Corey Stewart Will Make Virginia Confederate Again

Virginia Republican candidate for governor, Corey Stewart, has done us a great service by not only publicly supporting a ban on the removal of Confederate monuments, but in his praise of Confederate leaders. This Minnesota transplant embraces a fairly straightforward Lost Cause interpretation of the war.

Tomorrow Virginians will vote in the state’s primary election so it will be interesting to see what benefits, if any, Stewart’s embrace of Confederate heritage brings his way. The latest polls don’t look good for Stewart.

It is worth pointing out that Stewart’s understanding of the war has little in common with the state’s efforts to commemorate the Civil War sesquicentennial. Virginia led the nation over the course of the commemoration with a wide range of programs that embraced the latest in Civil War scholarship and reflected a noticeable shift in its collective memory of the war.

One can certainly make the case for protecting monuments without embracing the Lost Cause, but Stewart’s understanding of the war is downright reactionary. Just watch the video above. Tomorrow we will see if Stewart’s embrace of a Lost Cause resonates with Virginia voters and points to its future.

The one question that I have not yet heard Stewart answer is whether he wishes the Confederacy had won its independence.

Virginia voters want to know!

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22 comments… add one
  • MSB Jun 14, 2017 @ 3:35

    Ok, Stewart lost, but refuses to support the Republican winner. Will he secede from the party? Get your popcorn.

    • Kevin Levin Jun 14, 2017 @ 13:21

      I think all of us should pool our money and send Mr. Stewart to Gettysburg so he can spend some time at the Minnesota Monument on Cemetery Ridge.

      • Connie Chastain Jun 14, 2017 @ 18:30

        What, you don’t want to send him to a Soviet-style re-education camp? Those are right up the leftist, history-manipulator’s alley, aren’t they?

        • Kevin Levin Jun 14, 2017 @ 23:14

          You and the rest of the neo-Confederate community really need a new schtick. This is clearly not working.

          • Ken Noe Jun 15, 2017 @ 7:52

            Michael Savage said yesterday that the White House should “take control of Twitter” and purge anti-administration media voices from the airwaves. “Soviet-style” to be sure, but wasn’t he also a big Stewart supporter?

        • MSB Jun 15, 2017 @ 1:03

          Your apostrophe slipped.

  • Andy Hall Jun 13, 2017 @ 9:06

    Charlottesville “citizen journalist” Jason Kessler is working to get out the vote on Facebook:

    Vote Corey Stewart God Emperor of the Confederate State of Virginia!

    Okey-dokey!

  • Patrick Young Jun 13, 2017 @ 2:16

    Breitbart claims Corey is leading!

  • Joshism Jun 12, 2017 @ 18:54

    “This Minnesota transplant embraces a fairly straightforward Lost Cause interpretation of the war.”

    Not a state where I would expect a hardcore Lost Causer to hail from.

    • Kevin Levin Jun 13, 2017 @ 1:36

      It’s called political opportunism.

  • Meg Groeling Jun 12, 2017 @ 8:00

    Sometimes I wish they HAD gone away. Sometimes.

  • Eric A. Jacobson Jun 12, 2017 @ 7:57

    Two percent? Alternative facts, I guess. The truth is 26% of families in Virginia owned slaves in 1860, and there were over 52,000 slave owners in the state at that time. He’s a disgrace to his home state, who sent soldiers to defend the Union and ultimately help end slavery. I wonder if he’s ever stood at the monument of the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg and ever thought about what THEY fought for rather than blathering about Stonewall Jackson.

    • Kevin Levin Jun 12, 2017 @ 8:04

      He clearly has not read Joseph Glatthaar’s book, General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse.

      • Andy Hall Jun 12, 2017 @ 8:32

        Let me fix that for you:

        He clearly has not read Joseph Glatthaar’s book, General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse a damned thing.

        • Kevin Levin Jun 12, 2017 @ 8:34

          I stand corrected. 🙂

        • Mike Rogers Jun 16, 2017 @ 14:06

          Well done Andy. A few days late (I was in Gettysburg for CWI), but you win the internet

    • johnsurratt59 Jun 12, 2017 @ 22:06

      Sorry, I ‘blather’ about the GREAT Stonewall Jackson, ALL the time, and make no excuses for it. IF Gen Jackson had indeed survived his wounds and been able to lead, the Southerners could very easily have turned the tide at Gettysburg. The 1st Minnesota was a Yankee unit anyway, therefore, not much of a thought to me. They did a valiant act anyway, and I can applaud them for it, but……..Jackson would have meant the weight that would have tipped the balance in the Southerners favor!!

      • Eric A. Jacobson Jun 13, 2017 @ 3:47

        You mean if Jackson hadn’t been shot by his own men…..Southern men from North Carolina? That was a pretty common thing among Southerners. I mean seriously, they shot Longstreet, too. Anyway, “Yankee” units pretty regularly stopped Southern troops, all the way from Fort Donelson, to Shiloh, to Vicksburg, to Gettysburg, to Atlanta, to Richmond, to Appomattox. Moreover, they freed four million people and won the war. Those latter two points are the ones that really matter. So back to Mr. Stewart. The video alone shows his grasp of history is marginal at best. But please, blather away. 🙂

      • Ken Noe Jun 13, 2017 @ 4:28

        I take it you’ve never actually been to Cemetery Hill. On that ground even Jackson would’ve needed the 1st Confederate Armored Division.

        • Kevin Levin Jun 13, 2017 @ 4:36

          The “Stonewall” Jackson depicted at Manassas would have no problem, Ken.

          • Ken Noe Jun 15, 2017 @ 7:40

            He does look a lot like “The Animated Series” Batman.

  • bob carey Jun 12, 2017 @ 7:25

    Kevin,
    I wonder if this fellow thinks that the statue of Jackson is a true likeness of the General. I always thought that the “Incredible Hulk” version of Jackson was ridiculous.
    A republican from Minnesota, running for governor of Virginia, could be considered a carpetbagger.
    I also find it amusing that Stewart would use Bee’s quote in a political context, I mean that the people of western Virginia did not really rally behind the Virginians during the war.

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