Last week, politician Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor and Republican nominee for North Carolina governor, found himself in quite the controversy after his past online behavior on questionable pornographic forums allegedly began to resurface. Reports are coming out that Robinson referred to himself as a Black Nazi and had a zeal for making offensive remarks about queer people, transgender people, women and Black people. In these reports, Robinson allegedly admits to peeping on women in public gyms at the age of 14. And remember, this is the guy who justifies his transphobia under the guise of “women’s safety” and believes transgender women should be forced to use men’s bathrooms to “protect” cisgender women. This report is coming as a shock not only for its inflammatory nature but also because Robinson is a Black man making these comments disparaging his race in a state with a substantial Black electorate. Robinson’s campaign was all but finished after this news came out — turning a once close race against Josh Stein, the North Carolina attorney general and Democratic nominee for North Carolina governor, into a blowout. We should get used to this behavior, though, because this is the culture the GOP has cultivated.
GOP leadership has attempted to disavow Mark Robinson since these allegations, but do not be fooled. This is just them playing the long game, which is evident when you know the current vice presidential nominee JD Vance couldn’t even be bothered to denounce the racist comments directed toward his Asian wife, instead opting to say, “Obviously, she’s not a white person… But I just, I love Usha. She’s such a good mom.” It is an odd way to defend your wife, but it should be expected from the guy who called people without children sociopaths.
This is the same party whose presidential nominee, former United States President Donald Trump, claimed on live television that Haitians were eating cats and dogs to wide applause from his party, along with Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins backing him by calling Haiti “the nastiest country in the Western hemisphere.” When these comments rapidly led to the rise in hate crimes against Haitian communities across the country, the current Florida senior GOP Sen. Marco Rubio called it overblown. This is also the same party where Trump and Trump-backed Ohio Senate Republican nominee Bernie Moreno said older women shouldn’t care about the abortion issue because they can’t have children anyway.
This is, once again, the same party where Michigan Rep. Tim Walberg said that Palestine should be “handled like Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” We also can’t forget about young hotshot Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who has told abortion protestors, “No one wants to impregnate you,” and has a history of racist statements against colleagues, some directed even towards members of his party, such as his dig at former New York Rep. George Santos, who he referred to as being helped by a DEI recruitment strategy. It is important to note Gaetz has been under investigation since 2021 for engaging in alleged sexual misconduct with a minor, an investigation in which one of his close associates got charged with sex trafficking. Oddly, Gaetz has recently refused to continue participating with the House Ethics Committee in the ongoing investigation. But once again, this behavior shouldn’t be surprising, considering it’s coming for the party whose presidential nominee is the first in history to be charged with a crime and then the first to be convicted of said crime, truly a trendsetter.
The current GOP is no stranger to incendiary comments and very conservative figures. However, continuing to be shocked at every comment they make would just be incredibly ignorant. Sure, Robinson’s comments are shocking and grotesque, but most Republicans have been grotesque since the Tea Party took a stronghold in the party in 2009. Many of us weren’t old enough to remember when 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin claimed former President Barack Obama was running a death panel through his health proposals and disparaged him for wearing “mom jeans.” It is known that Republican politics have been out of whack for decades now, and we’re just seeing behavior that’s on par for the course. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we better get ready to see it ramp up.
Jaylin Seldon, FCRH ’27, is a philosophy major from Harlem, N.Y.
