Too many uninformed conservatives (who have the ear of our candidates because they donate to them) believe millennials should be running our campaigns because they have ‘less responsibilities’ and can devote more time to what has to be done on the ground. Not sure where that wisdom came from but it’s too bad the consistent bad results aren’t the massive red flag they should be.

Greg Bannon ran for United States Senate in North Carolina and lost.
Roy Moore ran for United States Senate in Alabama and lost.
Chris McDaniel ran for United States Senate in Mississippi and lost.
Corey Stewart ran for Governor and United States Senate and lost.
Paul Nehlen ran for United States Congress in Wisconsin and lost.

Now what do you think these candidates all have in common?

Arrogance, condescension and a group of North Carolina political operative millennials whose only real accomplishments are separating Republicans from their wallets.

Campaign millennials locate marks, demand and are paid top dollar despite actual accomplishments.

I came home to find out that my boys received two trophies for nothing, participation trophies! While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies will be given back until they EARN a real trophy. I’m not about to raise two boys to be men by making them believe that they are entitled to something just because they tried their best… cause sometimes your best is not enough, and that should drive you to want to do better.
— James Harrison, former Pro Bowl linebacker

That’s assuming they really tried their best. Sadly, the “participation trophy” mentality has infected Republican politics.

Moore’s campaign paid two companies more than $730,000, according to Federal Election Commission records. It paid another $130,000 in total to a GOP consultant and another firm that lists his home in D.C. as its mailing address.
— Daily Beast, 2/28/18

These companies, despite a record of achievement, have successfully gotten a stranglehold in Virginia Republican politics and maybe even got Corey Stewart to part with a generous lump sum from a previously, well-earned warchest to feed the millennial losers.

Another Cruzer who sucked money out of Stewart’s campaign was a so-called “social media marketing” company with a very unremarkable website. Again, despite a prior track record of success, it (he?) was paid consistently.

Corey Stewart ran Donald Trump’s Virginia apparatus so we all know where he’s coming from. With that, why would he become associated with ANYONE associated with the very same Ted Cruz campaign that tried to steal Trump delegates in Virginia?

In August, U.S. Army veteran Spence Rogers sold his house in Tampa, Florida and bought an RV, and set off with his wife and three children for a cross-country adventure. Rogers, his family and the RV ended up in Iowa — a state he had never before visited — and instead of sightseeing, he signed on to be Cruz’s deputy director for Iowa.
— CBS News, 1/15/16

Sorry, who does that to their family?

Prior to Stewart’s gubernatorial run, Bob personally sat down with Corey. It ended with him saying he wanted Bob to work on his campaign. However in a subsequent phone call, Rogers didn’t seem to want him on the campaign, said he already had people shooting video with their “tablets” and iphones, and the directive of the candidate was never observed. The pattern of condescension from self-important millennials, despite an ROI of accomplishment is a cancer conservatives need to starting purging.

Stewart’s campaign was managed by Spence Rogers whose outfit, Grow To Win, collected $73,600 for his services. The Stewart campaign used Rick Shaftan’s Atlantic Media and Research for their TV and radio buys, spending $217,631 in the losing effort.
— Bearing Drift, 6/8/18

Why is this important? Again, the level of documented unprofessional behavior without favorable results.

Stephen Lonegan aide Rick Shaftan was fired after an explicit tirade to Talking Points Memo about Mr Booker’s unwillingness to ‘take advantage of the perks of office’ during interaction the Newark mayor had with a vegan from Oregon, concluding he tweets like ‘a gay guy.’
— Daily Mail, 10/12/13

Granted, Shaftan is older but has set the bad example and should have never been considered for races of monumental importance.

Fritsch made a series of controversial social media posts that drew negative attention to Stewart’s campaign. Another Stewart campaign aide, Rick Shaftan, has a history of social media posts that includes calling the NAACP a “more violent” version of the KKK and saying only a “fool” would start a business in a black neighborhood.
— Richmond Times-Dispatch, 9/17/18

Why anyone who supported Ted Cruz, especially when he and Ken Cuccinelli were trying to steal Donald Trump’s well-earned delegates, would be hired by staunch Trump conservative candidates is beyond logic.

And too many of the people absorbed into their campaigns in paid positions are more about flaunting themselves and instead of updating supporters on the state of the campaigns, are more about posting Facebook live videos of themselves going from one event to another and producing amateurish vertical videos for what are, in some cases, multi-million dollar national campaigns.

