Check out the following exchange this morning with Al Sharpton, in which neo-Confederate Corey Stewart – Virginia’s shame – repeatedly minimizes and/or dismisses the impact of race and racism on this country. Of course, when it comes right down to it, Corey can’t defend his support for the Confederacy and for white supremacism on the merits – because there are no merits to the Confederacy or white supremacism – so he does his usual, resorting to name calling (e.g., calling Sharpton a “race hustler” – and no question, Sharpton has a seriously problematic history in a bunch of ways, but that has nothing to do with Corey’s candidacy for U.S. Senate or with legitimate questions about Corey’s extreme beliefs, offensive statements, etc.), evasions and lies (e.g., NOBODY cares about what happened 150 years ago? riiiiight). Pathetic. Corey also demonstrates that he is completely and willfully (?) blind to and/or uncaring about how racism has deeply impacted, and continues to impact, America.
By the way, I think this was a big missed opportunity to call Corey Stewart out not just for his racial “dog whistling” and appeals to the extreme right, but also for the fact that he actually EMPLOYS like unsavory characters like Rick Shaftan (for background on him, see Corey Stewart aide compared GOP establishment to a ‘house negro,’ disparaged civil rights leaders, GOP SENATE CANDIDATE CONSULTANT DEMANDS BLACK ‘LEADERS’ FORCE NFL PLAYERS TO STAND FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM, Trump Effect: Spokesman for GOP Senate Hopeful Called Memphis, New Orleans and Baltimore ‘Shitholes’, Social media posts by consultant to Senate candidate Corey Stewart ridicule NAACP, black neighborhoods, Adviser to GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart used expletive to describe majority-black cities, etc., etc). And note that Corey Stewart’s response to all this was to [Rail] Against ‘Ass Hurt’ Republicans, [Say] He Won’t Fire Adviser Who Made Racist Comments. I really wish that Al Sharpton had mentioned some or all of that information.
And while he was at it, Sharpton also could have noted that Corey Stewart supported sexual predator and all-around scumbag Roy Moore and even said He Believes Roy Moore Over All the Women Who Told Their Stories of Moore’s Sexual Predation; that GOP Senate nominee Corey Stewart endorsed Paul Nehlen months after he shared white nationalist content; that Virginia US Senate candidate previously paid anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim figure for fundraising list; that After pro-white rally in Charlottesville, Stewart says it’s ‘time to stop apologizing’; and that Virginia politicians of all stripes condemn white nationalists — except one (Corey Stewart, of course).
The point is, this goes WAYYY beyond Corey Stewart defending Confederate monuments and expressing nostalgia for the Confederacy to a long litany of severe problems with Stewart’s political persona and with his past and present candidacies for high office. That fact should be made clear to audiences who might not be familiar with just how horrible Corey Stewart actually is.
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