CPAC: Not Your Father’s Republican Party
Editor Trevor Drummond shares his experiences from the 3-day event.
At 110 miles per hour, life’s little troubles are subdued to the less-than-quiet reality that the slightest angular readjustment of a thermoplastic wheel piloting a late model cherry Ford Contour could at best lead to an accident, and at worst lead to death.
The contents of that fine American vehicle were none other than myself and several members of the Lehigh University College Republicans. We were cruising the beltway, making our way towards the great pilgrimage of all true conservatives, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The first CPAC was held more than 30 years ago, with then governor Ronald Reagan (not yet the deity in the Republican Party that he is today) presiding over less than 100 dedicated conservatives. It was the birth of a movement that would lead to convention halls filled with hundreds of solicitors hawking, lobbying, or supporting the conservative movement in some circumstance, over a three day period at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington DC, with more than 8500 in attendance this year. Dignitaries, such as former President George W. Bush (with much of his cabinet in tow) made appearances at last year’s CPAC.
This year, with the base fractioned (but not quite split) over the neo-conservative loss of power (thanks, in the minds of some individuals, to the “weak conservatism” of John McCain), CPAC did not entertain any sitting or former U.S. presidents.
Of course, we’re not quite there yet. Rather, we’re still pushing the envelope of American mid-range engineering, pleading with our driver to see the light of tomorrow as we barrel into a city designed (perhaps in revenge) by a Frenchmen who adores jug-handles, one-way streets and sprawling boulevards. As our car lurched out of fourth-gear and into park, in the basement garage of the Hilton Washington (the Omni was, sadly, booked), we surveyed the capital with anticipation. This is the seat of the most powerful nation in the world – this is America, a country led by a dissolute and erudite character whose very name incited catcalls and boos throughout the course of the conference.
As a side note, it’s not hard to criticize President Obama when one considers the tragic feat of spending outlays in excess of the collective federal deficits incurred to present, to be dispensed in the period of less than four years. It’s not hard to criticize a man who ran on fiscal responsibility, then sold the farm in the first one hundred days in office. It’s not hard to criticize a man who championed hope and yet sent his secretary-of-state to plead with the Chinese to continue to buy our debt (and mislabel a “reset” button pressed in an effort to improve relations with the tyrant state known as Russia). And it’s certainly not hard to criticize a man who retains budget allocations to ACORN, the group responsible for large-scale voter fraud prior to last November’s general election in said spending bill. I digress…
The tone at CPAC was notably muted, with factions forming amongst the 1980’s excess New England blue-blood conservatives (such as myself) against the hawkish, defensive neo-cons (still bruised from the aftermath of the Bush administration), down-home bible-beating fire-and-brimstone social conservatives (bitter as hell that people are at all surprised by Jesus Camp), and the slightly effete National Review-type paleo-conservatives, breaking their daily bread to psalms by William F. Buckley.
Of course, then there are Ron Paul (R – TX) and his supporters, but they’re in a class all their own…
Nearly every speaker at CPAC (the lineup including NRA President Wayne LaPierre, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Ward Connerly, pundits Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, former PA Senator Rick Santorum, former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, and Phyllis Schlafly, just to name a few) was received with a standing ovation and numerous outbursts of supportive applause. This applause was manifest particularly when national embarrassment and recently appointed Attorney General Eric Holder (who called America a “nation of cowards”) was mentioned.
Of course, every conference has its outliers. One exhibitor pitched mutual funds traded only during congressional vacations, claiming that congress, merely being in session, reduces consumer and market confidence. Joe the Plumber, the blue-collar stain on the Republican dress, was there. In fact, a man in a camelhair jacket with a chin almost made for Bonfire of the Vanities shared his experiences on John McCain’s campaign bus, over cocktails behind the hotel with us, stating that McCain was “…20% not there” – we later learned that this was Joe the Plumber’s publicist. And Muslims for America handed out complementary flashlights, leaving my cohorts and I to trying to figure out what sort of devious alternate purpose such a strange promotional item served after listening to at least one vendor extol the value of wiretapping Mosques, and consequently raise our level of paranoia. (Were they anticipating a power outage? …Were they going to cause one?)
As a whole, CPAC was an opportunity to come together. Conservatives were reminded of the principles that have always defined their kind – lower taxes, less government, strong national defense, and preservation of individual liberties (most individual liberties, at least…).
Conservatism at-large has shifted its tone. While the core values seem to maintain their luster, fringe home-school Rev. Ted Haggerty-types seem to be losing ground, and entry level players such as Ron Paul (and his “revolution”) are hand-in-hand with Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) spokesperson Niger Innis, fighting against unnecessary bureaucracy that stretches the aging fingers of the government into our bank accounts and thermostats. We get it – George Bush spent too much, and couldn’t pronounce “nuclear,” but a new Great Society (promulgated by President Obama’s fiscal and social policies) is not the answer – such was the tone at CPAC. This isn’t your father’s Republican Party anymore.
And while a new leader is yet to emerge (no, we don’t want Bobby Jindal [R-LA]…), CPAC has truly come of age. While not all conservatives can agree that they are fairly represented by the Grand Old Party, based on the steady increase in CPAC attendees alongside the enthusiasm I experienced over the course of three days, it is clear that conservatism isn’t dead yet.
