CPAC: Buckley would weep
If the political descendants of William F. Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan and Antonin Scalia were coming to town, that would be exciting.
But that’s not what CPAC is bringing to Orlando, Florida, starting today.
We’re getting a new breed of 21st centur y conser vatives, who, instead of focusing on economic policy and foreign af fairs, obsess over fables of stolen elections and delusions of victimhood.
The four-day Conser vative Political Action Conference features seven separate sessions — seven — devoted to elections. The titles include “Protecting Elections Par t 2: Other Culprits: Why Judges and Media Refused to Look at the Evidence,” and “Protecting Elections Part 4: Failed States (PA, GA, NV, oh my!).”
The panels will repeat over and over the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and they will fur ther rationalize election law changes that make it harder to vote, like those proposed in Florida and in more than two dozen other states.
Among the many election panelists is Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks who, on Jan. 6 in Washington, exhorted a crowd to “star t taking down names and kicking ass.” Not long after that, a mob took his advice and stormed the U.S. Capitol, attacking police of ficers in an attempt to stop Congress from fulfilling its duty to certify the presidential election.
But yes, by all means, let’s hear more from Rep. Brooks about “protecting elections.”
Brooks is a symptom of what ails today’s conser vatism. It pushes away serious men and women like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney, who adhere to its founding principles, and embraces absurdists like Matt Gaetz and Lauren
Boebert, whose primary political goal is calling attention to themselves.
Setting aside the multiple election panels, the conference’s agenda is a window into today’s conser vative priorities, which primarily focus on grievances against technology companies, wokeism and the left.
The conference title says it all: “America Uncanceled.” (Well, except for
CPAC canceling one of its own panelists, Young Pharaoh, after learning the hip-hop artist’s social media profile was loaded with anti-semitic posts. Young Pharaoh called CPAC’S move “censorship at its best.”)
Compared to its new priorities, the right’s historic meat-and-potatoes issues are being treated as an afterthought by CPAC.
The best illustration of that is the scant attention given to the annual national deficit and the overall national debt.
One thing seems certain, this conference will feature plenty of bluster, grievance, finger-pointing, media-bashing and conspiracy-mongering, but almost no introspection and self-reflection about the swift and jarring devolution of the Republican Par ty and American conser vatism.
As much as we would like to welcome to Orlando a thorough and thoughtful examination of today’s issues based on conser vative principles, that’s not what we’re getting.
Instead, a political clown car is arriving on I-drive, driven by Sunday’s keynote speaker and today’s undisputed leader of conser vatism — Donald J. Trump.
William F. Buckley would weep at the thought.