Conservative critics of government are “freaks,” are “in for a pretty rough ride,” and “will need their Kevlar,” i.e., bullet-proof vests.

These statements didn’t come from the Obama administration or some radical leftwing organization.  They are Facebook posts of a Republican elected official in Virginia’s Fauquier County. 

Fauquier drew national attention in 2012 for charging farmer Martha Boneta with violating the law by having a birthday party for eight little girls without a permit and zoning site plan.

The highly charged posts of county supervisor Holder Trumbo came shortly after two recent events, and are emblematic of the civil war taking place within the GOP in Virginia and nationally. 

One event was bipartisan passage of a Virginia state law that limits how and when local governments may require permits for farm sales and activities.  Boneta and her supporters pushed for this law that gives consumers the choice of buying produce directly from farmers without red tape.  The law is an embarrassing defeat for Fauquier County as well as the Virginia Association of Counties that lobbied on the taxpayers’ dime to protect zoning power abuses.

The other event was an election of Fauquier County’s GOP chairman and other members of the local party committee.  The race for chairman was between a tea party proponent and the man supported by Trumbo and members of the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), a 501(c)(3) organization.  Boneta had sued Trumbo, other county officials, and the PEC for collaborating to harm her by shutting down her farm under threats of fines of up to $15,000 per day.

Democrat Peggy Richardson, a former IRS Commissioner and friend of Hillary, sits on the board of the PEC.  Martha Boneta was audited by the IRS after taking on the PEC.  When news broke that one Fauquier County elected official was aware of the audit before Martha was, the farmer’s home was vandalized.

It was in this tinderbox setting that the recent county GOP committee election took place, but was made even more controversial after county Democrats supported the slate aligned against conservatives.  The anti-conservative candidates for this GOP committee included Democrat donors and a board member of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, which donates heavily to Democrats.

At the polling location, one of the conservatives running for the GOP committee was told she “would regret ever coming into this county and [her] days here would not be long.”  She is a 10-year resident of the county, whereas the candidate for chairman backed by Trumbo and his bully allies has been in the county less than a year.

Establishment Republican Trumbo’s gloating Facebook posts speak to his allies, and reveal in unfiltered ways a crude and obnoxious elitism:

These freaks are out to overturn the will of the voters, rule from outside the county, and establish their rule that anyone who disagrees with them (or has most of their original teeth) is not capable of participating in their own destiny. Facebook friends, are you going to let this happen?

Why can't you face the fact that no one here wants what you're selling and remember when it comes to lies, your little cult practically invented the concept in Fauquier. Loser!

Elsewhere in Virginia, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s hand-picked team tried its best to control the reporting and outcome of the Henrico County GOP committee election to the exclusion of conservatives.  Tom White of Virginia Right reported:

I tried to get in with my media credentials (yes, I have a Photo Media ID that identifies me as a member of the Media) and the “guard” at the door stopped me and I showed him my ID. He told me to stand there at the door and he would check with “the boss”. After a few minutes a man with a name tag on identifying him as “Don Boswell” looked at my Media Credentials and then glanced at my “No Slating” sticker and “Dave Brat” sticker I was given as I walked in the door and made a remark about media was supposed to be unbiased. And I said “You mean like the Washington Post and the New York Times?”

And Don Boswell refused to allow me to enter saying there may not be enough seats. I offered to stand in the back of the room and take video. Still no.

I was sort of wishing I had worn a wet suit because locking the media out of the room is a sure sign to me that Mr. Boswell was going to do something he didn’t want a record of. And blood was about to fly. Or at least fur.

Because of the grassroots turnout at the meeting, Cantor’s effort to exclude conservatives was defeated, and conservative Russ Moulton won the day.

Meanwhile at the national level, Cantor, Speaker John Boehner and other establishment Republicans assemble next weekend in Florida plotting to defeat conservative primary challengers.

No Fauquier County or Virginia GOP official has publicly chastised Trumbo for his outrageous statements.

Within a day of his ugly and threatening tantrum, Trumbo and his colleagues on the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors were already planning an increase in real estate tax rates.  You can’t make up this stuff.

Establishment Republicans will assuredly continue asking conservatives to donate to their campaigns.  They may be disappointed to hear that we’ve spent that money buying our Kevlar.