Curtains down, Mr. Robinson

Maybe, according to the calendar, it’s too early to state categorically who is going to win or lose any election going on right now. After all, the polls have been wrong before. Just ask Hillary Clinton what the polls did to her in 2016 after her “guaranteed win” over Donald Trump.

But given most of the information we have thus far, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, that darling of the cultural right, will NOT make further history, and will NOT be elected North Carolina’s first black governor. More importantly, I think through all of the bluster and B.S., he certainly knows this.

Thus, I’m adding my political obituary for Robbie to the growing pile.

As you read this, old MAGA-Mouth is finally out there on the campaign trail, attempting to at least look like he’s trying to win. But if three of the most recent polls are accurate, Robinson has about 14 points of negative public opinion real estate to chew up between now and November 5th Election Day just to pull even with his Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Josh Stein, before anything good can happen for him.

The clock is not on Robinson’s side, nor is his campaign’s bank account. Robbie’s campaign bucks are precious and few between now and Election Day, according to AdImpact, an ad service that monitors how much media advertising time has been reserved for a candidate. Stein reportedly has $16 million in campaign ad time reserved to further tar and feather Mark Robinson with. Published reports have it that Stein’s campaign has been outspending Robinson 3 to 1 since the primaries ended last March.

So what happened to Mark Robinson’s jugger-not campaign? The folks handling the black Republican and his arrogant bid for history sure acted like they knew what they were doing. Not granting interviews (except with right-wing media), no debates, and weird campaign ads (like where he and his wife are telling folks, “ We had an abortion”).

He even got the all-important blessing and endorsement from the MAGA King Criminal himself, Donald Trump, who once embarrassed the hell out of Robinson publicly calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

Never before has my foot wanted to bum-rush such a blasphemous behind so bad.

They tried to soften Robbie’s rough image after his prior divisive social media rhetoric about Jews, women, Muslims, Blacks and LGBTQ+ people made him out to be an intolerant, ignorant, bigoted tyrant. Even dressed him up in a suit and tie to make it look like he’s in charge of something.

But what happened? Robbie would go speak at a redneck church someplace, you know, the kind that allows folks to pull out their iPhones to capture every word you say during sermon, and the next thing you know, all of that hard work trying to make Robbie look like some sort of statesman, goes down the drain. Especially when someone posts video of Robinson’s redneck church sermon online, revealing that he’s saying stupid stuff like “some folks need killing” when referring to liberals, or “Christians are called to be led by men, not women.”

There’s no secret what’s been going here. The folks trying to clean Robbie up, just don’t know how to shut him up. He was saying dumba-s stuff long before he got into politics, and probably will continue saying dumba-s stuff long after he’s forced to leave politics by the end of this year. He just can’t help himself.

And then there’s Robinson’s wife, the “brains” of the operation. I say that rhetorically because she doesn’t say much (compared to her hot-air hubby), but then, she doesn’t have to.

According to reports from the North Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services, the non-profit businesses she had allegedly didn’t follow the rules too closely. As a result, a childcare center she once ran (that became the focus of some devastating campaign attack ads from Stein) was allegedly a dangerous hellhole for young children being kept there (Robinson denies this, saying that the allegations are a “weaponization of government” towards his wife), and numerous press reports about how a second business allegedly overcharged the government in overstating its expenses to the tune of $132,000 (again, denied by the Robinsons, who this time claim that liberal enemies in the press are trying to shoot down the man who would be NC’s next right-wing king).

Well those liberal enemies in the press have been quite busy of late, digging up allegations that his wife stiffed the Girl Scouts with a $3,000 bad check and got sued for it (how the hell did that happen?), and recent reports about Robbie allegedly visiting porn shops in Greensboro routinely when he was in his 20’s, aren’t helping his cause any. For the record, Robbie’s campaign forcefully denies those reports, too (Hey folks, c’mon now. You can’t deny everything).

