Deny, Deny, Deny

Every time you think they've hit bottom...

I didn’t think I was still capable of being shocked by this Republican party, but I’ve got to hand it to them. There is no floor to their vulgar depravity that they can’t build a sub-basement under. This week, North Carolina Gubernatorial hopeful Mark Robinson broke new ground, and brought enough shovels for the whole MAGA troop. 

The most recent piece of baffling evidence that the modern Republican party is abandoning all principles in honor of supporting extremism and radical hypocrisy is their decision to rally around Robinson as their nominee in North Carolina. Or, rather, it’s his perplexing decision to stay in the race. At this point, you’ve no doubt heard all Robinson’s escapades—and if you haven’t; spare yourself.  

According to a new CNN report, Mark Robinson referred to himself as a Black Nazi on a porn site message board.

How is that sentence alone not sufficiently disqualifying for any candidate in our government? Sadly, it tells you everything you need to know about today’s Grand Ol’ Party. And it gets worse. Robinson has expressed support for slavery and suggested “I would buy a few.” He also stated “I Absolutely Want To Go Back To The America Where Women Couldn’t Vote,” and wrote an abundance of filth about his sexual proclivities that I literally cannot bring myself to send to your inbox.

After CNN’s KFile uncovered the evidence of Robinson’s history of porn usage and slavery apologia, in response, he and the North Carolina GOP decided to consult the Trump playbook and take the lowest possible road: just…deny, deny, deny. He signed onto these sites using the same email address and username that he’s used for decades. Deny deny deny. He was identified as spending up to five nights a week in a local porn shop (after embracing Christianity). Deny deny deny. 

The avalanche of damning comments emerged on the final day that Republicans had to actually replace him on the ballot. If you assumed that they would have made the common sense, morally obvious decision to apply pressure to remove a nominee the moment it was exposed that he self-referenced as a Black Nazi, then you’ve forgotten who and what Donald Trump’s Republicans stand for. 

Any party that was in any way tethered to ethics, or even just political savvy,  would have taken advantage of the opportunity to at the very least disavow his comments and language, or attempt to distance them from the party. After all, they know that Robinson’s name being on the ballot will make a win in North Carolina markedly more difficult for the “conservatives.” But no. Because Trump made no such moves. 

Donald Trump graduated from the Roy Cohn School of Management. The first lesson in that abhorrent curriculum was that Trump should never, under any circumstances, admit fault or misjudgment. He will never acknowledge repeatedly referring to Robinson as a superior version of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK on steroids, or MLK 2.0). He won’t discuss the fundraiser he held for him at Mar-A-Lago. He’ll never again directly associate himself with a candidate he once strongly supported. 

Trump went to a rally in North Carolina after the lurid facts about Robinson had been revealed…and dealt with it using characteristic nullification: he simply did not mention his name. That’s his mode of leadership. And because the rest of the extreme GOP cower in his shadow, they’re handling the issue with the same measure of avoidance and cowardice. Way to reveal your utter lack of moral compasses, Rep. Tom Cotton, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Senator JD Vance. Thank you for further providing evidence that the Republican party has no spine and no future.   

MAGA Republicans are committed to trafficking in a reality of their own creation. And within that alternate reality, there is no place for any of the values they once espoused as defining their party. Those who dwell within that fantasy universe are the world’s most undiscerning base: they blindly buy Trump’s bullshit, not to mention his branded NFTs and coins and crypto and shoes and hats and bibles and trading cards and stock that’s now down 80%. 

But Republicans already have those people locked and loaded; standing down and standing by. Ostensibly, the Right will need to expand their tent and reach people who aren’t fawning MAGA cultists willing to throw their life savings away on anything bearing Trump’s face because they believe him to be their savior, salvation, and redemption. That other group of people—whether they’re Nikki Haley Republicans, independents, or undecided first-time voters—are hopefully capable of being a little more discerning. They’re not exactly being courted, however.  

Here is where we’re witnessing a notable shift from the Republican party of former days. The likes of Pat Buchanan, Spiro Agnew, Newt Gingrich, or Mitch McConnell (to pick just a few nefarious players from an enormous pool) absolutely prioritized their own power over the good of the country. But they were at least strategic about their twisted campaigns. The MAGA set, in that many are fringe anti-establishment sensationalists lacking in political experience, intelligence, or savvy, have yet to adopt a semblance of a plan to attract people who aren’t already cheering beside them at a dwindling rally as their aspiring demagogue spins his latest fictitious, self-promoting yarn.

The enormous audience that tuned in for presumably the sole presidential debate this cycle represented both candidates’ best chance to speak directly to a substantial number of the American people, especially still-undecided voters. Instead of appealing to the exact group of unknowns he needs to get beyond his 46/47% ceiling, Trump showed them his complete lack of self-control, taking shockingly predictable bait by being spun into a tizzy about the size and enthusiasm of his rallies, to such an extent that a question about immigration rapidly devolved into “THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!” It’s awfully hard to imagine there were a significant number of moderates peeled off by that display.

As November nears at a rapid clip, it’s become obvious that Trump is incapable of pivoting to anything resembling a new election strategy because a) that would require consideration of human beings other than himself, and b) he subsists on instant gratification and blind adulation, the likes of which are only going to come from his base. Whenever this attention-addict needs a hit of the good stuff, he calls Sean Hannity or holds a rally and unloads the redundant (yet still remarkably hard-to-follow) workings of his muddled mind to the type of people he knows will clap, cheer, and chant for him, no matter what the hell emerges from his mouth. 

Unconditional applause is a helluva drug when you are a full-blown narcissist in decline; facing sentencing for dozens of felonies. He will say whatever comes into his head because he knows his audience craves the vilest red meat he can muster. Neither the content of his speech nor his character matters at all to his most rabid fans. And if they will pant for him that much louder, he’ll quadruple down on debunked xenophobic comments for an extra five minutes. He’ll also completely erase having ever had any connection with anybody who is a no-no in the latest headlines. 

This is no longer a strategy. There are no tactics—there’s just a tiny man with a brittle ego who desperately needs attention, whether it’s by:

Going to a rally in the fierce battleground county of...Long Island, which was massively under-attended yet still cost taxpayers $1 Million;

The distraction of a thirty-one-year-old MAGA maniac who calls herself a right-wing political activist and drums up attention via posing provocatively with Trump, making crass comments about Vice President Harris, or sampling dog food;   

Or refusing to condemn Mark Robinson as being a reprehensible human being who is only on the GOP ballot because he put him there. ‘Keep the cameras rolling…just make sure I’m not accountable for any of this.’

If your main credential for whom you throw your weight behind is fealty above all else, the ambitious creeps who gravitate to your campaign might be unelectable or just disastrous, like the clearly unvetted candidate for North Carolina governor, or your running mate.    

But here we are. Robinson refused to budge from the ballot. By doing so, in an essential state like North Carolina, they are hopefully just making the path to victory in the general election a little easier for the only truly presidential ticket we have. 

Don’t take my word for it. Close out the week instead by taking a peek at this bipartisan letter signed by more than 700 former secretaries of state and defense who endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, while noting that former President Trump poses a threat to the nation’s defense and to our system of democracy.

Or just look at Kamala and Oprah in Michigan, working to “Unite for America.”