NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Conservatives converged on this lavish resort development on the outskirts of Washington this week for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference…
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Conservatives converged on this lavish resort development on the outskirts of Washington this week for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The four-day event amounted to a preview of the Republican strategy as the party prepares to head into 2020, when President Trump and nearly two dozen GOP senators will face reelection.
That strategy, laid out by speakers and activists at CPAC, appears almost certain to hinge on a vow to combat what many conservatives see as “socialism” within the Democratic Party and to preserve the legacy of Trump.
Here are five takeaways from the conference:
Republicans preview 2020 message: anti-socialism
If there’s one message that rang clear throughout CPAC, it’s this: the Democratic Party is now the party of socialism.
The allegation, made by speaker after speaker at the four-day gathering, offered the clearest signal to date that conservatives plan to hinge their 2020 message on a call to arms against what they described as encroaching government regulation and market interference.
“This election is not going to be about Republican or Democrat. It’s going to be about socialism and the free market,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) said this week.
President Trump also mentioned socialism in his two-hour address.
“The future belongs to those who believe in freedom… America will never be a socialist country,” he said in his speech.
Several speakers put Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in their crosshairs, hammering the freshman congresswoman over her push for a Green New Deal, a single-payer health care system and her self-identification as a democratic socialist.
“Democratic socialism is just a [politically correct] term for communism,” Sebastian Gorka, a former White House adviser, said on Thursday.
Conservatives are firmly behind Trump
When Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), was asked on Thursday what would happen if former Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan mounted a primary challenge against President Trump, her response was clear.
“That’s fine. They’ll lose horribly,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel’s remarks, and those of others, were more than a warning to potential Republican primary challengers.