The only reason why the alleged porno reporting has any currency, in my opinion, is it tracks perfectly with previous demeaning remarks Robinson has made about women, and how he believes they aren’t equal to men. Especially when it comes to their right to choose, or being the victims of domestic violence. 

Simply put, the man’s huge foot just loves residing in his big, fat, sexist mouth!

To be fair, Robinson and his wife reportedly came up on the rough side of the mountain. Bad checks, bankruptcies, losing a home, losing businesses, failure to pay taxes, stuff that hustling poor folks go through because they’re trying so hard to make it. But that doesn’t mean people like this should be thrust into the political limelight just because they’re conveniently available.

I rarely pretend to speak for my entire community, but given a taste of Mark Robinson’s piss-poor behavior after having been elected the first black lt. governor in North Carolina history, few of us, if any, are looking forward to him being elected the first black governor in our great state’s history.

We tend to like our “first to be” black historymakers to be people we can proudly tell our children about. Be someone who reflects the best values of our community. Someone we would be proud to have over after church for Sunday dinner. Not someone who brags to lily-white, right-wing redneck audiences, “I’m not no African-American!”

Mark Robinson is someone the Black community has no pride in, nor will we, in the foreseeable future. No Black PACs have endorsed him. He has accomplished nothing worthy of tribute, or honor.

Bottomline to all of this from where I sit is that if Robinson’s bid to make further history explodes into flames (and I can smell the smoke rising now), it’s his own rude mouth and ignorant actions that have lit the fuse. In many of the campaign ads targeting Robinson, he is both seen and heard saying the kind of disgusting, hateful and illiterate things out loud that would make the family dog run and hide.

I mean, I don’t think I’ve seen an ad where Josh Stein is sweating to make the case for why he should be governor. But I’ve seen plenty of Stein ads where Mark Robinson is more than adequately making the case for why he should never be our next governor, regardless of who the Democrat is. Stein is effectively using Robbie’s own words against him.

A smart Stein opponent would know how to go after Josh Stein and his record. Yeah, I’ve seen the one ad alleging that Stein is soft on crime, has let dangerous felons out of prison early, was lazy about solving old rape cases, and was so “woke’ he advocated defunding the police.

Absolutely NONE of that beeswax is true. Those lies are just buckets of MAGA paint being thrown up against the wall, hoping that something, anything will stick.

If Josh Stein has a problem, it’s not that he’s soft on crime, but rather that he’s too much of a politician, and too slick by half. A smart counter campaign would know how to go after him for that.

Apparently, “Mark Robinson for governor” is NOT that campaign.

I feel sorry for Robbie. A proud conservative loudmouth, once down-on-his-luck black man who was discovered just a few years ago talking smack on video to the Greensboro City Council about the rights of gun owners, who allowed folks who play cards with the devil talk him into running for the second highest office in the state, obviously setting the poor fool up to be the biggest patsy we’ve seen in some time.

Robbie won the GOP primary for lt. governor, then the 2020 general election, instantly putting the world on notice that with no political experience, no elected experience, and basically no common sense, he was going to run for governor of the great state of North Carolina on a platform of hot air and divisive politics.

The right-wingers using him thought they had the perfect Republican foil - an outspoken black conservative who could win the support of MAGA rednecks, and maybe even some rural conservative black folks statewide, and put North Carolina solidly back in the red state column.

The shame of it all is that if Robinson hadn’t listened to the devil’s playmates, and just went about his business forging a simple, honest living for himself and his family like everybody else, instead of politics, he wouldn’t be in the trouble he’s in today.

One of the biggest political failures we’ve ever seen in our lifetime.

True, there are still about two months left, and anything can happen in that time in an election, but I suspect given the extraordinarily embarrassing political episode in this state’s history Mark Robinson is responsible for, by this time next year, he will be a bad memory, or a bad joke, or both.

And that’s both sad, and cruel, especially since it’s clear, the man never really knew what he was signing up for.

Curtains down, Mr. Robinson. Show’s over!