Bloggers at Bearing Drift, led by Brian Schoeneman and Shaun Kenney, have decided to apply the famous Saul Alinsky tactic of “Pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it” in order to frame her as a racist and use her proximity to RPV Chairman John Whitbeck to tar him.
As Rob Kenyon pointed out yesterday, most of Shaun and Brian’s nasty little handiwork is really in the name of using Jeanine’s “racism” to tar conservatives and overthrow the party’s State Central Committee and return to power the consultant class, thereby refilling their bank accounts.
There is of course more to it than that, and its personal. Let’s just finally get all the cards on the table here. John Whitbeck sent out a statement of support for John Guevara in his race for Sully supervisor against Schoeneman, and he dismissed Shaun from his lofty perch as RPV executive director. One guy lost out on political office, the other lost out on political power. That’s what this is about.
Forget racism, immigration, and all of that other stuff on the periphery. They seized on a comment by Jeanine that is not racist, chose to make it sound racist, and then proceeded to define Jeanine as racist … all in the name of taking down a common enemy. Think about this way, if you are observing this fight on social media or the blogs, ask yourself who is calling Jeanine a racist and trying to take John down? More than likely it’s someone who either has or wants to make money off of the party.
Those who lost their lucrative power first tried retribution through slating. Now, after Dave Brat defeated Eric Cantor, a lot of people lost a lot of money and the retribution is out-and-out slander and personal destruction. Forget about the pseudo-intellectual name dropping and Facebook linking of Burke, Bastiat, Buckley and whatever other intellectual they read last night or the sudden discovering of terms like Hmong and cuckservative that nobody had ever heard of before…this is about taking back power for the sake of having it. The conservative grassroots wants to win elections and effect change, the establishment just wants to make money.
The case of Brian Schoeneman is actually more egregious than that of Shaun Kenney. To Shaun’s credit, he has been harping on immigration for some time, even before this recent unpleasantness. Brian, on the other hand, seems to have found a convenient fight to further his grudge. The main crux of Brian’s endlessly long posts is that we need to speak to each other differently and grow the party. And yet, in Sully district in Fairfax County Republicans nominated a Mexican-American candidate (over Brian) and he has remained, sadly yet predictably, silent about him. The reason John Whitbeck issued a statement of support for John Guevara is because he wants to expand the party’s identity and show all communities that we can represent them. He was doing exactly what Bearing Drift has accused him of not doing. Brian, the self-appointed Southern Poverty Law center of Virginia blogs, hasn’t done anything to help John Guevara for Sully supervisor. Pat Herrity has, Barbara Comstock has, and just about everyone in Fairfax County has. Brian has not. Is it because John is Mexican? Inquiring minds want to know.
The point is the standard Brian endlessly drones on about is one he himself has ignored. If you are truly going to set yourself up as the police of the party on racial and minority outreach, wouldn’t you endorse a Mexican American running in your home district that beat you fair and square? Why hasn’t that happened? Of course Brian isn’t a racist, but I bet it doesn’t feel good to see someone say that about you without basis. And if Brian (and Shaun) truly were fighting for what they say they are, expanding the party and winning minorities, why hasn’t Brian or anyone at Bearing Drift highlighted this new Hispanic Republican running in a part of the state we need to reach out to the most? Supporting and publicly endorsing Guevara seems like something you would do if you wanted to truly expand the scope of the party. BD is a statewide blog; I’m sure he could use the exposure and perhaps even a link to his fundraising page. I mean, it’s the least you can do for a guy that puts on Facebook that he just finished writing checks for candidates.
This is a classic case of do as I say, not as I do and it exposes Brian and Bearing Drift’s sad agenda right now. If only they could just be honest and tell us all what we know to be true. John Whitbeck dismissed Shaun from power, kept Brian from power and his supporters are many of the same that backed Dave Brat who cost a lot of people a lot of money. And not for nothing, but did we miss all those statewide elections won in the last decade? All those minority voters that we won when the Cantor people were in charge? We are being lectured by people who, while in power, never actually accomplished anything that they are attacking Whitbeck for. The hypocrisy is mindblowing. Conservatives hurt the party and drive away minorities, except in Brian’s own home district where he refuses to publicly support and work for a Mexican-American candidate that is rebuilding the local party and appealing to minorities.
Keep this in mind the next time Brian and Shaun make up a new racial slur out of the blue to attack John Whitbeck and RPV with.
