Back in the days of the American Revolution through the end of the Napoleonic Era, when an army won a great victory and the other army had to surrender, the winning army always allowed the vanquished to play a marching tune of their choice. When the British lost at Yorktown, the band struck up a popular song of the day, The World Turned Upside Down. This courtesy was given to the losing side as a show of respect. An acknowledgment that the losing side fought hard, and that it while you may have lost – the losing army could march off the field with their heads held high.
With those words being said, I would like to take this time to honor the supporters of Corey Stewart and their champion, Corey himself, for the hard work they put in on behalf of their candidate. Losing is never a fun thing, but in politics there is always a winner and always one or more who do not win. So to the Dean Peterson’s and Corey Crabill’s, and Susan Frise Hathaway’s and so many others of you who really put in a tremendous amount of effort on behalf of Corey Stewart, I want to take this time to acknowledge all the hard work that you did on behalf of your candidate, and to remind you of these words from Teddy Roosevelt:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
I would also like to take this time to remind my fellow Ed Gillespie supporters that the supporters of Corey Stewart are our friends, and must be treated as such. They worked hard, and we should be inspired by their passion. Sadly I’ve seen a bit of sore winning coming from people on our side. Having run for public office before and lost, the last thing I would have ever wanted to deal with is being taunted by the winning side. And having managed or helped to manage winning campaigns before, the last thing I’d ever consider doing is rubbing someone else’s face into the dirt. There hasn’t been much of it, but some. Whether you like it or not – we need a unified party to ensure a victory in November. And rubbing someone’s nose in their defeat is not the way to get them on board. To the supporters of Ed, those Corey supporters who are upset now, are entitled to some respect. The same respect that victorious armies showed to the vanquished.
For supporters of Ed and Corey, like it or not, we both need each other. Everyone can agree that Corey has a great future ahead of him in Virginia politics. And for you who support Corey, you will need the supporters of Ed Gillespie to ensure that Corey can take out Tim Kaine in 2018. So to both sides, let’s remember we are friends at the end of the day. And that means we who supported Ed are not your enemies, but are your friends.
I look forward to your support for Ed Gillespie as we get closer to November. And I look forward to personally supporting Corey for some future run for higher office.
