The Liberty Movement in Virginia has been around longer than the TEA Party. While I was coming up with the Ron Paul movement in North Carolina, that same movement was taking healthy adolescent breaths in the Commonwealth. Conservatives, Libertarians, and Constitutionalists all saw a Republican Party that had made its peace with the rising democratic tide, divisive identity politics, unlimited debt, unlimited spending, and the same apathy toward our People’s United States Constitution that the majority of our people seemed to then share.
On March 6th, 2012, 40% of Virginia Republicans voted for Congressman Ron Paul to be the Republican Nominee for President. They voted for liberty, in force. Congressman Ron Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul, has endorsed Nick Freitas for Senate.
In 2016, the Liberty Movement was split between Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, as well as TEA Party conservative Senator Marco Rubio. Frustration with the TEA Party’s failure to manufacture change in the House and Senate caused the movement to turn bluntly populist and Donald Trump’s movement caught fire in the Commonwealth. Trump’s movement created a rift between constitutionalists and populists, split the liberty movement, and created more bad blood than a season of Game of Thrones.
At the heart of this split was populist firebrand Corey Stewart, who has run for Lieutenant Governor, Governor, and who is now running for the United States Senate. Mr. Stewart is a Supervisor from Prince William County. If you’ve ever found yourself associated with the anti-establishment movement in Virginia, you know that you’ve been forced to take a side in the civil war Stewart’s populist movement in the Commonwealth has created. To be fair, Stewart has fought for a great number of issues that matter a great deal to Libertarians, Conservatives, and Constitutionalists. The Civil War has been fought over style, rhetoric, perceptions and priorities relative to a fidelity to the Virginia and U.S. Constitutions.
I found myself unable to support Mr. Stewart for all the same reasons I was unable to support President Donald Trump during his primary campaign. However, a great many activists found Stewart’s brawler-style attractive. “Playing nice doesn’t work”, people would say. “We need a fighter.”
Well, I couldn’t agree more. However, I’ve been waiting for a fighter that shares my principles and philosophies; and I found him. Over the last two years, we all have. Over the last two years we’ve seen the rise of Delegate Nick Freitas, Culpeper Councilman Jon Russell, Activist Martha Boneta, and the charismatic veteran Denver Riggleman.
Immediately following high school Nick joined the Army and served with the 82nd Airborne Division and 25th Light Infantry Division as an Infantryman. After September 11 2001, Nick volunteered for US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and eventually served 2 tours in Iraq as a Special Forces Weapons Sergeant and Special Forces Intelligence Sergeant. – Nick Freitas For Senate
If it’s a fighter we were all waiting for…we found him.
Nick will not only fight with rhetoric and pomp, but with principle, philosophy, and fidelity to the values upon which our nation was founded. We no longer have to choose between a populist fighter and an establishment hack, negotiating the lesser of two evils. We can embrace an American Hero, a man self-educated in erudite political philosophy, and a man who knows how to fight with dignity and honor above all else.
Nick Freitas is a better man than I. He fights with conviction, but he also fights with respect, humility, and honor. He focuses on the facts. He cares little for our petty political narratives dancing around the intrigue of intra-partisan civil wars. Nick Freitas has no interest in settling the war between the purist factions (to which I belong) and the populist factions that have risen out of the discontent with so-called TEA Party or Conservative leaders in the House and Senate who have been unable to overcome “the swamp.”
Men like Nick Freitas have kept this country free from our enemies for generations. We need men like Delegate Freitas to keep us free from ourselves and our own misguided inclinations toward sacrificing liberty for greater power or security.
I know that I am not the right messenger to promote Nick Freitas’ to the Trump Base and Stewart populists. I have picked my battles and chosen thirty too many fights with Stewart’s people to ever expect them to read my words and experience a change of heart.
But damnit, there could be no better fighter in the Commonwealth than a green beret intelligence officer. This is the kind of man that our children dream of being like. Stuffy academics like me are inspired by Nick’s mastery of the ideas, history, and morals upon which all the foundations of Western Civilization depend.
There are few people I trust in government or politics, but the Commonwealth has given me Congressmen Wittman, Garrett, and Brat. It has given me Delegates like Nick Freitas and Glenn Davis. It has given me activists like Denver Riggleman and Martha Boneta. There are folks in the establishment, folks apart of the populist movement, and folks in the liberty movement who inspire me every day. We need to come together, if and when we can. I feel like this is one of those moments.
If there was someone who could bring us all together, it’s Nick Freitas. If you’re of the establishment or populist brands, I know that I am the last person in the Commonwealth that you are interested in hearing from – but I encourage you to show up, meet Delegate Freitas, and judge him honestly for yourselves.
