He's baaack

Mark Robinson wants some more attention.

If there’s one thing that’s consistent about Mark Robinson, it’s that he craves attention. Yesterday, he released a new podcast where he admits, explains, and defends his porn habit. I’m not watching it, but I thank Bryan Anderson for falling on his sword so I don’t have to.

The most preposterous statement Robinson makes is blaming his campaign team for his troubles. He says if he had changed consultants he would have survived and won the election. That’s delusional. He lost to Josh Stein by 15 points.

It’s hard to know, but Robinson is probably trying to creep back into public life. This podcast is his trial balloon. It’s not going to fly, but I wish it would.

Mark Robinson is the candidate the GOP deserves. He was a creation of the outrage machine that excites the right. He got his start with a viral video when he made a gun rant before the Greensboro City Council. Knowing little about him, conservative influencers and groups like the NRA turned him into a rock star, drawing cheering crowds at gun shows and conventions. Robinson turned his fifteen minutes of fame into a political career.

North Carolina Republicans had numerous chances to stop him, but they didn’t. They encouraged him, electing him lieutenant governor and then nominating him to be their gubernatorial standard bearer. He defeated State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a mainstream conservative politician, in the primary.

In that primary, the GOP leadership in North Carolina lined up behind him. Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger was among the first to sign on and showed up at his campaign kickoff rally. Before it was over, Republicans were clambering to get their photos with Robinson. Of course, after it was over, they were scrubbing their social media feeds of him.

Republicans knew exactly who Mark Robinson was. He had a long history of racist, misogynistic, and homophobic social media posts. He made outrageous comments like “Some people just need killin’.” The base ate it up and the politicians ignored it.

Around the general assembly the year before the election, Republican lobbyists and legislators were giddy. By their calculation, Mark Robinson would split the Black vote, defeating Josh Stein. The party that talks about the “soft bigotry of low expectations” applied the theory to politics. They assumed that skin color would take precedence over positions and values for a large number of African American voters.

They also wanted desperately to say, “See, I’m not racist. I support the Black guy.” They would overlook all kinds of awful behavior to tell themselves that subtle lie. Instead, they just confirmed their prejudice.

Mark Robinson is a symptom of the disease that’s infected the GOP. They created Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Megyn Kelly, and a host of other deeply flawed on-air personalities. For years they coddled them and cheered them. As Fox News and talk radio lied, misled, and incited their base, once responsible Republicans either looked away, trading truth for votes, or embraced the carnival show.

The conservative message machine built up grifters and liars as credible messengers, telling their base for years that the Tucker Carlsons of the world were shooting straight with them. They were creating monsters from whole cloth. As long as they attacked Democrats with distortions, half-truths, and outright lies, Republicans were fine with them.

When Tucker and company either turned on the GOP or, in the case of Candace Owens, their flaws became too apparent to ignore, Republicans recoiled in horror. Today, the monsters are routinely bashed by the people who nurtured and created them. They claim the Carlson’s of the world have changed, but that’s not true. And the Republicans haven’t, either.

They are the same party that lacks the judgment to walk away from a Mark Robinson. They’re still embracing Donald Trump even as the Epstein files make clear that Trump was probably at least aware of the abuse and may well have participated in it. Power, though, matters too much. Accountability is no longer a Republican value.

As for Mark Robinson, I hope he can make a comeback. The people who embraced him knowing his flaws should welcome him back into the fold, but they won’t. Maybe he can build some sort of relationship with the GOP base. They’ll believe anything. He’s a good representation of what the party has become.