CPAC Review: Irrelevant or Mandatory?
By D.J. Spiker | Sunday, February 13th, 2011 | PoliticsAfter a long three days at CPAC 2011 (my first conference) I took away a lot from the experience. Mainly, that CPAC, while largely a token mandatory conservative event, has become so far removed from the conservative and Republican movement that its very existence is threatened.
Free Market? What Free Market?
Any event that allows subsidizing of tickets (in large quantities by Ron Paul and Mitt Romney) in order to tip the balance of something as meaningless as a straw poll is a questionable event. Mitt Romney purchases large quantities of tickets for supporters in return for straw poll votes, while Campaign for Liberty (Ron Paul) subsidized tickets by purchasing blocks then reselling them at 25% of their value in return for votes.
Yes, the Republican party proclaiming the free market is subsidizing something as silly as a straw poll. CPAC’s straw poll has become a mockery.
Ron Paul Supporters Embarrass the Movement and Organizers
In large part, this is due to the overwhelming attendance and passion from the Ron Paul supporters. While commendable that such a movement exists, frequently throughout the weekend Ron Paul supporters did their movement severe disservice. Displaying boorish and downright rude behavior throughout the weekend, the Campaign for Liberty organizers were embarrassed repeatedly by their supporters. Screaming ‘war criminal’ at former Vice President Dick Cheney and booing and being completely disrespectful throughout Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s speeches, heckling and screaming at Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, booing throughout speeches, these supporters made fools of themselves and embarrassed the group as a whole. This contemptible behavior went on despite Ron Paul’s specific request for professional behavior and conduct leading up to the conference. As a result, the straw poll results were predictable and scorned, given the behavior of the supporters over the weekend any votes they placed were rightfully ignored.
Speakers
I’d be happy to answer any questions from my personal experience in the comments below.
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Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...entrenched on the right as a member of the Establishment, proudly tattooed member of the Republican Party, bartender by trade serving both sides the libations needed to continue the debate and discourse. College student, ten years late, majoring in Public Policy and Administration with an eye to serving the conservative and Republican movement in the public or private sector. ducit amor patriae You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com. You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com.
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37 Responses to "CPAC Review: Irrelevant or Mandatory?"
How was Mitch Daniels?
I haven’t been to CPAC since 1996. I just don’t really see the point. It tends to be an excuse for conservative college students to hang out and hook up. At least, that’s why I went in 96. From what I’ve heard, it hasn’t evolved much from there.
And the last thing I want to do is spend my time listening to Paulbots attack Dick Cheney and Orrin Hatch, two of our best elected officials.
I thought CR’S were the hookup spot?
I have long thought CPAC to be a waste of time. Just the Beltway patting itself on the back. Unfortunately, the organizers put waaaaay too much emphasis on the event being the definition of the conservative movement. Same for the Values Voters Summit in D.C. — how do the activists possibly benefit from these events?
The only value in these events? Networking… and even then, the coalitions being built aren’t necessarily the voices of the troops on the ground. A bunch of paper tigers in a room doesn’t really impress.
Then again, I’ve been around and seen both sides. So I’m the definition of jaded on this one.
Totally agree about the Paulbots. Rude. Uninformed. And their first response to a philosophical challenge to their boy is lashing out.
They are the Code Pink of the conservative movement, except they aren’t conservative.
In addition to the discounted tickets, they set up room sharing, got free meals and transportation in some cases. It’s totally astroturf.
Disappointed in CPAC this year. Add that to the GOProud and Khan/Norquist shenanigans it’s off the list.
Pity.
Mitch only spoke at the Reagan banquet ($275 a ticket event) and since BD wasn’t subsidizing THAT, haha, I didn’t get the chance to see him. I also had a YRNF happy hour I was required to make an appearance at so multiple scheduling issues, although if a ticket had materialized all bets were off.
@Henry –
Agreed on the Paulistinians — about 3 out of every 10 you meet are rude, uninformed, and little better than gnostics.
OTOH, the other seven are just tired of getting mauled by every functionary (government or otherwise) who feels themselves entitled to a taste of their hard work.
The behavior of a small portion of Ron Paul’s supporters was deplorable. Heckling and insults don’t do a lot of good for the liberty movement. However, there was a significant amount of heckling when Ron and Rand Paul were addressing the CPAC attendees, but I suppose that is acceptable…?
Additionally, I do a lot of work for Congressman Paul and the last time I checked, he wasn’t providing free meals and paying for transportation for anyone…
CPAC is a true dinosaur. It served a purpose before the widespread use of the internet for political activism. There really weren’t a lot of opportunities for serious networking with like-minded people around the nation. It was a bigger deal in the 80s and early 90s b/f modern communications.
