Bacon's Rebellion

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Will the Real Corey Stewart Please Stand Up?

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djrippert
in , , ,

Minnesota Confederate?

 Corey Stewart was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He grew up in Minnesota attending St. Olaf College before transferring to Georgetown University to finish his BS degree. He then went back to Minnesota to attend law school before moving permanently to Northern Virginia. So it comes as something of a surprise that this transplanted Minnesotan has such a taste for the Confederate flag. Corey Stewart is a hard man to categorize.

Take my wife, please. Corey Stewart was first elected to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in 2003 at the relatively young age of 35. Three years later he became the Chairman of the PWC BoS, a position he still holds. His initial notoriety came from the aggressive anti-illegal immigrant posture taken by the entire PWC BoS starting in 2007. The board allowed county police to check the immigration status of anyone, even if the person in question was not suspected of any wrongdoing. The board then cut off all county aid to illegal immigrants. While some say Stewart is anti-immigrant, there is apparently one immigrant that Stewart likes – his wife Maria. Maria is from Sweden and met Corey while they were both teaching English in Japan. Why am I suddenly hearing Chuck Berry lyrics in my head … “I met a German girl in England who was going to school in France”?

If at first you don’t succeed. Stewart is a fixture as Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. He’s won four elections to that post getting 57% of the vote in the last of these elections (2015). However, he failed to get the Republican nomination for Lt Governor in 2013, was fired by the Trump Campaign from his post of Virginia campaign manager in 2016 and failed to get the Republican nomination for Governor in 2017. Today, he has won the Republican nomination for US Senate and is running against Tim Kaine. Stewart is widely expected to lose.

Unusual behavior. During his run for Governor Stewart gave away an AR-15 for Christmas. When asked why he was giving away an AR-15, Stewart said that he just couldn’t find a man portable mini-gun to give away. Actually he never said that. However, he did claim in a March, 2018 tweet that that you’re more likely to be killed by Hillary Clinton than an AR-15. During 2017 he used his position on the PWC BoS to support the construction of a mosque in the so-called Rural Crescent area of Prince William County. He was singled out for thanks by the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS).  He also faced a recall petition for supporting the Mosque. After losing the Governor’s primary to Ed Gillespie Stewart took to Reddit to call Gillespie a “cuckservative” but then went on to support Gillespie’s campaign.

A hard man to summarize. Stewart is the Minnesota Confederate who supposedly hates immigrants but is married to one. He pushes anti-illegal immigrant laws while supporting the construction of a mosque at risk to his own political career. He can’t lose as BoS Chairman but can’t win much of anything else. He gratuitously insults opponents from his own party and then endorses them for office. He pals around with ultra-right winger Paul Nehlen and then repudiates him after finding out that Nehlen issued anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic tweets in 2016.

Conclusion? I have no conclusion. Corey Stewart is a paradox shrouded in inconsistency while wearing dichotomy’s clothes. I’ll wait for this election to play out a bit more before making a final judgement on Corey Stewart. However, if I were a hashtag artist today I’d have to consider #loon, #sloppy, #impulse_control_issues. But I don’t buy #racist.

— Don Rippert

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7 responses to “Will the Real Corey Stewart Please Stand Up?”

  1. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    DJR, it seems to me that Corey Stewart illustrates how different are the prevailing demographics of Prince William County and of Virginia as a whole. What is it about PWC? There’s that dominant employer the Marine base at Quantico and all the folks attracted to it and the FBI training center, but there’s also the bedroom suburb around Dale City and Manassas for all those commuters and megachurches. There’s that community of questionable identity, Manassas Park, and there’s that other, unincorporated community that fought off Disney, then Lego, then VDOT, to keep their rolling hills safe for housing development. There’s a substantial Latino population in Prince William, and then there’s that BoS chairman. I try to drive through on the 95 Express Lanes without exiting.

