Shame, Madness and a Fascist GOP

The self-described “Black Nazi” and North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is an appalling example of what the GOP has become

The embrace of Mark Robinson at the Republican National Convention in July. (Photo by Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor, called himself a “Black Nazi” and a “perv,” one who supported reinstating slavery. This became known in recent days from a CNN exposé, drawing on detailed research into a pornography website where Robinson posted dozens of times over a decade ago.

None of this is shocking for anyone who’s paid attention to North Carolina’s lieutenant governor and nominee running against the state’s attorney general, Josh Stein. Robinson’s public pronouncements have revealed him as an antisemite and Holocaust denier; he has made frequent incendiary remarks against civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., has frequently used homophobic slurs and attacked transgender people (despite previously watching trans pornography), has called for a complete ban against abortion and maligns Muslims. But CNN’s reporting takes his hostility and hypocrisy to another level.

Robinson denies that he posted those comments on the site called Nude Africa, and he’s made clear that he will not exit the race because of these new allegations. “We are not getting out of this race. There are people who are counting on us to win this race,” Robinson said several days after the story broke.

In another time, we would ask what is a man like this even doing as the gubernatorial nominee of one of the country’s two major parties. We also would have assumed that, overcome by shame, he would have withdrawn in disgrace.

Not anymore.

In the Trump era, defined in part by pathological lying and a refusal to express regret, apologize or express shame for corrupt, criminal or depraved behavior, someone like Mark Robinson continues his campaign to win the most powerful job in North Carolina. Ultimately, this says less about Robinson than it does about the moral collapse of the Republican Party that attracts and empowers loathsome people like this.

When Donald Trump visited North Carolina this weekend, Robinson was nowhere to be seen or even mentioned. Yes, that’s a sign that he’s become too radioactive for even Trump—who previously endorsed Robinson and called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.” That’s not because of his extreme views or behavior, but because of his increasing likelihood to hand Democrat Josh Stein an easy win and discourage Republican turnout.

The reality is that Robinson is just one particularly repellant example of a once-legitimate party that has kowtowed to a wannabe dictator and demagogue, rejected democracy and the duty to embrace factual reality, traded in hate and division, and continues to demonstrate its readiness for fascist rule.

I won’t recount again the despicable lies by Trump and JD Vance about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio—and the climate of violence that these known lies have fueled. But the appalling (and continuing) episode of hate toward immigrants and the GOP ticket’s rejection of knowable facts illustrates their determination to usher in fascism. Fantasized problems that stir up hatred and incite violence replace real problems that government can and should solve.

As Timothy Snyder, Yale professor and author of the new book On Freedom, put it in a new essay, “In the Trump-Vance political theory, government acts not in the normal way, by laws, but as an instrument of the fury of the people…Us-and-them then becomes the normal form of politics, with us becoming complicit in ever more terrible actions, which incidentally make traditional government harder and our expectations of government lower.” And, Snyder notes, as governmental impotence and conflict between Americans rises, the space for the richest among us increases.

Is it any surprise that Vance, when asked by an NBC reporter in Philadelphia, minimized the allegations about Robinson? “The allegations are pretty far out there, of course, but I know that allegations aren’t necessarily reality,” Vance said.

Not necessarily reality. In another time, we might take the GOP VP nominee’s comment as a reasonable attempt to encourage public caution. Not anymore. They reinforce his and Trump’s desire to degrade the public’s capacity to know what is true and what isn’t, thereby strengthening their ability to spin tales that serve their hateful agenda.

Meanwhile, let’s keep in mind that, even though there are still 43 days until Nov. 5, early voting has begun in some states. Voters can already cast their ballots in person as of Friday in Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota. Add Illinois voters to that list later this week. Around 70 percent of the 154.6 million votes cast in 2020 happened prior to Election Day.

Every pronouncement, every endorsement, every successful event takes on added meaning when we realize how it may sway voters to make their choice. That puts the onus on each of us to reach out to those we meet and ask who they’re voting for.

Maybe you’ll want to mention that, just yesterday, 741 national security leaders endorsed Kamala Harris for president. That list—comprised of Democrats, Republicans and Independents—includes over 230 general and flag officers, ten cabinet secretaries, 15 retired four-star generals and admirals, and 148 ambassadors.

Their signed letter notes that they did not come to their decision lightly. “We are trained to make sober, rational decisions,” they said, adding, “This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them.”

You might also want to mention that—at a time when many members of the media are demanding more policy specifics from Kamala Harris—Trump was posting mad, desperate, policy-free rants about women in ALL CAPS over the weekend. He asserted women are poorer, less healthy, less safe, less optimistic and more depressed than they were four years ago.

And how will this misogynistic man—who’s proud of his role in ending Roe v. Wade and is facing a 21-point gender gap of women who prefer Harris—fix all this? Who knows. Because a day-one dictator need not explain how—just say anything to get into power: “I will fix all of that, and fast, and at long last this national nightmare will be over. Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free!”

Please do share these fake promises. I suspect they can help sway some of the early voters—to cast their ballot with the capable woman in the race. Let’s not forget that, while many registered voters may be uniformed or misinformed, most are not that dumb.

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