Yet, it’s ironically like a gov’t program, it won’t die and some years it gets bigger!
D.J., who had the best product catalogs?
The American Conservative Union which runs CPAC and it’s Chairman David Keene are no longer relevant.
I stopped going after a couple years. It is a place to stop by and make a speech. Also a lot of it is about money that is made from people selling catchy nobama and anti-hillary type merchandise. The movement has moved on but at one time yes it did serve a purpose but no longer.
Thanks D.J. for the honesty and informing us about the subsidizing of tickets by various candidates, I don’t know how widely that is known, but it should be.
While we are talking about speeches, how did Haley Barbour do?
I missed Haley Barbour, Friday night was a looooong night (Madams Organ till 2 AM then the very last Metro train back to Springfield resulting in a 4:30 arrival home) and Barbour spoke at 9:30 on Saturday morning. That being said, didn’t hear anywhere near the ravings about Barbour’s speech as I did about Romney’s. Lots of people were talking about Romney’s speech on Saturday, not just his supporters. Barbour didn’t have the same impact from what I heard, but did not see the speech personally.
I was glad I was there as a blogger and not as a regular attendee, I hope to go next year as a blogger as well, avoided all the lengthy registration lines and entrance lines for the ballroom, had free lunch and dinner Thursday, free snacks throughout the day and guaranteed seats for all the speeches from the balcony, plus most of the candidates come through the blogger’s lounge. You were given more favor if you were recording something, video or audio for podcast or radio show, so hopefully next year JR will be able to bring his multitudes of A/V equipment to get some interviews with all the candidates. Being one man with a laptop didn’t go very far.
@Luke, sure, TCS had the best product catalogs.
I only attended part of Thursday and most of Friday. I think it is mostly irrelevant because the vast majority of speakers at CPAC don’t have any substance to their speeches. Imagine listening to Eric Cantor speeches over and over. All the big govt Republicans talk about cutting the budget but can’t point to where and how they will do it. They talk about how bad Obamacare is but don’t offer any true healthcare reform alternatives.
In short, CPAC is only relevant as the media perceives it to be and if it is nothing more than a bunch of president wannabes trying to insult Obama more than the others, then its pretty worthless. The only ones bringing ideas to the table and challenging the Republican platform to hold them to limited govt principles are the libertarians, and of course they are booed and boo others.
BTW Keene just left ACU on Wednesday.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49445.html
The following was taken from the article, and trust me I have seen this guy act like a total diva just like this:
The normally composed Keene was clearly thrown off by Ziegler’s aggressive interview – captured on camera – and lit into him.
“I’m not gonna hit you, but I’d like to, because you deserve it,” Keene said to Ziegler, later swearing at the conservative radio host and asking, “You got that on air?”
Even though the video went viral and various conservative bloggers sided with him, Ziegler is still sore about the incident and said Keene “should be remembered as someone who turned CPAC into a fraudulent event based on the ‘pay for play’ concept.”
“The guy is a disgrace to the movement, but conservatives do a really lousy job punishing their many traitors and he is example A,” Ziegler said.
Paulbots? Just because some immature yahoos were jerks? You’re not being a great example either, Brian. Paulbots?
I am a Libertarian and I appreciate Ron Paul’s small government views. Still, not 100% in agreement with Ron Paul, though.
Just because I believe in pre-emptive strikes and think Ron Paul is naive when it comes to securing the WORLD’S oil supply, that doesn’t mean I will appreciate listening to “holier than thou” whining. I guess being condescending is a bi-partisan past-time.
“Join the Republican party. Work from within the party”……….yea right!
I’m not surprised that BD contributors would knock a conservative event. Boy, didn’t see that coming.
President Obama is about to release his budget. Now that’s something that could use some scrutiny. He’ll propose massive spending with the only cuts coming to subsidies for Ron Paul and Mitt Romney CPAC tickets.
At what point do we start scrutinizing the budget that is contributing to our massive $14+ trillion debt? Estimates only predict that it will only increase? Are we in a “let them eat cake” moment?
The problem with Ron Paul is not Ron Paul.. The problem is fringe elements conducting their in your face activism that the media pays more attention to and those images imprinting a general public mainstream right that might otherwise support Ron Paul. Dr. Paul is made to appear as a radical by his supporter because the in your face idiots suck the air out of the room and get the media snippets awarded to them.. Sucks but that is show business. Until and unless you people who want to see Dr. Paul succeed publicly shame and humiliate the noisy radical supporters and school them, they will not stop marginalizing the man. Right now Ron Paul HAS TO cast off the fringe group appearances and he will not be able to do it without a lot of responsible conservatives bolstering his efforts..
