CPAC demonstrates there’s no Republican civil war
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.
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 is still president.
On the official agenda there were seven “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
Ross Douthat Star Parker Jonah Goldberg TBA
Pat Buchanan Marc A. Thiessen George Will
“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 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 was once a CPAC darling too.”
The combined need to salve egos and protect the new TPAC business model made questioning 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, 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 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 Trump’s defeat, never mind that 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.
In his closing peroration before the faithful, Trump 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.
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. 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.