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Mark Robinson. MAGA. North Carolina. The recipe from political hell

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It’s not surprising that MAGA politicians get by with scare tactics and little substance, but I have to believe it will end soon and North Carolina will help.

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There is a type of person who thrives on pissing people off online. They are commonly referred to as a ‘troll’, someone who enjoys being provocative to attract the attention of internet users who come across the post.

Donald Trump proved in 2016 that being a troll can win you an election and is now proving that it can win you a second presidential nomination.

In North Carolina, my home state, two trolls are on the ballot this year. Trump, who you’ve heard of, and another who hopes to one day be just as famous.

There has been a lot of news coverage lately about Republican Lt. Governor Mark Robinson of North Carolina, who is now a gubernatorial candidate. Earlier this week, The Washington Post wrote about Robinson’s Facebook posts defending abusers like Harvey Weinstein.

“Harvey Weinstein and the rest of these high-profile Hollywood elites were just sacrificial lambs,” Robinson said in a 2017 Facebook post, after dozens of women came forward to share their stories of Weinstein’s sexual abuse. “They have been slaughtered to smear the airwaves with talk of ‘sexual harassment’ and how prevalent the culture of ‘toxic masculinity’ is in America.”

I’ve been following Robinson’s rise for years. This isn’t the first time the gubernatorial candidate has made headlines for the bizarre things he says. It also doesn’t seem to have any impact on his political career.

The greatest hits of offensive comments from Mark Robinson

In 2021, he drew attention across the state for calling gay and transgender people “filth.” A year later, he came under scrutiny for a 2012 Facebook comment in which he admitted to paying for an abortion in 1989, despite being a staunch pro-life politician. There was a period when his Facebook posts could have made for a weekly column about how controversial they are.

Despite the negative press attention, Robinson has a good chance of becoming governor of North Carolina in November. Christopher Cooper, a professor of political science at Western Carolina University, told me the odds are almost 50/50.

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“He’s good at getting his name out there, and he was able to win the primary, and that about gives you a chance in North Carolina to win the general,” Cooper said.

In Robinson, North Carolina has created yet another MAGA politician whose words never seem to hurt their chances of winning elections.

A rapid climb to political celebrity

In 2018, Robinson was a regular guy when a video of him speaking at a Greensboro City Council meeting was shared by Mark Walker, then the district’s U.S. representative.

It received millions of views on Facebook and landed Robinson on “Fox & Friends.” In 2020, he ran for lieutenant governor of North Carolina, a position with name recognition but very little power. Despite never holding public office, he defeated Democratic candidate Yvonne Lewis Holley and took office in 2021.

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Since then, Robinson has become something of a right-wing celebrity. He has spoken at the National Rifle Association convention and the Conservative Political Action Conference. He has been on Fox News repeatedly.

He has more than 175,000 followers on Facebook and 115,000 on X, formerly Twitter. Recently, New York magazine went so far as to refer to him in a headline as “MAGA’s Great Black Hope.”

Robinson is made in Trump’s MAGA image – including scare tactics

In some ways, Robinson’s rise to power mirrors Trump’s. Like Trump and other MAGA Republicans, Robinson thrives in the culture war. It extends beyond his online persona, despite what little power he has as lieutenant governor.

In 2021, he started a task force to take out teachers who were “indoctrinating” students. It was at the height of the school’s debates over “critical race theory.”

Despite the promise of evidence and 506 submissions to the task force in the first six weeks, there was little evidence that teachers were actually corrupting the state’s youth. For a MAGA politician, the end result is never the point. The goal is to make as much noise as possible about a social issue, incite the base and create a fake crusade against anything considered “woke.” If the evidence is not there, there can never be any admission of mistakes. They just move on to the next boogeyman.

Despite the scare tactics, it’s clear that Robinson reflects some of the state’s politics. In the past year alone, North Carolina has rolled back access to abortion by imposing a 12-week ban and shamed transgender people through a series of anti-LGBTQ+ bills.

On the other hand, he has said things that even make Republicans doubt themselves. While taking office as governor last October, he declared the state’s support for Israel in the war with Hamas. It resulted in people calling him out for anti-Semitic comments he had made in the past, including a Facebook post outright denying that the Holocaust had happened.

The right doesn’t seem to care about the terrible things Robinson has said – if they do, they aren’t being clear enough about it.

“Would he be better off if he weren’t so bizarre?” Cooper asked. “Probably, probably on the margins. But no amount of rhetoric will stop a Republican or Democratic candidate for state office in North Carolina. It’s just too close, and crossover voting is too rare.”

It’s frustrating that nothing seems to be able to hurt Robinson’s chances as governor, despite the terrible things he’s said over the years.

It’s not surprising either. MAGA Republicans like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Trump himself have managed to fly past their conspiracy theories and social media posts to become legitimate threats to democracy, no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves that they are in no way can win.

That’s exactly how people treated Trump in 2016, and we saw what happened there. North Carolina is about to find out after November.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno and Facebook facebook.com/PequenoWrites

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