Just my $0.02 but I could be wrong..
Britt, Turbo summed it up pretty well. I don’t have a problem with Ron Paul supporters. I have a problem with Paulbots – these are the unthinking, slavishly devoted Ron Paul fans who want to interject him into every conversation, who aren’t Republicans and who can’t grasp the idea that while Paul does push issues to the forefront that wouldn’t otherwise get attention, he has about as good a chance at being elected President as my cat does.
My cat, by the way, is a Paulbot.
John, nobody needs to waste their time scrutinizing Obama’s budget – it’s got no chance of passing and will have little impact on the budget process.
I hope they are going with an all paperless format this year, because I’d be upset at seeing so many trees killed to print that waste of time.
Turbo,
Do you think the media play a role? As every group has a fringe element. It seems that the more conservative a group is, the more critical the Lemming media is. They love catching a conservative doing something wrong, sometimes they make up wrong doing.
Meanwhile, liberals are running around like a college frat party…the Republicans want to join the party but they’re put in the backseat. And the rest of us are painted as fringe because we believe that the people have the answers, not bureaucrats.
Brian,
Most of what I hear about the scrutiny of the budget is how Obama is cutting $1T over 10 years. I am also hearing Dems talking about how Republicans are killing people with Health care repeal and how cutting Social Security will kill our elderly. Not exactly the scrutny needed to cut from a $1.6T deficit.
Seems like we could get rid of these newspapers because they seem like a waste of trees too.
As I understand the Republicans being held hostage by the media…but there needs to be something done about this wasteful spending in Washington. What’s the proposal? Save money by going paperless.
Yea, I like what Turbo wrote. Chris Stearns even offers criticism of their behavior. Totally appropriate.
But Brian, portions of the GOP have a history of calling Ron Paul fans names in general. Just because they refuse to tow the line. Sure their votes are wanted. Their money is wanted. Their acting as foot soldiers for the GOP is wanted. Instead of giving these people a seat at the table and letting them otherwise participate, they’re asked to continue their work for the party (like good little bots), but just shut the hell up.
Some religious conservatives are almost treated as badly. Criticize J.Fred for his performance if you want. What does belittling him for publicly stating that he doesn’t believe in Darwin’s theories really accomplish, but alienate a large portion of the party? How must the Religious Right feel when hearing that? Do they really have a seat at the table? What are Ron Paul Republicans going to think when they hear people being called “Paulbots” or my favorite, “Paultards”? What do Libertarians like me think about any prospective seat at the table for us after viewing the treatment of other GOP factions? I’ll pass. I see what “working from within” gets you.
You’re right Brian. Turbo did a great job of summing up the point of concern. Notice he did not say something sure to offend the more mature Ron Paul Republicans that are in for noble reasons beyond just “raising hell” for the fun of it.
Kudos to your cat.
@John…uh…who’s criticizing CPAC? I didn’t, unless you’re talking about Shaun or Brian. As the author, I’ll assume you’re talking about me and are just wrong.
Britt, you raise a very good point at the end, especially in light of this past weekend. The ill-informed minority of Paul supporters who embarrassed the movement seem to be more concerned with rebellion than the actual embrace of the movement. It’s more give them hell and how can I rebel rather than yes I believe this and that. They fall into a mob mentality and do the patron a severe disservice.
Britt, I have no problems with religious conservatives, with folks who like Ron Paul or with libertarians (little l). I’m a Republican and I think there is room for all of us in the party.
But the problem here is that some of the folks – like the ones I refer to as Paulbots – who are out there agitating are not Republicans, don’t deserve to be Republicans and don’t plan on supporting our candidates. Like I said, anybody who would heckle Orrin Hatch or Dick Cheney is not anyone I care to associate with. They aren’t likely to be Republicans and they certainly aren’t going to be in the mainstream.
If we can’t police ourselves and recognize when there are folks out there who simply want to agitate for agitation’s sake, we won’t be taken seriously by the silent majority of folks who vote but have never been to an event and don’t consider themselves activists.
Sorry you were offended by my terminology.
They are agitators and disrespectful. They need to have their peers demand decorum. I will say this, giving THAT award to Rumsfield in front of all those guys was like petting sharks after chumming the water. Not too bright! Not excusing the behavior, just pointing to a circus waiting to happen.
