appearances over the last five years, Robinson baselessly claimed that the Civil Rights Movement was a communist plot to “subvert capitalism” and used “to subvert free choice and where you go to school and things like that.”

“So many things were lost during the Civil Rights Movement. So many freedoms were lost during the Civil Rights Movement. They shouldn’t have been lost,” Robinson said in a March 2018 podcast episode. 

Yes, Robinson apparently lamented the loss of segregation and Black people's "freedom" from the burden of voting.

 www.youtube.com 

Robinson is a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, where young Black students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in 1960. When launching his political career, Robinson buddied up to one of the participants in that protest, Clarence Henderson. Last week, he posted a video on Twitter with Henderson where he claimed he “couldn’t be more proud” of Henderson's work in the Civil Rights Movement. “I’ll tell you what," he says. "You made history in this state once before. I’m gonna make history again.”

If elected, Robinson would become North Carolina's first Black governor. Republicans bemoan identity politics until it serves them.

 The Guardian notes that “despite success in the state legislature, Republicans have won the governor’s office once since 1992.“ This is not a big mystery: Republicans and their enablers on the state Supreme Court have gerrymandered themselves into an almost permanent legislative majority. It is harder to fix statewide races, but they’ve done their worst, with active voter suppression measures.

Some troubling polls show Robinson in a dead heat against North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, who is so far the only Democrat who has filed to run in this key race. Considering that 2024 is a presidential election year, I struggle to envision the North Carolina voter who would pick Trump but not Robinson. They are both equally awful and radical. I worry that unless Biden flips North Carolina, Robinson could win.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper just vetoed a 12-week abortion ban. A Democratic governor is the last line of defense against Republican extremism in the state, and if Robinson replaces Cooper, it's not hyperbole to say that no marginalized group is safe. That is not the history I'd like to see made.

[ CNN / MyFox8 / The Guardian ]

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