Talk about misreading your audience. Democrats have been scrambling for months to find an answer for the party's rift with suburban parents over Joe Biden's radical education policy. But instead of backing off and listening to the local outcry, they've dug in -- vilifying parents and deepening the divide between Washington Democrats and the rest of America. Now, by trying to sack a man who's championing the parents' cause, they've given Republicans exactly what the president didn't want: more ammunition.
North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson isn't shy about his disgust with the Left's education policy. In June, when he spoke at a local church, calling the curriculum "filth," it shouldn't have been national news. But four months later, that's exactly what Democrats are trying to make it: a "gotcha" moment for a man revered by parents everywhere. The recording, which was released by Right Wing Watch, catches Robinson saying, "There's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes, I called it filth. And if you don't like it that I called it filth, come see me and I'll explain it to you."
It wasn't exactly out of character for Robinson, who's spent the last year taking Democrats to the cleaners over their extremist classroom curriculum. Back in March, he even launched a "fairness and accountability" task force called FACTS with the express purpose of exposing the gender, sexuality, and racially-charged content in North Carolina schools. As recently as October 1, he made similar comments -- publicly -- at a dinner of the state's values coalition. "They're pushing these perverted agendas, to try to teach our children that they're really not boys or girls, or they're shoving this homosexuality garbage down their throats," he said.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates hit back, insisting that Robinson's words (and, by extension, millions of parents' shared sentiments) were "repugnant and offensive." "The role of a leader is to bring people together and stand up for the dignity and rights of everyone; not to spread hate and undermine their own office." Funny, most Americans would say the same for Joe Biden -- who seems to be pushing this radical agenda, not at the country's insistence, but at the fringe Left's.
Asked whether he was sorry for calling it "filth," Robinson won even more fans by saying, "Absolutely not." In fact, he went further, arguing that "in our public schools, it has no place." Then, as if to prove his point, the lieutenant governor took the spotlight the Democrats gave him and used it to point out real-time examples. In a new Facebook video he released on Saturday, Robinson pointed to examples of the garbage in local schools -- books like "Gender Queer," a graphic novel about sexual fantasies. "I challenge you to describe them as anything other than filth," he argued.
Democratic state Senator Jeff Jackson (N.C.), another Leftist who hasn't gotten the message that parents are on Robinson's side, called for the lieutenant governor to resign. "There's no debate here. This is open discrimination. It is completely unacceptable." Meanwhile, others say that Robinson shouldn't step down -- more leaders should step up. "Lt. Governor Mark Robinson is 100 percent accurate in describing the sexualization of our children in public schools," Former House Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) insisted. "The content is filth, and the agenda is no less filthy."
As usual, though, the Left is trying to distract from the message by attacking the messenger. In this case, they know they can't defend the trash being passed off as "education," so they turn their guns on Robinson, a wildly popular conservative who's become a cult hero among parents who are clamoring for more leaders to do something. "This whole thing has been an attempt once again to change the argument and silence voices on the Right," Robinson said. "Well, let me tell you plainly right here and right now, I will not back down," he said.
At some point, Democrats will have to answer for their radicalism -- whether they want to or not. Quisha King, a mom at our Pray Vote Stand Summit last weekend, spoke for a lot of parents when she said that if standing up to these extremists doesn't matter to Democrats, if voicing our opinions, writing articles, emailing teachers doesn't matter, then Americans need to send them a message they can't ignore. Preferably, next November.
In the meantime, show your thanks for Lt. Governor Robinson's stand by thanking him on Twitter @markrobinsonNC or on Facebook here.
