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A year ago, during our winter break, most normal students were heading down to warm, sunny beaches in
CPAC (short for the Conservative Political Action Conference) has been held every year since 1973, and has featured the likes of Ronald Reagan, John Bolton, George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, and Karl Rove as speakers. It claims to be a non-partisan event, but I didn’t know what to expect as entered the conference for the first time. Would it be chock full of bloated, establishment-type Republicans? Geriatric RNC donors? Clueless College Republicans bussed in from across the country?
I was pleasantly surprised by what I experienced. Though admittedly, I didn’t attend the majority of CPAC events, but I feel I milled around long enough to get a read on the crowd:
First, the sheer number of attendees impressed me. The Omni Shoreham, a massive hotel built to accommodate large conferences, was packed. Yes, there were the stereotypical Brooks Brothers-wearing conservatives in attendance (I was one of them), but there were also huge numbers of enthusiastic, intelligent younger people. It was exciting to see the new media presence at the event; apparently, conservatives do know how to use the Internet, and bloggers and student journalists were out and about in abundance.
Second, the tone of the event was reassuring. With Obama in office and Democrat domination of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the destruction of Truth, Justice, and the American Way seemed to be inevitable. Yet the speakers, like the attendees, were resolved to, to shamelessly use that old, clichéd phrase, “take back our country.” Determination, not defeatism was in style.
The most memorable moment was Rush Limbaugh’s infamous “I hope he fails” monologue, delivered to an electrified, decidedly anti-Obama crowd. I wasn’t able to see the event in person—I was stuck in a hallway outside of an overflow room because of the radio personality’s huge draw—love or hate the man, Limbaugh is able to work a crowd.
One year later, as I prepare to head back to CPAC, the political landscape has been altered dramatically. Obama has not succeeded in his evil plot to turn America into Sweden, the Senate has lost its much-touted supermajority after Scott Brown’s miraculous victory in Massachusetts, and Rush Limbaugh has lost about eighty pounds. Things are looking up, and I expect this to be palatable among CPAC attendees.
The conservative movement is on the ascendancy, offering new ideas and solutions to
Fittingly, Florida Senatorial candidate Marco Rubio is kicking off the three-day conference. His consistent conservatism is something I would like to see in more Republican candidates, despite my libertarian leanings. Now is not the time for muddy, if politically expedient, moderation, and I am looking for other speakers to follow Rubio’s lead and acknowledge that fact.
Perhaps reflecting the widespread appeal of the limited-government Tea Party movement, this year’s keynote speaker is Glenn Beck, one of the few conservative pundits who manages to be more polarizing than Rush Limbaugh. It’s tough to tell how the crowd will react to his antics; whatever he says, however, we’re all sure to be entertained and motivated, and hopefully, better informed as well.
Keep an eye out for periodic updates from this year’s CPAC on the Michigan Review website.
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