by Nicholas Patti

The United States of America is a democracy, and one thing that means is that we, the American people, have the chance to vote for our president. In North Carolina, this year is also an election year for our governor. Use it or lose it! My first shout-out on this blog is to urge everyone in North Carolina, and in fact, throughout the United States, to vote. We must exercise our right to vote, if we wish to maintain our country as a democracy. As to whom to vote for, each of us makes up our own mind about each candidate, taking into account policy stances, political party, and yes, the values and character of each candidate. Consider this post my endorsement post on this blog for these two offices, in particular: the president of the United States, and the governor of the State of North Carolina. The important thing is, however, that each person who is a citizen of this country takes up his or her responsibility and duty as a citizen, and votes.

Let us begin with the American president. I would like to add my voice to those Democratic Party convention delegates this year who chanted, “Thank you, Joe!” to current President Joe Biden when he took the stage and addressed the Democratic Party convention this year. I think President Joe Biden has done a bang-up job as an American president during his term, and I thank him for his almost four years of public service as our president, and for his decades of service in American government as vice-president and U.S. senator, before that. He has had a long and terrific career as an elected official serving the American public in Washington.

Having said that, I think it was wise for him to step aside as the Democratic Party candidate for president in this election for the next term. In his speech at the convention this year, President Biden said he was putting country before personal ambition. He argued that we must keep former President Donald Trump out of the executive office, utilizing the ballot box, at all costs. I disagree, humbly. I think President Biden was not placing country before personal ambition, but rather, placing political party before personal ambition. It is true the election looked lost for President Biden when our President made the decision to pull out as a candidate. What President Biden did was to hand-select an alternate candidate whom our current President believed could beat Donald Trump at the ballot box, and make her the Democratic Party candidate. This move would be the Democrats’ best shot at holding the White House in Democratic Party hands. Thus, after ignoring many calls to do so, President Joe Biden handed over the baton to the next generation of leadership in the Democratic Party, and likely, in our country. I follow President Joe Biden’s lead in choosing our current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as my preferred candidate for our next American president.

As a much younger candidate than either President Biden or former President Donald Trump, Kamala Harris would represent handing leadership of our country over to the next generation of leadership, if elected. Her selection by the Democrats represented a political disaster for President Trump and the Republicans, at the time, since she was much younger than either of the two previous candidates, Biden and Trump. The Republican Party attack ads and attack lines at the first debate between Biden and Trump, that President Biden was too old and infirm to govern, now fell entirely flat. In fact, these attacks would tarnish President Trump himself, moreso than anyone else, now that he was the only older white guy in the race, and Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris could paint herself as the clear alternative for the future.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduced herself, described who she is, and outlined what her priorities would be, if elected president, in the Democratic Convention this year. Although she remains politically liberal, she did an end-run to the political center, and reassured all that she would uphold America’s position in the world, militarily, economically, politically, and in concert with traditional U.S. allies across the world. In addition, she promised to cut costs for the American consumer and to fight for the American working and middle class. She contrasted her position with former President Donald Trump, who she claimed would fight only for himself and for billionaires. Whether that is true or not, or only a Democratic Party attack line against the Republican nominee for president, I leave to each individual voter to decide. 

What I do know is that after this election for U.S. president, either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be our next president. For better or worse, the American people will live with either one for the next four years. We are lucky that we, the American people, have the right to vote and choose which one will be our next president. I plan to vote for Kamala Harris. Either way, I urge every American citizen to make the choice and vote.

Let me turn my focus from the race for US president to the race for governor of the State of North Carolina. Before I make my endorsement, let me review who the candidates are, from the Democratic and Republican parties, for the office. When voting for governor of North Carolina, North Carolinian voters may choose from the Democratic candidate, Josh Stein, current North Carolina Attorney General, and the Republican candidate, Mark Robinson, current North Carolina Lieutenant Governor. Both candidates claim to be for the working, sometimes struggling, families of North Carolina. Who is the best choice?