We’ve since had negative dealings with some of these people and we’d hope that any Virginia Republican in the future really take a look at their track record before cutting checks to any of these rude, condescending punks. Did we say we had negative dealings with some of them?

In sports, any team in rebuilding mode seeks personnel with a winning record. Very, very few teams hire coaches who can’t point to recent winning accomplishments, but in the world of politics our candidates are given poor advice as to who to hire and end up with consistent losers at the helm.

Here’s yet ANOTHER example.

Joe Arpaio ran for United States Congress in Arizona and lost.

How often do you see Democrat campaign “consultants” make it all about them during the campaign?

It could be argued that had these “Team Arpaio” consultants spent more time promoting the candidate instead of themselves, the outcome may have been different.

Many of us remember, before places of employment were transformed into millennial safe spaces, a time when younger workers would sit and listen during conservations in the workplace. It was because older employees were experienced and the youngsters thus had little of value to offer that conversation. But today, we’re told to value them despite their lack of experience and the results permeate throughout society, including our political campaigns.

Like so many other examples we’ve documented, until conservative Republicans learn to vet those they elevate and pay, we’ll continue to look the fool after losing another winnable election cycle.

As one millennial posted above, “rich people are often stupid. As an indicator valuable.” – and there’s no shortage of millennials who are clamouring to take their money.

Let’s stop losing important elections that affect our daily lives and freeze out political predator opportunists.

WaPo: After a marathon late-night debate, Prince William County mosque plan approved
Inside NoVa: Mosque permit approved after 9-hour public hearing in Prince William County
WTOP: Pr. William Co. greenlights Nokesville mosque after years of debate
Fauquier Times: Supervisors approve mosque with sewer in Nokesville

But as this is a commentary site, here’s another perspective based on what we saw.

Three years ago, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) found a space in the “Rural Crescent” in Prince William County. Our guess is that particular site was not only chosen because the price was far cheaper than a developed parcel in town with appropriate infrastructure, but because it is easily expandable.

However, there are rules. As the area is “zoned agricultural, development is limited to one home per 10 acres and connections to the public sewer line are generally prohibited” and almost all homes and farms utilize septic systems for waste. Many people have been denied “special use” permits in this area if their requirements failed the zoning rules.

But as we all know from years of experience in the United States and other parts of the world, Muslims do not believe the rules we have to live by applies to them. Most American businesses and schools would not require time out for Christian prayer, in fact, the American Civil Liberties Union would be the first to question the appropriateness and issue guidelines while they proudly support almost any freedom of Muslim expression in public areas. One pattern almost always emerges: if Muslim requests aren’t acted upon, they become very public demands that once accommodated generate new “requests”: foot washing facilities, etc….

Despite their proposed mosque not meeting current requirements, they demanded special treatment to tap into the sewer system; treatment none of the surrounding residents received.

And we could have sworn we saw a rather uptight Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) standing right behind our camera.

As for the displays of “Islamophobia” some of those who spoke in favor of the mosque complained of, the worry some residents have is justified. On an almost daily basis around the world, we hear of horrific terror acts that maim and/or kill dozens or more. They’ve been carried out by those who are NOT screaming “Jesus is the greatest!” while running people over in large vehicles or slashing and/or shooting all those around them or blowing up concert-going tweens. These are people who scream “Allahu Akbar” during their terror acts and sometimes saying they did a bad thing just isn’t enough. Mass rapes, honor killings, and random murderous acts is a tough reputation to shake but calling others names for pointing out those actions done in your name is not very endearing. To date, we have yet to see ONE priest, pastor, or minister declare holy war on all those who don’t believe as they do, but we’re the Islamophobes who shouldn’t be listened to.

As far as what we experienced in the James J. McCoart Administration Building, right outside the chamber is a clearly-marked sign that read, “No food or drinks allowed in the chamber”, but what are rules to those who believe they don’t apply?

Good neighbors, eh?

We won’t even get into the five out of six cowardly Republicans who were elected to uphold the law they enforce on others, assure all will be treated equally, and jovially caved to political correctness out of fear of being called names (if not worse) and a veiled threat of a lawsuit. The “1000” or so Muslims and liberal allies who showed up at the hearing could have easily watched it on cable access television. They showed up in person to bully, intimidate, and it worked.

