Who Is Mark Robinson?

             Mark Robinson is the first black lieutenant governor of North Carolina. Not only is Robinson black, but he is also a conservative Republican lieutenant governor. He recently spoke during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. Robinson gave some of his personal history and then spoke on the assigned topic for his visit – the “evolving landscape of voter discrimination.” 

            Robinson first said that he is “very proud of the history in this nation of my people” and spoke about the numerous ways that Blacks have been mistreated. He spoke of all the “sacrifices of our ancestors” that made it possible for him to be the lieutenant governor of his state, for a black man to sit in the White House for two terms, and “for millions of us to be leaders in business, athletics, government, and culture add up to an incredible story of victory.”

But today, we hear Georgia law being compared to Jim Crow, that black voices are being silenced and that black voices are being kept out.

How? By bullets? By bombs? By nooses? No, by requiring a free ID to secure the vote. Let me say that again: by requiring a free ID to secure the vote. How absolutely preposterous.

Am I to believe that black Americans who have overcome the atrocities of slavery, who were victorious in the civil rights movement, and now sit in the highest levels of this government could not figure out how to get a free ID to secure their votes? That they need to be coddled by politicians because they don’t think we can figure out how to make our voices heard?

Are you kidding me? The notion that people must be protected from a free ID to secure their votes is not just insane – it is insulting.

And let me tell you something about this. This doesn’t have anything to do with justice, this has everything to do with power.

            Robinson continued by explaining why the Georgia ID law is all about power. He stated that HR 1 “is designed to keep one party in power and ensure they stay there indefinitely.” He continued by explaining that they plan to stay in power by “taking away the rights of states given by the Constitution to govern their own elections, to mandate a partisan wish list that comes down from that federal government.” The items in the bill include “using government dollars to fund campaigns in order to give an advantage to one party; mandating that felons are allowed to vote, including illegal immigrants on voter rolls; and of course, trying to ban states from having voter ID.”

The last thing I’ll say is this, many people know that I’m a strong proponent of the Second Amendment, and I always will be. I believe that the right to keep and bear arms should always be available to law-abiding citizens, but the first line of defense in maintaining the integrity of the Second Amendment is having an ID to show when requiring that ID when you purchase that firearm.

In the same way, I believe that voter ID is our first line of defense for protecting the integrity of the right to vote. And that’s what this should be about. It should be about integrity, not power. Thank you.

            I have been a fan of Robinson for several years. He first came on the national scene a few years ago when he stood up at a local meeting of some kind and blasted the local politicians for trying to take Second Amendment rights away from law-abiding citizens. I liked his courage, and I liked his delivery. I am grateful to know that he holds a leadership position in his state. I also consider him to be a genius to link the ID requirements to buy a gun to the ID requirement for voting. If we are not willing to mail guns out to everybody, why should we mail ballots out to everybody? Voting integrity is every bit as important as knowing who is buying the guns.