Josh Stein is a reliable Democrat, promising to bring Democratic policies to the state, and continuing on the legacy that the popular current governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, is leaving to the state. Democrat Roy Cooper has brought, for example, medicaid expansion to the North Carolina, which Governor Cooper and the Democrats of North Carolina fought for roughly 10 years to enact as law in North Carolina. Josh Stein would continue that legacy of having a Democrat in the Governor’s mansion. 

On crime, Republicans have attacked Josh Stein as soft on crime, largely because he is a Democrat. Fighting crime is a hot-button issue for Republicans. However, Josh Stein has countered that, as the current state Attorney General, he has been fighting crime in North Carolina for years. No one accuses the Republican of being soft on crime.

The issue of choice, or abortion, separates the two candidates. Josh Stein is pro-choice, similar to the current Governor, Roy Cooper. Mark Robinson is pro-life. Robinson has waffled on the extent of his pro-life views, flipping between supporting the current anti-abortion law on the books in North Carolina, and calling for an even more stringent anti-abortion law. The current law bans abortions in North Carolina, with notable exceptions, but the question is six or twelve weeks into the pregnancy, when abortion would become illegal in North Carolina. Six weeks would be sooner than the current law in North Carolina, and Robinson has said he would support a six-week ban. He has qualified his position, however, by saying that the legislature has already enacted the current law, and the power to change the law to restrict abortion even further is not up to him, but the state legislature.

I am pro-choice and I support Democratic candidate Josh Stein on this issue.

Then, there is the question of character and background. The latest news, which made the national news, is a sex scandal concerning the Republican candidate, Mark Robinson. According to CNN, Robinson went on a porn website ten years ago, before he was in politics, and made disconcerting comments. He called himself a “black Nazi,” and endorsed slavery, saying he would buy a few slaves. When interviewed about this scandal by CNN after the report was aired, Robinson denied the whole affair. Robinson called it a lynching of him, using AI, the internet, and cable news. It looks to me that CNN did not make the story up, however, and that the story is true.

The next response Robinson had to this scandal was to state that he is remaining in the race, that he is not dropping out because of this one incident, the truth of which he denies. I agree that he should stay in the race and let the voters of North Carolina decide if this one example of essentially sexual misconduct via an on-line porn site disqualifies him from the highest executive office in North Carolina, or not.

Later, just today, September 20, 2024, on CNN, former North Carolina Governor, Republican Pat McCrory, threw Robinson under the bus. Former Governor Pat McCrory said that Mark Robinson is unfit to be governor. McCrory thought that the Republican Party of North Carolina should do a better job vetting their candidate for governor. McCrory said that for Lieutenant Governor, the job Robinson currently holds, that he would be an ok candidate. Not for governor, McCrory said. McCrory’s opinion is that Robinson has said and done things in the past that should preclude him from holding the highest office in the state. McCrory thinks the governor candidate should be vetted more than for the Lieutenant Governor, since the Governor’s office is more high-profile. McCrory said that the press will look into the full background of the candidate moreso for the governor’s office than the lieutenant governor’s. McCrory said he was vetted by the Republican Party in North Carolina before he became the candidate, and ultimately, the Governor of North Carolina. He continued, that the Republican Party of North Carolina knew these things about Robinson’s questionable background, but chose him anyway. The reason that McCrory gave that the Republican Party of North Carolina chose Robinson for the candidacy is that Robinson is a very good public speaker. McCrory said Robinson is very populist and gives such good speeches, he became very popular. For McCrory, however, it was not just this latest scandal that disqualified Robinson. McCrory said that there are numerous things about Robinson’s background that calls into question his character and fitness for the highest office of the state. McCrory admitted it is too late under North Carolina election law to switch candidates, so the question is academic.

One thing that former Governor Pat McCrory did say was that North Carolina is a purple state. Voters often split their tickets in North Carolina. He said that any questions about Robinson’s influence on the top of the ticket, the U.S. president, cannot be easily discerned. Robinson could bring down other Republicans up and down the ticket, or voters in North Carolina could split their tickets. The implication is that even if voters reject Robinson, they could still vote for Republican Donald Trump for U.S. president.

