Republican voters knew #Mark #Robinson was a bad man when they chose him.
Now they know he is a very bad man.
Yet North Carolina Republicans are doubling down.
Robinson has denied that the newly surfaced posts are his
— but without addressing any of the evidence showing that the postings match screen names he’s used, match his email address and match key biographical details.
️To the G.O.P., the real problem was the report, not the facts.
The party issued a statement saying that “the Left can try to smear” Robinson “all they want” and “demonize him via personal attacks.”
What makes the situation all the more grievous is that Robinson is running as an outspoken evangelical.
One of his spokesmen, Mike Lonergan, has described him as “very bold and outspoken about his Christian faith.”
Both parties are vulnerable to nominating or electing the occasional crank,
but 
Donald Trump’s ascendance meant that a crank leads the party,
and the best way to join with him is to imitate him.
That’s how you get a Mark #Robinson, or a Marjorie Taylor #Greene, or a Lauren #Boebert, or a Matt #Gaetz.
The list goes on.
That’s how leaders change institutions.
They make them into images of themselves.
In this case, Trump has done so explicitly.
Almost all the worst figures in the Republican Party have ridden Trump endorsements to the top of their local pyramids.
Robinson received Trump’s endorsement and swamped his primary opposition.
Trump even called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
The lesson is simple:
If you want more Mark Robinsons, vote for Donald Trump.
It’s possible that the Republican Party is simply too far gone, at least for now.
A primary electorate that chooses Robinson over more reasonable candidates by 45 points
— and a party that blames “the left” for revealing that he’s even worse than anyone knew
— does not seem ready to change.
But unless and until the Republican Party reverses course
and purges MAGA from the party every bit as thoroughly as it has purged Reaganism,
American politics will remain unstable.
A coalition of decency
(who could ever imagine Nancy Pelosi and Dick Cheney voting for the same candidate?)
will have to continue to set aside profound differences for a larger purpose:
defending the American Republic against MAGA’s nihilistic rage.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/22/opinion/mark-robinson-maga-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ngrp=mnp&pvid=E3889730-1D4D-4044-BED7-099CD169EA47
Cath 
Get over it people.”
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