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      I don’t really get it. Bath County produces Creigh Deeds. The Eastern Shore produces Ralph Northam. Two rural areas, two left of center politicians. How does a county in supposedly liberal Northern Virginia give birth to Corey Stewart? And those Board of Supervisors votes on “fighting” illegal immigration – most of them were unanimous.

      I see Fairfax County as equivalent to Henrico County. Once conservative, now liberal. Prince William is like Chesterfield. The liberal wave of urbanization just hasn’t gotten there yet.

  2. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    It was fascinating to read George Will’s column this weekend advocating a “shoot ’em all” approach to every Republican on the ballot this November. I have always considered the Republican Party on its bad days to be a circular firing squad and here was Will calling out the necessary “ready, fire, aim.” In that environment Stewart’s contradictions won’t matter much, but here is DJ on the firing line with the others.

    http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/george-will/george-will-column-this-november-cast-your-vote-against-the/article_8ec57b8d-843d-599c-80ce-c4d4054327c7.htm

    The only question now is, how does the GOP rebuild in the inevitable post-Trump world, if it even can? Absent that, does a second viable party rise or do the Democrats enjoy a long period of single party dominance? That way leads to arrogance which is eventually fatal, but only if a viable choice is given.

    1. djrippert Avatar
      djrippert

      George Will? Another soldier in the army of fops and dandies. Kaine has been corrupted by the DC swamp. He now lies continually.

      https://www.weeklystandard.com/mark-hemingway/tim-kaine-is-flat-out-lying-about-neil-gorsuch

      Once upon a time I saw Kaine like Jimmy Carter. I didn’t agree with his policies but I trusted his honesty. That was then. Today, he’s a full fledged swamp critter.

      My impression of Corey Stewart is that he’s an impulse driven knucklehead. He couldn’t have thought that getting pally with white power leaders would help his political ambitions. So why did he do it? My guess is that he heard they were the leaders of some group or another and he figured he’d grab a photo op. Hint to all knuckleheads: Photo ops with Nazis, etc dispel the adage that any publicity is good publicity.

      What a choice – a fallen choirboy who now reeks of the swamp vs the kind of knucklehead who would have had his picture taken with Ted Bundy because Bundy has “good hair”.

  3. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    I don’t mind folks poking at Stewart but why are they giving Kaine, a main who joined the campaign of a woman who called women making sexual assault claims against her husband “trailer trash,” while screaming all other women should be believed. What an opportunist without fundamental moral principles just like the Goebbels Group.

    Similarly, we have a filthy person from the California congressional delegation calling for violence against the right. One would surely think that violence against the right will surely spark violence against the left. Only then will the Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda decide violence against anyone based on their political beliefs is wrong.

    1. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
      Reed Fawell 3rd

      TooManyTaxes –

      I think you got a good fix on Stewart and Kaine (and our California delegate), one’s that are just about right. I thought Don’s article to be excellent. I think a missing element on Stewart that needs to be discussed and explored is his long record as Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Prince William County. Lightweight idiots typically do not last for long in such positions. Stewart apparently has. How? And Why? And with what consequences?

      With regard to other comments to Don’s article, I think we engage in far too much identity politics, statements like: “What is it about PWC? There’s that dominant employer the Marine base at Quantico and all the folks attracted to it and the FBI training center …” What is that supposed to mean? Lets stand behind that statement with details of what it means?

      And lets not get PC around here. We got plenty of that crap on the outside already.

  4. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    Jim didn’t call it out so I will – I strongly object to the California Congressperson’s recent comments but I equally reject that adjective you applied to her. Not on this forum, please.

    As previously noted, Kaine gets a free ride because the GOP nominated a candidate that the voters have already decided to disregard, as evidenced by the most recent poll (from a reliable pollster) giving the incumbent about an 18 point advantage The only suspense is whether or not Stewart can make it to 40, and whether the other GOP candidates can avoid the undertow. That will depend largely on what the Tweeter-in-Chief is up to come October and if the trade war wanes so will the blue tide.

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