North Carolina's weird Republicans

The NC GOP supports a woman who believed Chinese troops were going to attack the U.S. from Canada. That's weird.

Democrats are getting under the skin of Republicans by calling them “weird.” It stings because the moniker is so apt. J.D. Vance claimed that Democrats are controlled by “childless cat ladies” who regret their life choices and want to make everybody else miserable, too. That’s pretty weird.

One wing of the party claims that Democrats are involved in an international human trafficking ring that sexually abuses children. A guy from North Carolina shot up a pizza joint in an imaginary rescue operation. The rest of the party just shrugs. That’s weird, too.

The party that impeached Bill Clinton for lying about an affair now compares a guy who paid off a porn star to hide a tryst and sexually assaulted another woman to Jesus Christ. (Of course, it’s white Jesus, not the one from the Bible.) Just really weird stuff.

In the wake of the January 6 assault on the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senator Lindsey Graham, and numerous other Republican leaders blamed Donald Trump for inciting the attack, but still endorsed him for president this year. That’s pretty weird.

The party that built its brand on free markets, free trade, and literally went to war to spread democracy in the Middle East now supports a presidential candidate who wants to close the borders, impose broad tariffs, and pull out of NATO while embracing the worlds most brutal dictators.

That’s some really weird stuff.

In North Carolina, though, we have our own really weird Republicans. GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson blames unplanned pregnancies on women who won’t keep their “skirt[s] down.” He also flirted with Holocaust denial and called members of the LGBT+ community “filth.” Just a few weeks ago, he told a church gathering that “some folks need killing.” He got applause from the audience. I know I was raised Episcopalian, but that’s pretty weird in my book.

Robinson is also a grifter with little experience doing anything and a track record of financial mismanagement. He’s declared bankruptcy three times. He was evicted from his house for not paying rent. Now, a business run by Robinson and his wife is under investigation for defrauding the government by requesting grant money for daycare centers that didn’t ask for or receive the funds. The business paid more than $850,000 in salaries to Robinson and his family members over seven years. The Department of Health and Human Services has ordered the business to repay more than $132,000. No Republicans have condemned Robinson for the grift. That’s weird by historical standards.

Not to be outdone, Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Michele Morrow called public schools “indoctrination centers” and “socialism centers.” She called for the public executions of Democrats like Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Roy Cooper. She spread the lie that Obama is Muslim and embraced a theory that Chinese troops were stationed on the Canadian prepared to invade the U.S. when Biden was sworn in. That’s not just weird, that’s stupid.

But you know what’s really weird? Both Michele Morrow and Mark Robinson won primaries against people who were pretty normal. In the case of Mark Robinson, he won by a huge margin, garnering almost two-thirds of the vote against the sitting state treasurer and a wealthy attorney. Morrow defeated an incumbent running for re-election who, by most measures, has done a decent job. The majority of the Republican Party chose two delusional, unhinged people to be their standard bearers in the general election and the party establishment has embraced them. Tell me that’s not weird.

The weirdest part, though, is that people who once seemed to have values and principles have shucked them for a bunch of con artists, conspiracy theorists, and grifters. Once honorable men and women now routinely defend lies and corruption in pursuit of power. In just eight years, a major political party has transformed into something that’s a cross between a religious cult and an organized crime syndicate.

So, yeah. Weird pretty accurately describes the modern Republican Party.