If one wants to see the most insane elements of the GOP base and Christofascist circles, CPAC offers a cavalcade of crazies, many of whom in my view either belong permanently in mental institutions or require major mental health interventions. There was once a time when no sane, responsible Republican would set foot on the stage at coven like gathers such as CPAC. Now, it is obligatory if one wants to move forward in primary contests. Equally bad is the fact that the mainstream media does far to little expose just how insane "conservatives" have become. They are simply not sane and not in touch with objective reality. A piece at The Daily Beast looks at the mass insanity and the wasted efforts of those who would tried to steer the GOP back to sanity. Only repeated election defeats and voters abandoning the GOP will bring change. Here are article highlights:
Conservatives who hope to distance themselves from the whackadoodlier elements of CPAC often refer to the conference as a sideshow.
But this year, the sideshow has a sideshow: not a more extreme iteration, but an ideological double negative.
Down the hall from the main stage, there's a three-day 9-to-5 "activist bootcamp" going on. Coordinator Matt Robbins considers it the first "comprehensive, timely, practical" attempt to turn CPAC's unkempt exuberance into strategic, ground-game-winning competence.
If CPAC seems crazy to outsiders, it has something to do with the conference's fundamentally incompatible aims: You can't both serve as a training ground for future leaders and have speakers on the main stage regularly rattle off the reasons why civilization is doomed.
The conferences' young attendees, largely libertarian-leaning and not worldly enough to think that compromise is necessary are presented with a slate of panels that give the misleading appearance of a movement crackling with spirited intellectual frisson.
In the cocoon of CPAC, the next generation of leaders hears no good argument to change anything about the last generation’s approach.
Robbins also wants to deliver a sharp message to a soft audience completely unprepared for criticism. “This conference hasn’t been about actually winning for years.”
Robbins harps on the GOP's empathy gap almost exclusively. It's his theory for what's behind the GOP's slow-motion demographic implosion: Not enough candidates that seem genuinely interested in the problems of voters, whereas Obama definitely projects concern and Bill Clinton "was like a puppy dog, in his enthusiasm for people."
"If I had my way, every candidate would go on a ride-along with police on the coldest night of the year, when they pick people up because they literally won't survive otherwise."
And, he said, there need to be more conservative candidates and fewer movement activists, period -- more people faced with the task of looking in the eyes of those on the other end of an philosophically unpalatable policy, "and trying to thread that needle."
Be assured that no one at CPAC will follow Robbins' advice largely because they simple do not give a damn about the less fortunate and are consumed with hatred for anyone who isn't a white far right Christian, a greed driven tycoon, or a Republican candidate willing to prostitute himself/herself and fan their hate and fears. Today's GOP is something very ugly.
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