I think the question of character is relevant for the office of governor. Democrat Josh Stein is a Jew, he is liberal to moderate, and he is the current Attorney General. Can you imagine that Josh Stein’s opponent, Mark Robinson, called himself a Nazi once, who would want to own a slave? Josh Stein is Jewish. The holocaust must be remembered, regarding Nazis, slavery, and Jews. Mark Robinson’s comments are abhorrent.

In defense of Mark Robinson, however, he was using the services of a porn website. These traffic in sexual fantasies with the goal of sexual pleasure for the user. There is another concept at work here. That is the concept of mental slavery. The idea here is that actual slavery has been abolished, but mental slavery persists. It seems that in this on-line porn posting, Mark Robinson was engaging in mental slavery, as the owner, of course, for his own sexual pleasure. Let me note that praying in the Protestant Christian faith frees one from mental slavery, especially in the United States. Robinson has been shown in videos preaching from the pulpit of a black Protestant Church. Suffice it to say, Mark Robinson has been saved, in a Protestant Christian point of view, since that on-line posting. Robinson today disavows that earlier statement he made, on the porn website, some years ago. Would Robinson as governor promote mental slavery or fight to abolish mental slavery? The comment on the porn website sheds doubt on that question, but he disavows that he ever even made that remark. His Protestant Christian faith, which he proudly embraces, suggests Robinson would be squarely on the side of emancipation from mental slavery, to paraphrase the reggae singer, Bob Marley. It seems to me, however, that in that comment Robinson made on the porn website years ago, Robinson was still caught, as a “bad boy,” smack dab in the middle of the mindset of mental slavery. Of course, it should be noted, in the comment on the porn website, Robinson was not a mental slave, he was an owner. The point is to abolish the mindset of mental slavery, entirely.

People derive their sexual pleasure however they derive their sexual pleasure. I am not one to judge on that basis. My only question is, can we trust someone who might be struggling with the concept of mental slavery to be our governor? Is he going to try to make a prisoner, for example, of the State of North Carolina, a mental slave? This is an important question, I think. I think we might take the opportunity to discuss mental slavery, at this point, rather than simply treating this as a sex scandal and demonstrating unfitness for higher office.

I would like to see a reporter ask Mark Robinson if he has heard of mental slavery, and what he thinks about it? Given that he once endorsed it in writing, I think that is a legitimate question.

Both candidates for North Carolina can be asked this question. For example, as NC Attorney General, would Josh Stein allow any correction officer in North Carolina to make any prisoner believe that they were a slave, and I do mean, while incarcerated? This could potentially be used to control the prisoner. It is my sincere hope that, in addition to fighting crime, that the rights of prisoners while incarcerated should be upheld. No one should be made to feel that they are enslaved, even if they were currently imprisoned. I would like to hear both candidates comment on this one example, and on mental slavery, in general.

In any case, Josh Stein has not endorsed slavery in writing. Mark Robinson has. However, Mark Robinson is himself a black man in America, in North Carolina, in particular. Although Mark Robinson was having a sexual fantasy, at the time, as an owner, on a porn website, I think the question is still relevant. It is even more relevant as Robinson is running for the highest executive office in our state.

Anyway, that is what former Governor Pat McCrory is talking about.  Character. Myself, I do not think one wild sexual fantasy on a porn website ten years ago necessarily disqualifies one from holding higher office. Pat McCrory is correct about the media and the opposition in politics digging up the dirt on any questionable, certainly scandalous, activity and positions from the past. Ultimately, it is up to the voters of North Carolina to decide.

If it is not clear already, let me make my endorsement for the office of Governor of North Carolina clear. I plan to vote for the Democrat, Josh Stein. I base my endorsement both on policy and personality issues.

I urge all North Carolinians to vote, however, for either candidate, or for independents, for both Governor and President of the United States. I urge all Americans to vote in this year’s presidential election, also.

—Nicholas Patti

Wake Forest, NC

September 20, 2024

Sources:

News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, multiple articles, 2024.

CNN, 9/20/2024, 9/19/2024, television news.

WRAL news, NBC affiliate, Raleigh, NC, television news.

ABC news, shown over local ABC affiliate, Raleigh, NC, television news.

Photos: all photos complements of respective campaign websites.