At the end of the night (morning), the mosque will be built and allowed a sewage infrastructure no other resident could acquire because it was never about equal treatment; it was about special treatment.

And if you think that Nokesville mosque will be limited to only 500 as they claim, let’s see how that looks a few years from now….

Let’s begin here: we know, respect and like Corey as a person and politically, his accomplishments are laudable. We’re also aware of those running his campaign and aside from their previous alliances with the very Ted Cruz campaign that Stewart fought against during the presidential campaign where they stole Trump delegates, the campaign’s direction is confounding at best.

For the last few weeks, Stewart’s campaign has wrapped him in this cause to save Confederate monuments of historical importance.

WTF…?

Republican candidate for governor Corey Stewart spoke at the Old South Ball in Danville on Saturday night, surrounded by more Confederate flags than you could shake a saber at. With one massive flag hanging above him, and apparently in period clothing, the hyperbolic chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors promised to protect Confederate monuments in the state with his life.
— Daily Press, 4/9/17

Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson’s views on slavery was somewhere best not to go, let alone defend in a campaign setting.

The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially and physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, and I hope will prepare and lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known and ordered by a wise Merciful Providence.
— Robert E. Lee, to Mary Anna Lee, December 27, 1856

Jackson neither apologized for nor spoke in favor of the practice of slavery. He probably opposed the institution. Yet in his mind the Creator had sanctioned slavery, and man had no moral right to challenge its existence.
— James I. Robertson, Jr., Alumni Distinguished Professor in History, Virginia Tech

And of course when the predictable blowback came from the left and their media, the campaign uploads and shares their signature, amateurish (for what should be a multi-million dollar campaign with national implications), shaky vertical video in the wimpish attempt to make a strong candidate look like a victim of liberal bullies: a victim of multiple campaign-inflicted wounds.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart came to this town to defend its statue of Robert E. Lee in a downtown park, only to be swarmed by dozens of protesters who shouted him down everywhere he went. It was the harshest reception yet for the provocative chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, who is campaigning for the GOP nomination for governor as Virginia’s Donald Trump, with a hard-line stance against illegal immigration.
— Washington Post, 2/11/17

Gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart came to denounce City Council’s decision to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee, bringing with him Thaddeus Dionne Alexander, who became a social media sensation for telling Hillary Clinton supporters to “stop being crybabies.” Stewart was met by protesters shouting, “Hey hey, ho ho, white supremacy’s got to go,” and his campaign described them as “an aggressive mob of liberal protesters.”
— C-Ville, 2/15/17

The problem with a campaign run by millennials is that while they may have ready access to Wikipedia and can look something up when a topic arises, they generally have no frame of reference for anything that happened prior to their existence on the planet.

Had ONE of them spent five minutes on The Dixiecrat Myth, they’d know that Confederate history IS Democrat history. Stewart’s current mission of “stopping historical vandalism” is something best left to people who actually were born in Virginia and may have had relatives who were on either side during the Civil War.

As Corey Stewart is from Duluth, Minnesota, what dog does he have in this fight?

“They’re blaming this Confederate flag issue, but they’re not following this race very carefully,” Stewart said in a telephone interview with the Times Sunday.

“Because this is not about the Confederate flag,” Stewart continued. “It’s about out-of-control political correctness that shames people for celebrating their ancestry and their heritage.”
— Prince William Times, 4/23/17

Granted, Civil War history/heritage is American history/heritage but in making these statements, he’s failed to remind Virginians that the Confederate flag was also THE symbol of the Democrat Party, thus purging the Commonwealth of these symbols is the ongoing liberal whitewash of their murderous legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, their Klan, lynchings, voting rights suppression; the list goes on.

Is that Stewart’s fault? Maybe. Is it his campaign’s fault for not providing him the necessary political context? Definitely.

In a gubernatorial campaign with national implications, ignorance is no excuse and the optical results of this political incompetence is glaring. Democrats salivate at the opportunity to Photoshop a Republican with a Confederate flag. Stewart’s campaign has given them many freebies.

Trump’s Former Virginia Chair Goes Full-On Racist Confederate in Bid for Governor
“Inspired by Trump, his former Virginia chair runs the ‘most openly Confederate-friendly campaign in recent memory’”
— PoliticusUSA, 3/29/17

In politics, optics are everything. Who in a sane campaign would allow such ammunition to be stockpiled in the first place? People have been fired from high-profile campaigns for far less.

