This year’s CPAC, like the GOP, appears to be suffering a bit of an identity crisis — adding more European-style populism, foreign voices, and a greater focus on culture war poses than political strategy.
The group that puts on the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is called the American Conservative Union, but the first two days of speeches at this year’s CPAC in Orlando suggest the right wing activists who attend the annual conclave have embraced a foreign political ideology. It’s not that the event wasn’t patriotic. Each day began with the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem and countless speakers professed their love of country. Instead, it marked the further transition of the American right away from its libertarian roots to a more European model of populist politics. Government no longer was the enemy, but instead a tool to combat threats like big tech and “cancel culture.” This political shift was most notable in what was not mentioned on stage. While the House of Representatives was passing a $1.9 trillion COVID bill that would, if enacted, be the most expensive piece of legislation in American history, there was little discussion of it or the national debt or a host of other former right wing bugaboos. When speaking on stage about the legislation, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was riled that spending in the legislation was misdirected in his view. He didn’t criticize the underlying cost but instead “waste” — like what he termed “a Silicon Valley subway,” a provision to extend a mass transit line from San Francisco through to San Jose.