My point is Brian, you should call them agitators. That’s fine. Mock their behavior. Your mistake is using terminology that ensnares adult acting Ron Paul Republicans and Ron Paul himself. Seeing the word Paulbot makes them feel disenfranchised too. Since you have no problem with them and are only concerned with the behavior and alleged fake Republicans, I would suggest for party marketing sake, you use behavior specific terms. That or terms that don’t result in “friendly fire”.
@Brian, perhaps you should read the Republican Creed and think about who is more “republican”, Ron Paul or Orrin Hatch. if your answer is Hatch, then we need to change the creed. and to think that Dick Cheney is mainstream?! which media outlets are you watching?
whether it is “Paultards”, “Tea Baggers”, etc. if you think the GOP is a big tent, I would refrain from those terms.
Brian – Police ourselves…good idea. Maybe we ought to police ourselves.
“Tea Baggers” Amit, did you have to go there?
DJ, Wrong? Let’s see, Free Market headline and you discuss Ron Paul and Mitt Romney purhasing tickets and the cost of admission.
If it wasn’t for Ron Paul the Republicans wouldn’t have a college presence. They lost that battle to the community organizers. And you were ashamed that a bunch of college students acted like…college students. We didn’t hear much criticism when there was cheering at a Arizona memorial service.
Rand Paul. he advocated at CPAC to cut $500B from the budget, eliminate the Department of Education and the ability to opt out of Social Security. And you paint that as being centrist… Sign me up for the centrist.
Now…who is he affiliated with? Oh yeah, the Tea Party. I do give you credit for the positive words for a Tea Party candidate like Rand Paul.
Amit, the Republican Creed is something we have on the state level. It’s not something we have on the national level. That being said, what do part of the creed do you think Hatch violated?
I don’t think there are gradations of more or less Republican. I think a moderate like me is just as Republican as someone as conservative as Hatch or Paul. We’re both right of center and in a country with two political parties that now generally represent the two sides of the spectrum, if you want to have a say in the process you go with the party that most closely fits your personal ideology. For me, as for Paul and Hatch, that’s the Republicans. They’re on my team and even if I don’t always agree with them, I respect them.
If you don’t think that the former Vice President is a mainstream Republican, I don’t know what to tell you. People may not like Cheney, but I do. Warts and all.
Brian, I guess policing ourselves “and recognize when there are folks out there who simply want to agitate for agitation’s sake,” only apply to certain people/situation?
Or should I say, don’t apply to others.
John, I’m not sure what you mean.
Amit,”whether it is “Paultards”, “Tea Baggers”, etc. if you think the GOP is a big tent, I would refrain from those terms.”
Brian, “If we can’t police ourselves and recognize when there are folks out there who simply want to agitate for agitation’s sake, we won’t be taken seriously by the silent majority of folks who vote but have never been to an event and don’t consider themselves activists.”
Let’s stay consistent in our policing of others.
I still don’t get what you’re saying. Where have I been inconsistent?
I’ve met the folks who idolize Ron Paul.
I’ve met Scientologists.
The similarities are scary…
@Brian I had the opportunity to see Daniels speak at the Reagan Banquet on Friday night. He is no John Thune (charisma and charming good looks) but he’s great.
He’s not only funny, but solid on the issues from social to fiscal. His only issue is that he’s an old white guy and matched up agaist Obama in a debate, he may have the better talking points but Obama will be looking down on him.
Otherwise, a great choice. I did have the opportunity to ask him if he was actually running and he pretty much said no. I was disappointed.
*that @Brian was for Brian W. Schoeneman, not Kirwin*
I don’t know where it came from that Ron Paul sponsored supporters to attend CPAC. That is simply not true. Campaign for Liberty was a major sponsor and were given a block of tickets and some discounted tickets. They passed the savings on to members allowing them to pay the discounted price for tickets which was slightly over half price. Then they booked a block of rooms at a couple of local hotels receiving discounts on room rates. Members could purchase a package with a CPAC ticket and a shared room. Rates were based on whether you wanted to share with 1 – 3 other people.
Ron Paul had nothing to do with it. Campaign for Liberty received seed money from Ron Paul at the end of his campaign so his supporters would have an organization to continue the liberty movement. Though he is the inspiration, he is in no way the leader of the organization and in no way subsidized tickets for supporters.
I’d like to add, that the so-called hecklers that I witnessed were not even members of Campaign for Liberty though they were obviously, Ron Paul supporters.
That said, I agree, they were out of line. But there were plenty of folks booing Ron Paul and being rude to him and to members of C4L. I experienced several rude encounters by people who saw my C4L button and made rude remarks to me and they were all adults that appeared to be over 40.
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