CPAC: Come for the Crazy, Stay for the Party

March 8, 2014 Black Truth News Community News, Politics, Recent Posts

Ever been to a wedding or family reunion where the event starts out reasonably genteel, then, as the hours roll by and the attendees start to get tired and/or drunk, things start to get weirder and rowdier? The opening day of CPAC was a lot like that. Plus firearms.Now, I know what you’re thinking. How can CPAC not be gonzo from the opening bell? This isn’t some weak-tea of a party convention, where pols have to fret about whether they’re going to scare off voters in the mushy middle. Neither is it some bush-league Johnny-come-lately gathering with C-list speakers and a shoe-string budget. No. This is the granddaddy of conservative conclaves, a multi-day, big-budget ideological extravaganza put on by and for the unabashedly conservative wing of the Republican Party. This is a place where Byron York is a celebrity, Andrew Breitbart a fallen hero, and Ronald Reagan a God. Cheesecake photos of Ann Coulter abound, and everywhere you look the NRA is urging you to “Stand and Fight!”

To be sure, there was much fun to be had early on. Outside the massive ballroom where most of the speechifying was taking place, the hallways of the Gaylord Convention Center were hopping. The gasbags on radio row were up and running. Print and TV reporters roamed the hallways, snatching up attendees for impromptu interviews on everything from fetal viability to global warming to Benghazi. Unlike your average Tea Party affair, CPAC draws scads of young folks, many of them sporting bowties, some of them in American-flag-print shorts, and at least one sporting a sky-high orange-and-green Mohawk. Despite the prohibition on official campaign paraphernalia, budding young political operatives handed out buttons and stickers proclaiming, “Stand with Rand” or “Cruz Crew.” Some guy was striding around on super-tall stilts, carrying a “Reagan for President sign.” His female counterpart had no signage, but was made up like a sexy Uncle Sam.