Mark Robinson, In Mufti and Out

 

I watched the video that Politico put up of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson's speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition convention yesterday (in which he preached warfare and total obeisance to the warrior king Donald Trump), which made me more acutely aware of the personality switcheroo that Robinson started trotting out the night he gave a pre-taped rebuttal to Gov. Cooper's state-of-the-state address back in March -- a coached and stage-managed personality remake wherein Robinson seemed less the bombastic preacherman ready to dictate everybody's behavior than a policy wonk arguing the law. That's the new Mark Robinson, at least while he's in North Carolina. But on the national stage he's still the overbearing, holier-than-thou authoritarian.

Back in March, via pre-taped video, Robinson talked calmly. None of his signature shouted exhortation, and he even eschewed the politics of division and anger. Or at least claimed he did. That's the new Robinson in campaign mode for governor, as though independent voters are gonna buy that act. The real Mark Robinson, whose delivery is like every hellfire preacher I heard growing up, always laying down markers about other people's behavior and quoting scripture as a flail to unholy backs -- I don't want that anywhere near the governor's office.