We are the globetrotting, event stalking, whores of social media. We’re important because we’re on “the inside”, talking to candidates, giving advice, taking phone calls from Congressmen, interviewing State Senators, getting the “skinny” on State Central, and having our endorsements published by candidates for this and that.
We’re Virginia’s all important politico-class. We created the #JohnWhitbeckCrimeSpree, or not. We got Dave Brat elected, or not. We got Donald Trump elected, or not. We took a Prince William supervisor to prime time, or not. We resurrected Jim Gilmore’s corpse, or not. We brought Eric Cantor back, front and center, featuring him at the RPV Advance. That’s right, we did it. We’re important.
We endorsed Ed Gillespie. We dedicated ourselves to 48 hour Trumpesque Twitter and Facebook rants to demonstrate that we’re important and “with it.” We are “with it.”
We’re important. Did you write this article? Did you talk to your Congressmen today? Did you have your picture taken with Gillespie?
3.98 million citizens of our Commonwealth voted in the Presidential Election. While some brag about their 5,000 Facebook friends, others realize that if you divide 5,000 by 3,980,000 you end up with just over a tenth of one percent. Do you know what makes Facebook starlets and Virginia bloggers important? We create platforms for conversation, spark debates, and encourage arguments. We get the ball rolling. It doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends we have. What matters are the lives we touch. It doesn’t matter how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends you have. It’s time to do something.
Ed Gillespie, Corey Stewart, Frank Wagner, and (God Willing) Denver Riggleman will run for Governor in 2017. We’ll all pick sides. We’ll make our arguments. We’ll publish our hit-pieces. We’ll spam Facebook with accusations about John Whitbeck’s nefarious connections to Area 51 and Agenda 21. We’ll get conspiratorial. However, nothing we do matters without you.
It’s you, the inconspicuous and sovereign, that elects candidates, that gets them on the ballot, and that promotes them at your precinct. It’s the rare occasion that the blogger, the sheriff, the delegate, the state senator, the Congressman, or the Gubernatorial candidate shows up on election day to hand you a cup of coffee and shake your hand. (By the way, candidates, when you show up at a precinct, would it kill you to bring coffee?).
How many people reading this article will you see at your precinct on election day? Not everyone wants to take the time to throw their opinions against the wall and see what sticks and what gets shoved back down their throats. Not everyone wants to take the abuse. Not everyone wants to be held accountable when they are wrong. Understand, however, that bloggers and Facebook aficionados are angling for positions on campaigns. Some of them are taking money. Some of them use the data they get from Facebook and Twitter to empower themselves professionally; and with all of that, none of them know more than one tenth of one percent of voters in the Commonwealth.
What’s funny, is that hardly any of you take hardly any of us as gospel. Yes, we provide information – but most of the time we provide entertainment. What’s less funny, is that too few of you are interested in policy. You engage in cyber-warfare over national issues while your Board of Supervisors discovers new ways to screw you, your school board issues contracts to friends and family in the educational and “program” business, and your delegate sells out your communities in order to further empower Richmond’s control over localities.
We’ll give you all the ammunition you need to evaluate Corey Stewart as a candidate for Governor, but who in Prince William knows whether or not he’s a decent chairman of your Board of Supervisors? Are you paying attention to your taxes? How many people in Prince William understand that Jeanine Lawson would make a great chairman, a great Congresswoman, a great State Senator?
You would have more influence by developing relationships with your Supervisors at home and your Delegates in Richmond than you will reading a thousand blog posts or spending 72 hours straight on social media.
You do realize that there are people out there looking to reclaim their conservative bonofides by starting new pages. Their name carries the day. Meanwhile, there are blogs with legitimately relevant information that get ignored because they haven’t taken money from Eric Cantor or Linwood Cobb, like Millennial Ascent. We’ve got blogs starting up to capture the Trump Vote, written by people who haven’t the slightest idea who the Trump Voter actually is.
We’re a mess. Stop relying so much on what you read online and get involved. I’d rather have a new member of our Republican Party in Caroline County than a new reader at Pendleton Penn. I’d rather have a new community leader in Orange, or Roanoke, or Danville, or Ladysmith, than another faithful antagonist or protagonist user commenting on every article we publish at The Bull Elephant.
It’s time for you to flex your muscles. It’s time for you to show us what you can do. It’s time for you sit down, write a list of things that matter to you, show up at events where candidates speak and ask your questions; show up at events where your Congresswoman speaks and ask your questions. Then, demand answers.
Sometimes I feel like conservatives in Virginia are waiting for permission to self-activate and self-actualize. Sometimes I feel like conservatives in Virginia are waiting for an excuse to do something; the earth is spinning – for the love of God do something. A handshake shouldn’t make you a supporter. You have the votes. You have the power. Do something about it. Issue your demands. 2017 has begun. And if you bring me coffee at the polls, I’ll vote for you. Why is that so confusing? 🙂
