Every year, as expected, it happens. They always forget the fat guy in the corner cubicle. Yes, I’m talking about my missing invitation to attend CPAC. – PB/TK
Conservatives are ‘hopeful but wary’ going into annual gathering near D.C. – Gretel Kauffman CS Monitor FEBRUARY 22, 2017
After a somewhat rocky start, conservative leaders say they are cautiously optimistic going into the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week.
The conference, which kicks off Wednesday just outside Washington, D.C., inadvertently found itself at the center of a scandal this weekend when a 2016 podcast interview with slated speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, in which the controversial former senior editor at Breitbart News appeared to endorse sexual relations between grown men and boys as young as 13, spread across social media. Backlash to the interview led the American Conservative Union (ACU) to disinvite Mr. Yiannopoulos from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The incident, which prompted nationwide debate over balancing free speech and the value of civility, also highlighted some of the questions conservative leaders have been forced to grapple with this year as a result of the campaign and election of President Trump, who has brought strains of an anti-establishment nationalist conservatism – previously relegated to the fringes of the Republican Party – to the forefront. As American conservatism struggles to define itself in a time of uncertainty, this week’s conference may offer hints for the future.
“I think the conservative movement is hopeful, but wary,” Tim Phillips, president of Koch-brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, told the Associated Press.
The annual four-day gathering, described by NPR’s Don Gonyea as “equal parts political rally, conservative boot camp, recruiting tool, trade show and merchandise mart, Beltway celebrity watch party, and this year – with GOP control in the White House and Congress – a celebration,” will acknowledge the “realignment going on politically in the country,” said ACU chairman Matt Schlapp, as reported by The Washington Post.
Continue to csmonitor.com article: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/0222/Conservatives-are-hopeful-but-wary-going-into-annual-gathering-near-D.C
