Who They Are and Who They Have Always Been: Mark Robinson and the GOP

The Mark Robinson scandal is shocking, but it gives incredible insight into who and what the GOP is and what it has always been.

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I don’t want to get into the particulars of the Mark Robinson story. If you want them, they’re out there. Everywhere. And they are…blecccch. Real gross. Real, real gross. What has emerged in the past few days is an incredibly disturbing portrait of an unwell man who is obsessed with power at any and all costs.

Except. Well. We already knew that.

That’s just the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina and the Republican nominee for governor preaching to a church that his political enemies are evil and evil people need killed. Add to that a long and disgusting career of advocating for patriarchal supremacy over women, Nazi sympathy, antisemitic screeds, attacks on gay and trans people, and a whole host of repulsive positions, statements, and conspiracy theories.

It isn’t surprising that a history of really messed up and disturbing online posts allegedly authored by Robinson have shown up. Political insiders have shared rumors and stories about him for years. What has now been revealed - including graphic, nauseating descriptions, a desire to own slaves, and a declaration that he, himself, is a Nazi - only sheds further light on what we already knew: Robinson is deeply unfit for office and power.

In all of the controversy, something is getting lost. And we cannot afford to lose sight of this essential thing.

Robinson isn’t an outlier. He is the Republican Party.

As we have watched the GOP openly embrace authoritarianism and becoming increasingly strange, the need to normalize and sanitize our duopolistic system has obscured a dawning horror. You do not behave like this if you are well. The basis for the Republican Party and the Right throughout history has been a deep, deep maelstrom of psychological distress that then manifests in behavior and through politics.

It originates from a sense of self-hatred and loathing, often resulting from abuse and trauma. In religious communities it arises from a weaponized shame and everpresent pressure to conform to unrealistic standards and expectations. This runs the gamut from sexual identity to simple and organic thoughts and desires. You are consistently reminded that you are not only wretched, but that, unless that wretchedness is eradicated, you might be subjected to excommunication, punishment, and even eternal damnation and torture. Those concepts are parroted within the familial and communal systems, either with or without the framework of religion.

Eventually, the individual has a choice to make. And that choice can be conscious or unconscious. Either the offending parts of the personality are sublimated or the person removes themselves from the environment and risks all of the aforementioned consequences. Often, the sublimation and repression necessitates something very sinister and very dark. To avoid the pressing cognitive dissonance, the person then projects the “dark” and “evil” things about themselves onto the rest of the world, a function that is aided by religious and political ideologies that tell them, consistently, that sinister forces are everywhere and constantly plotting against them.

This is the Right Wing ethos in a nutshell. The present GOP offers an impressive and undeniable example of these concepts. This is how a Donald Trump, a convicted felon and lifelong criminal, takes to the podium and warns about “criminal hordes” invading the country and carrying out unthinkable plots and crimes. How so many preachers, political figures, and public servants who traffic in QAnon/child-trafficking conspiracy theories are eventually caught up scandals and investigations into their own exploitative crimes. And how a party that has prided itself on standing for “law and order” and respect for national security and law enforcement stands behind a violent attempt to overthrow the government that was carried out by insurrectionists attacking police and doesn’t bat an eye when their standard-bearer is caught hording highly confidential state secrets.

Prevalent political analysis is upsettingly shallow. We are presented a rotating cast of characters and shifting story lines that are so convoluted and confusing that oftentimes the only thing we’re left to do is throw up our hands and wonder how much worse things will get. Meanwhile, what plays out is understandable and even predictable. Psychological understanding of Right Wing politics and the inner-workings of authoritarianism is prevalent, but the results and findings are relegated to a handful of academics. It does not pay to dig deeper into these things because to understand what is happening, why it is happening, and what things are at play would mean a deeper reckoning with a system that functions according to such dysfunctions not only continuing but amassing power and wealth.

We live in a society and an economy that profits off sociopathic and psychopathic behaviors, continuing forward by incentivizing abuse and mistrust and exploitation, giving characters like Robinson power and wealth as the cycle plays forward. And, as the status quo worsens and becomes, by design and necessity, more authoritarian, we’re going to see more people like Robinson and Trump and their assorted cohorts like Matt Gaetz. Because as a party divorces itself from actual policy or even principles they used to espouse, all that is left is the cruelty. But do not be mistaken: even when the GOP was “normal,” which it wasn’t, their ranks were littered with hypocrites and deeply unwell figures whose behaviors revealed the entire game. It’s only becoming more obvious and more inescapable now.

Eventually, Robinson and Trump and others like them, are the only people available to carry out the ugly business. Because their individual pathologies make them perfect vessels for what most would simply refuse. We know this, instinctively, when we see them. You cannot watch the above “sermon” by Robinson and not feel revulsion, unless, of course, you are subject to the same internal and unconscious drivers. Same with Trump. To hear them, to see them, to be inundated with them, is to recognize what is happening under the surface, even as you might not rationally understand it or have the background or resources to name it.

Republicans in North Carolina are quickly running from Robinson, but that political action is grounded in a desire for continued power and profit, not a moral or ethical concern. They knew who he was. They heard what he said, they heard the same rumors I’ve heard, and it was fine as long as the true rot was not on display. What we see with Trump, with his endless crimes, the litany of scandals, the convictions, the behaviors, is a lesson in this. None of it matters as long as the pursuit of power continues.

It is telling that Robinson and Trump have peddled these poisons for years now in full view of the public and world. When Trump seeds white supremacist and patriarchal hatred, we launder that into something acceptable at our own peril. When people Robinson, and he is far from alone in this, tells supporters that gay and trans people are evil, that women should be subjugated, and that the tenets of bald-faced authoritarianism are not only desirable but necessary, we cannot afford to treat this as anything besides confessions. We feel it in our guts, but a lack of recognition means it will continue and it will worsen.

This is a time of necessary understanding. We are watching deep and profound sickness while many try and convince us it is normal. Robinson will be treated like an outlier, but what has been revealed is something larger and much more important. What we are dealing with here is not just political. The expressions are political. The means by which this unwellness communicates and propagates itself is political. But its origins, and the restless need to launder this, normalize it, and even encourage it, is rooted in something much, much larger. Gawking at it and continually expressing surprise only ensures it will continue to metastasize and proliferate.