Thursday, June 10, 2021

STOKING THE STAR-MAKER MACHINERY, GOP STYLE

To hear right-wingers tell it, the Black Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina just had a breakout moment. RedState reports:
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson Gave a Must-Hear Speech That Will Set Your American Soul on Fire

Americans are a country of people that should be proud of who they are and what they’ve accomplished and despite what the left may say about you or this country, it’s one that not only needs defending, it deserves defending.

That was the message from North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson during the North Carolina Republican Party State Convention. It was a speech that went overlooked due to the appearance of former President Donald Trump and his speech, but it’s one that deserves to be seen and heard by any Republican, and indeed any American who has pride in their country.
So what did Robinson say?
“The greatest example that I saw, and witnessed it firsthand on television, was during 9/11. People running away from those burning buildings, running away in horror. We saw a policeman and fireman running to those buildings, basically running to their deaths to go help others because they saw trouble and they knew that they would need it.,” said Robinson.

“That’s got to be us this day right here,” he continued. “And what is the trouble? The trouble is the Biden administration that is seeking the turn this country into a socialist hellhole. The trouble is Antifa, who wants to roam the streets and beat you into submission. The trouble is Black Lives Matter that claims to care about the lives of black people but it’s turned a blind eye while violence in black communities are taking lives at a genocidalal of rate. They turn a blind eye!”

“That’s where the trouble is and that’s where we’ve got to run to,” he added....

“At Bunker Hill that was Americans. And at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg that was Americans. And at Iwo Jima, raising that flag on Suribachi, it was Americans. And at Pork Chop Hill, that was Americans. Khe Sanh, that was Americans. And on 9/11 there was America who ran towards those burning buildings,” he continued.

“That is who you share your heritage with. You do not share your heritage with a weak and ineffective people who cower at the sign of trouble!” he added.
Robinson went on to say:
It's time to put on our packs. It's time to fix those bayonets. It's time to get ready. We got a fight on our hands.
When I put all of that together, it sounds as if he's talking about using bayonets against the Biden administration, which would seem to be a ... problematic thing to say. But he doesn't appear to be in any trouble for saying it. Instead, he's being lavished with praise -- from Dinesh D'Souza, Dan Bongino, and Gateway Pundit, among others.

This tweet seems to have generated much of the excitement:


The tweeter is a GOP operative who's not the first person you'd expect to be praising a Black man.
Caleb Hull, a digital communications strategist popular with pro-Trump Republicans, made racist and inflammatory comments, including the use of the n-word, on a Twitter account he used as a video gamer in 2014....

Hull worked as director of content at Targeted Victory, an influential Republican marketing and advertising firm. According to FEC filings, Targeted Victory’s clients include campaigns for high-ranking Republicans like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, and powerful Republican entities like the National Republican Senatorial Committee....

In 2014, Hull made anti-Black, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBTQ remarks on a Twitter account ... with the handle @FlwTV...

Hull casually deployed the n-word on his @FlwTV Twitter account on several occasions and shared jokes in which the slur was the punchline. In one instance, he remarked that he was banned from a streamer’s chat room after he “spammed” the n-word “17 times.” Hull promoted racist tropes about Black people, specifically those involving watermelon and fried chicken, Black children without fathers, and slaves picking cotton....

Hull shared an image multiple times that depicts a piece of fried chicken hanging from a noose....

Other targets of Hull’s mockery included Muslims, special needs children, and Latinos.
On the other hand, Hull and Mark Robinson seem, in some ways, like brothers from different mothers.
On his Facebook page ... Robinson has lashed out at others and posted various insults; his posts disparaging transgender people, Muslims, former President Barack Obama, and African-Americans who support Democrats, among others, have drawn criticism.

Robinson accused people "who support this mass delusion called transgenderism" of seeking "to glorify Satan"; claimed that the movie Black Panther was "created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic Marxist" that was "only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets" (using a Yiddish slur for Black); called former President Obama a "a worthless, anti-American atheist" and posted "birther" memes; accused American Muslims of being "INVADERS" who “refuse to assimilate to our ways while demanding respect they have not earned.”; called Michelle Obama a man; and disparaged Joy Behar and Maxine Waters in crude terms. After the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, Robinson wrote that "Homosexuality is STILL an abominable sin and I WILL NOT join in 'celebrating gay pride.'" In 2020, Robinson asserted that the coronavirus was a "globalist" conspiracy to defeat Donald Trump, and dismissed the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, writing, "The looming pandemic I’m most worried about is SOCIALISM."
And yet Hull's commenters think Robinson has a very bright future. The only thing they can't agree on is how bright:


Even I'm not pessimistic enough to believe that a guy like this can win national office. Then again, who knows?

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