Trump is America’s biggest canceler of culture
Greater Orlando, Florida, hosts several of the most visited theme parks in the world. At the Magic Kingdom you can dress up like a princess, pretend you’re a pirate or just act like you’re a kid again. Universal’s Islands of Adventure lets die-hard Harry Potter fans pretend they’re students at Hogwarts. At Epcot you can visit Future World or the make-believe re-creations of other countries. At the Canada Pavilion, for example, you can let your imagination whisk you away to that fantastical land of romance and adventure to the north.
So, it’s somewhat fitting that the Conservative Political Action Conference decamped down to Orlando this past weekend. The official motto of the confab was “America Uncanceled.” But if you actually followed the conversations, the real theme was the stuff of make-believe: imagining a world where Donald Trump really had won the 2020 election.
On the official agenda there were seven separate “Protecting Elections” panels and two “Save Our Elections Call Center” sessions. Other panels included: “Shining a Light on the Left’s 2020 Shadow Campaign,” “Fraudulent Elections in South Korea and the United States — Lessons Learned and Warnings for the Future,” and “The Voter Files: The Truth Is Out There: Ask Your Questions to the Election Lawyers.” Needless to say, the question for this audience wasn’t whether the election was stolen, but what to do about the fact that it was — and where to place the blame for the cover-up. All this make-believe was necessary because, as former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said prophetically in 2017, CPAC would become TPAC, or “Trump PAC,” and it has.
The one thing Mr. Trump and his biggest fans will not stomach is the suggestion that he’s a loser. Moreover, as Andrew Egger notes at The Dispatch, “there’s ostensibly nothing modern conservatives hate more than a loser — Sen. Mitt Romney, after all, was once a CPAC darling too.”
The combined need to salve egos — on the stage and in the audience — and protect the new TPAC business model made questioning Mr. Trump’s “victory” as productive as telling the Harry Potter fans down the road that their $55 magic wands aren’t really magic.
To this crowd, Mr. Trump won and anyone who says otherwise is peddling fake news. The real fake news, however, is the idea that the CPAC crowd is actually opposed to cancel culture. They oppose — often with good reason — left-wing cancel culture. But Mr. Trump himself is among America’s foremost would-be cancelers. And pro-Trump cancel culture is alive and well, as countless efforts to censure Trump critics attest.
Matt Schlapp, the leader of CPAC, often says things like, “Open discussion of legitimate points of view is what separates conservatives from the left in America.” But he saw no reason to acknowledge Mr. Trump’s defeat, never mind that Mr. Trump shouldn’t define conservatism or the Republican Party. And conservatives who might speak up on the alternative facts — the truth in this case — weren’t technically “canceled,” they simply were not invited. (One invitee, Young Pharaoh, was actually booted because of anti-Semitic tweets.)
In his closing peroration before the faithful, Mr. Trump ran through many of his greatest hits and recycled the usual fake evidence that he won, except for claims about Dominion voting machines being rigged. Apparently losing an election isn’t nearly so reality-affirming as a potential billion-dollar lawsuit.
He also took time to call for the cancellation of every Republican who voted for impeachment or conviction, including “the warmonger” Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. “Get rid of them all,” he demanded. The clear message: Unity in the GOP is defined by blind loyalty to him and his lies.
CPAC has never been the political bellwether its promoters claim, but at this stage in the 2024 presidential cycle it’s the best we’ve got. It doesn’t tell us what will really matter in the years of jockeying ahead, but it does tell us what very ambitious politicians think is important. And, going by the speeches, it seems that rumors of a GOP civil war are greatly exaggerated. In a civil war, at least two sides need to show up. This looked more like the victorious Bolsheviks trying to round up the last of the Mensheviks.
Speaking for many, Sen. Ted Cruz of
Texas declared, “Donald Trump isn’t going anywhere.” He’s right, of course. As always, Cruz would rather bend the knee to the man who attacked his wife and accused his father of being involved in President Kennedy’s assassination than stand and fight.
The Gilman basketball team was down a point against John Carroll with 11 seconds left Wednesday night when coach Will Bartz called timeout and calmly gave out instructions.
As the Greyhounds returned to the floor, he hurriedly barked out one more order: “You worked hard for this — enjoy it.”
The Greyhounds did just that.
They got the ball to star guard Christian Winborne, and when the Patriots defense converged, he found sophomore guard Matthew Parker alone in the left corner.
Parker didn’t hesitate, launching a 3-pointer that found all net with three
seconds left to provide Gilman with a thrilling 63-61 win over the visiting Patriots.
In addition to the clutch assist, Winborne scored a game-high 22 points to help the Greyhounds (4-3) end a three-game slide.
Trailing for most of the game, by as many as 11 and 33-25 going into the fourth quarter, Gilman showed resolve in overcoming all the obstacles the Patriots presented. The execution that led to the game-winning basket is what Bartz was most impressed by. Earlier in the fourth quarter, Winborne found Parker open on the right baseline, but he missed.
“We preach trust and Christian is like all-world, whatever, he’s got [scholarship] offers and all that stuff, but I loved that a couple plays before, he makes a pass to the same kid, who misses the shot in the moment. And then in an even a bigger moment, he still trusts [Parker] to make the right pass to the kid,” Bartz said. “That’s why I’m here as a coach — to have that moment and share that with them is special.”
Parker finished with eight points and the unexpected role of hero.
“First time playing varsity [this season] and you hit that big shot for the win,” Bartz said. “It just feels good, feels good for the team and it gives us some momentum when we go to Spalding on Friday.”
The Patriots found their form late in the first quarter, going on a 21-3 run behind Jeannot Basima, who scored eight of his 14 points in the stretch, and Tyson Commanders, whose team-high 17 points included a 3-pointer that gave the visitors a 27-16 lead with 3:51 left in the first half.
But the Greyhounds opened the third quarter with six straight points, including two baskets from Jalen Marshall, to cut the
lead to 33-31.
After Gilman took its first lead with 6:11 left in the game when Malik Missouri (13 points) hit a 3-pointer at the top of the key to make it 53-52, the Patriots quickly reclaimed an advantage that would increase to 61-55 with 2:40 to play.
Stops on defense and finding the open man on offense proved the difference for the Greyhounds, who got a follow from Matthew Cooper and then a 3-pointer from Winborne to cut the deficit to 61-60 with 1:34 left.
Parker’s 3-pointer was the last of the offense. The Patriots had one final desperation heave just past halfcourt by Jalen Bryant that was off the mark.
“We needed it — that’s something you only talk to the coaching staff about,” Bartz said. “The way the schedule is set up this year — we were at Mount Carmel, St. Frances, Mount St. Joe, John Carroll and Spalding on Friday. That’s a tough five-game stretch there. It’s kind of fun to have the opportunity, but we needed this to get back on track and for the kids to enjoy the success because it’s been challenging. I’m really proud of them.”
John Carroll fell to 2-5 on the season with a home game against Gerstell next on Friday. Patriots coach Seth Goldberg is seeing promise, and with the condensed, unconventional season because of COVID, patience is required.
“I keep telling the kids our goal is to keep getting better every day,” he said. “The first couple of weeks we were trying to figure out how to win games, but the reality for us is, we got to focus on just being better every day. And so we’ve worked on that — it’s not a habit for us yet, but we’re getting there. And we’re going to get there. I look at a lot of good moments tonight and a lot of tough moments tonight and we’re going to grow from it and we’re going to get better.”