Ekstrom: Pro-Trump monument supporters in Virginia must vote Tuesday
Christopher S. Ekstrom
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I helped found the Conservative Response Team to fight and defeat the growing Cultural Marxist cancer in America today.
The battle started in South Carolina when Gov. Nikki Haley and feckless legislators voted to remove the battle flag from the Confederate Memorial in Columbia.
At that time, we warned that that vote would be the first domino in an effort to tear down monuments, rename streets, schools and parks and even dig up graves.
Sadly, we were right.
One by one, liberal cities began destroying their history, just like ISIS. Memphis even wanted to dig up Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s grave! Lee Circle in New Orleans was destroyed as was the beautiful sculpture of Confederate Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard and other historical monuments. Then it was the monument to General Lee in Dallas, dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.
But nowhere has the battle been more heated than in Virginia, where gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart dared speak out against Charlottesville’s attempt to remove a statue to General Lee. The issue went on to dominate the gubernatorial race and Stewart nearly pulled off an upset in the primary over RNC-backed candidate Edward W. Gillespie.
Gillespie’s unwillingness to support legislation backed by every single Republican delegate and state senator was a major factor in the results. Gillespie lost whole sections of the state and was saved only by margins in liberal Fairfax and Arlington counties, and in Alexandria and other liberal cities.
Shortly after the primary, violence broke out at a rally in Charlottesville, and Democrats got caught up in the rhetoric coming forth from their Alt-Left, Antifa and Black Lives Matter supporters. Democratic nominee Ralph S. Northam, a graduate of Virginia Military Academy, endorsed taking down all Confederate statues, including the one of Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at VMI, a request the college board immediately rejected.
But soon Northam realized he overreached in response to the frenzy and began trying to back away from his promise, but it was too late and Gillespie wisely attacked Northam over his position.
The decision sparked a jump in Gillespie’s poll numbers, perhaps driven by several positive tweets from President Donald J. Trump highlighting Gillespie’s monuments stand. Today, Gillespie’s now down by a hair in the RCP average, below the margin of error.
At the same time, Conservative Response Team has remained determined to keep holding Gillespie’s feet to the fire, and we did, despite pressure from a lot of Republican Party types who asked us to “lay off Ed.”
Believe me, Ed’s heard the message loud and clear. Very clear. Very very clear.
Now voters must make a choice. It’s a tough one because Gillespie is just uncomfortable with controversy and this is a controversial issue that divides voters. But it’s also clear that Gillespie will have no choice as governor but to sign legislation protecting these monuments from leftist politically correct politicians in liberal cities like Charlottesville and Richmond.
Gillespie will have no choice because virtually every Republican candidate for every other office in the state has taken a strong and bold stand for protecting our history and fighting political correctness.
As voters, there really isn’t any choice either.
Of course, there’s the alternative of casting a third-party protest vote, not voting at all or even voting for Northam. But none of these are real choices.
Northam is a leftist ideologue who has endorsed destroying all Confederate Statues and who knows what other kooky liberal ideas he’ll endorse after election day? Couple this with Northam’s radical views on everything from abortion to guns to taxes and extremist environmental regulations, and it’s obvious
Northam is a totally unacceptable choice.
If Northam, Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring are defeated, it’s going to be a shattering psychological blow, not only to the Democratic Party, not only to the radical Alt-Left who makes up their hard-core base, but also to the Cultural Marxist gang trying to airbrush our heroes and our history.
Corey Stewart and his army of 155,000 plus rank-and-file grassroots Republicans shook up the Virginia GOP the way Donald Trump and his team shook up the party nationally. Stewart will be back, stronger than ever, in 2018 as the nominee and eventual victor against the “Senator from Antifa,” Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D.-Va.). Conservatives will continue to get stronger, win more primaries and elect more candidates.
But first, there’s Nov. 7, because that is the day Virginians have the key to stopping Northam, Fairfax, Herring and their radical Alt-Left running mates for House of Delegates.
I do not live in Virginia and cannot vote in your election, but I speak out as a concerned conservative fed up with the left rolling over our history and our heritage through political correctness. Virginia is a treasure trove of American Heritage and both Virginians and non-Virginians should be concerned about it.
It is time to stop historical vandalism in our country and Virginians can start that process on Tuesday with their vote. And once Virginia leads, America will follow.
It is now or never.
Christopher S. Ekstrom is a Dallas investor and chairman of the Conservative Response Team, Inc., a 501(c)4 organization. Contact Christopher S. Ekstrom at (252) 564-4730.
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