Every Republican in the nation who runs for anything knows at some point the Democrats will call that Republican a racist, yet Stewart’s campaign appears to have stupidly invited and embraced the label for their candidate. And the bleeding has become a gush.

A group of four Prince William County Supervisors, along with the County Sheriff, are endorsing Ed Gillespie in the race to become the Republican candidate in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. They’ve chosen Gillespie over their own colleague on the Board of Supervisors, Chairman Corey Stewart.

“It’s become very difficult to defend Corey Stewart’s message and actions as he wraps himself in the Confederate Flag,” Supervisor Martin Nohe (R-Coles) told WMAL.
— WMAL, 4/24/17

We’re not the ones making a big deal over the debacle that has visually overtaken Stewart’s campaign. We’re not the ones who told Corey this is a winning issue even though we can’t remember ONE Republican who’s ever won an election embracing the Confederate flag. While we all know he isn’t a white supremacist racist, Stewart’s campaign has given Democrats and establishment Republicans a massive club to beat the candidate who has beaten Democrats easily in the past, which is exactly why this gift was so politically unnecessary.

What a whining little b**** this guy is. Just remember a few things as you watch this pathetic video by Corey Stewart: 1) this is the same guy, born and raised in Minnesota by the way, who’s been waging a neo-Confederate campaign, who just a couple weeks ago proclaimed his pride for the Confederate flag at the “Old South Ball” in Danville, Virginia, and who is now claiming it’s “not about the Confederate flag” after all; 2) Corey’s getting his butt kicked by all metrics – polls, fundraising, straw polls, you name it – by Ed Gillespie; and 3) most recently, Corey was rejected by four of his fellow Republican Prince William County Supervisors, plus Prince William County’s Sheriff, all of whom endorsed Ed Gillespie for Governor over him. So now, it’s all about the “far left” and a war on Virginia’s “identity” and the “bondage” of “political correctness,” which he vows to “stomp out” and “destroy” because it’s “not something that belongs in a free society.” Yeah, the guy’s a Virginia Republican all right…
— Blue Virginia, 4/23/17

With all of his accomplishments, the CONFEDERATE FLAG is the last thing that Corey Stewart should be talking about in the race for the governorship of Virginia. This topic should have been avoided when it came up and left to the locals to hammer out. Despite all the pics taken of Stewart lately with the flag and locals, did anyone think about how those visceral optics would appear to black people, especially the senior-most elected black Republican in the Commonwealth?

Today, I am pulling my endorsement of Corey Stewart for Governor. He is a friend but his campaign has become more focused on division, rather than the unifying values and the history of the Republican Party. I now support Ed Gillespie to be our next Governor.
— Prince William Sheriff Glenn Hill

“… his campaign”.

Stewart has significantly reduced the number of criminal illegal aliens without the Confederate Flag. Stewart has reduced taxes as At-Large Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Prince William County without the Confederate flag, but what are his enemies (Democrat and Republican) talking about? The symbol of Democrat racism he appears to have embraced, at least in the all-important optics.

And let’s just say, for shits and giggles, that Corey Stewart wins the primary. Do you think the media: local, state, and national will be talking about his record and/or his positions? It will be about the optics of a Republican and the Confederate flag. We’ll be reminded of Dylann Roof going into a church, gunning down nine black people, and a pic of him next to… the Confederate flag. And if you think the Democrats won’t use these optics against Corey Stewart, you’re naive.

How he recovers with an indefensible campaign position is unclear, but this is still his campaign to lose. Both sides are trying to take him out.

Corey Stewart and his campaign shouldn’t be helping them.

UPDATE

Corey Stewart ultimately lost his bid for Virginia governor.

Establishment candidates prevailed in Virginia’s gubernatorial primaries Tuesday, with Ed Gillespie squeaking by Corey Stewart for the Republican nomination while Ralph Northam had an easier path to the Democratic nomination, defeating Tom Perriello.
— NBC4, 6/13/17

And Gillespie eventually lost to Northam giving us another Democrat governor.

Sadly, some of us could see this coming. Stewart’s paid campaign staff did not and many have comfortably moved on to infect other Virginia campaigns. But, what else is new?