"If you're gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right
You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away."
Don Schlitz, "The Gambler," a Kenny Rogers hit in 1978
The Democratic Party did its job. They folded a weak hand.
Proof of that pudding was the objection of Donald Trump:
"I bet inside [Kamala Harris] was laughing last night when she saw the way Joe Biden left because that was a coup. That was a coup. And I'm no fan of his at all. And it started with the debate, and from that point on it just got worse and worse. But that was a coup, it was a vicious, violent overthrow of the president of the United States."
It wasn't a coup. The Democratic nomination is the party's to assign. Biden withdrew because he realized he had lost the support of his party after the debate.
 |
| Mark Robinson |
Democrats have a new reason to feel optimistic. North Carolina is now a battleground state. The GOP did not do what Democrats did with Biden, or what experienced poker players do when they hold weak cards, or what baseball managers do when they replace a tired starting pitcher with a fresh reliever. Life is full of examples of this error. North Carolina Republicans didn't know when to fold and walk away.
Republicans have a disaster in their candidate for governor in North Carolina. Mark Robinson, an all-in MAGA candidate with a record of wholehearted public support from Trump, has just blown up his campaign. He won the gubernatorial nomination and Trump's endorsement as an outspoken culture warrior troll. Robinson had said he wanted to outlaw all abortions. He promotes conspiracy theories about the moon landing, 9/11, George Soros, and the holocaust. He mocked Michelle Obama, the survivors of the Parkland shooting, women voting, the Me Too movement, and the LGBTQ community. That sounds extreme to Democrats, but not to MAGA Republicans nor to Trump. There is ample video of Trump praising him Robinson.
This week new information emerged. Robinson reportedly had a rich history visiting porn sites and video booths. Adultery sites. He made lusty chatroom comments on transexual videos. He called himself a Black Nazi. He trolled about liking slavery and wanting to own a few slaves himself. Robinson demolished his cultural conservative credibility. He redefined himself from righteous scourge of woke liberals, and became instead a sleazy hypocrite. He is currently down some 14 points in polls.
The GOP could have acted. They had a brief time window to force him to withdraw so they could nominate a replacement. It would have defined the North Carolina GOP as not-sleaze, not- Mike-Robinson, as genuine cultural conservatives. They could have made a clean break. They did not. They stuck with Robinson as their gubernatorial candidate.
Marginal voters are concerned about Trump's character and temperament. On policy issues, Trump probably has a slight edge in North Carolina; that's why Republicans win statewide. But Trump has a special vulnerability within his popularity. Trump rants. Trump keeps looking back. There is January 6. Trump is a crude lawbreaking thug. Still, for Republicans, he is their crude thug, and he makes liberals cry. Republicans can ignore the crudity, all for a good cause of the GOP team. Robinson moves the dial on what the North Carolina GOP represent. They aren't just Trump; they are Robinson, too.
Possibly a 180-degree turnaround for Trump could erase his "Mark Robinson problem," with Trump criticizing Robinson, but that is most certainly not Trump's style. Trump's method is to double down. Besides, the North Carolina GOP stayed with Robinson, so Trump has a tribe to defend. Robinson is hard to defend and impossible to ignore.
The party's leaders did the job of a political party. The party represented the interest groups that make up the Democratic coalition and picked a candidate who could win election. They understood the situation and persuaded Biden to fold.
Now North Carolina voters will spend the next weeks hearing about how sleazy Robinson is. They will hear about Black nazis and how he is sorry women have the right to vote. They will be inundated with video of Trump praising his best pal Mark Robinson.
Trump may still win. Being a Republican in North Carolina means Trump starts with a strong poker hand. Trump could have insisted the state GOP replace Robinson with a stronger card. But he didn't, and they didn't.
6 comments:
Republicans love Trump because he best represents their values. The same is true for Mark Robinson or Trump wouldn’t have endorsed him so forcefully.
Robinson is on record stating, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” That was also before the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were passed…in case anybody had any doubt about when Republicans think America was great.
Of course Trump didn't insist the North Carolina GOP replace him. Trump literally called Robinson "MLK Jr. on steroids" when he endorsed the guy in March during the GOP primary. These new revelations about Mark Robinson's porn website posts aren't remotely surprising if you've been paying even a little attention. The guy is a well-known sleazeball absolute dirtbag and to MAGA Republicans, which as far as I can tell is basically all Republicans now that they've purged their party of the "RINO's," being a sleazeball and an a dirt bag is a feature not a bug.
We are dealing with a political party and movement that has quite literally gone crazy. We *MUST* defeat Trump in November and end this madness.
Who is Mike Robinson?
Mike Robinson is Mark Robinson. I erred.
If the stakes weren’t so high, this whole election would make a fascinating social psychology study. So taking the gravity of what’s at stake off the table for just a moment, I think this revelation about Robinson (Trump’s guy” is another litmus test to see the extent to which the inertia of unfettered loyalty to Trump, blinds his followers to what used to be called common decency.
No doubt Republicans are unconcerned about the Black Nazi running for governor because they have every confidence the White Nazi running their party can keep him in his place.
Post a Comment