I never know how to set my expectations for the Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC.
I try to approach it with as much of an open mind as I can muster, understanding that I am at odds, fundamentally, with many conservative principles and conservatives’ views about the role, size and scope of government, but also realizing that apart from a debate setting, this may be the best place to take the temperature of, and hear from, the broadest range of conservative leaders.
I still think, perhaps naïvely so, that people can be ideologically opposed but intellectually engaged, that a good idea makes the best bridge.
So I do my best to follow the speeches — from afar (thank you, live streaming!) — and wait to hear something that jolts my consciousness or challenges my sense of things.
But once again this year, I was disappointed.
There remains in the Republican Party, as evidenced by the speakers at this event, a breathtaking narrowness of vision and deficit of creative thought.
The confab, for the most part, felt to me like a revelry of contrarians. Rather than presenting the party as one with a plan, many of the speakers seemed determined to cement it as the party of resistance and opposition.
Where were the grand conservative thinkers? Where was the philosophical heft? Where was the vision of a future not built on a transporting to the past?
It was largely absent. In its place was too much rhetoric about defending, defeating, defunding, deauthorizing. There was so much anti-Obama and anti-Hillary obsessing that the “pro” alternatives — to the extent that a case could be made — were obscured.
Furthermore, it was hard to skip over all the missteps.
Scott Walker, the leader in a new and oh-so-early Quinnipiac University poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus participants, compared union protesters in Wisconsin to the savage members of the Islamic State.
Rick Perry still couldn’t get his facts straight. He said the president “says that ISIS is a religious movement. Again, he’s simply wrong.” No, sir, you are wrong. The president has taken pains to make the opposite argument, and has taken some shots for that. Perry also said that “ISIS represents the worst threat to freedom since communism.” Really? Calm down, cowboy.
Chris Christie hung much of his question and answer presentation on bemoaning his coverage in the media, skirting the obvious fact that previous media fawning is a large part of the reason he rose to national prominence. Live by the pen; die by the pen.
Jeb Bush did his best before a somewhat hostile crowd — there were boos and hisses and some folks walked out (some in costume, of course) and reportedly shouted, “No more Bushes.” It must be noted here that CPAC is a particular kind of crowd: not exactly like the Republican electorate, and not at all like the national electorate as a whole. (Rand Paul has won the last three CPAC straw polls.)
But Bush seemed awkward and uncomfortable, trying to set up camp on both sides of the ravine on some issues like immigration and the Common Core.
At least he made the point that conservatives “have to start being for things again.”
This is where the Republican Party continues to falter. The cavalcade of contra nothingness at CPAC barreled forward with more speakers who lacked vision and brio.
I guess one could make the argument that if the Republican pool of candidates is wide but shallow, that’s good for Democrats. Indeed, it is.
Republicans have done exceedingly well in the recent midterms — in part because of anti-Obama Tea Party animus in 2010 and the fact that voter turnout for the 2014 midterms was the lowest of any election cycle since World War II. But presidential election years are a different story: They are national elections with a different electoral profile and greater participation.
And nationally, the Republican brand remains tarnished.
A Pew Research Center report released last week found that “majorities say the Democratic Party is open and tolerant, cares about the middle class and is not ‘too extreme.’ By contrast, most Americans see the G.O.P. lacking in tolerance and empathy for the middle class, and half view it as too extreme.”
This, of course, does not mean Democrats will have it easy in 2016 or thereafter. In fact, history tells us that politics swing like a pendulum.
But if this is the quality of candidates and discourse of the Republican side when that pendulum swings back, then that’s tragic. If the bulk of your message is about what you are against rather than what you are for, if it’s about dragging the country back rather than leading it forward, then we’ll all suffer.
I invite you to join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com.
Allies of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) are launching a super PAC to collect large sums of money to support Republicans willing to buck former president Donald Trump, the latest sign of the party’s deepening internecine war.
Kinzinger, who has already started a leadership PAC to directly support GOP candidates who have gone up against Trump, is expected to appear at fundraising events for the super PAC Americans Keeping Country First.
Founders of the group, which include Kinzinger advisers, are also launching a sister nonprofit to “build a grass roots army,” according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
Unlike traditional PACs, both organizations can accept unlimited contributions. Nonprofit groups are not required to disclose the identity of their contributors.
The effort will be up against significant head winds, as Trump still holds vast sway over the Republican Party — even after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of President Biden’s victory.
The new groups, which aim to mobilize the kinds of anti-Trump donors who backed the now-embattled Lincoln Project, are being launched as the former president is planning to expand his political operation with his own super PAC.
Kinzinger voted to impeach Trump in January and has positioned himself as one of the party’s most outspoken critics of the former president. He unveiled his leadership PAC Country First with a six-minute campaign-style video.
“Republicans must say enough is enough. It’s time to unplug the outrage machine, reject the politics of personality and cast aside the conspiracy theories and the rage,” Kinzinger said in the video.
Kinzinger declined to comment on the launch of the two groups. Federal officials are not allowed to establish or directly coordinate with independent big-money organizations, but they can appear at their events.
“Americans Keeping Country First has a clearly defined mission to provide air cover for the members of Congress who took votes of conscience to impeach or convict President Trump,” Mario Castillo, one of the group’s advisers and a Republican lobbyist, said in a statement.
Castillo said the super PAC would back lawmakers in primaries and general elections, if necessary. He said the group has “received real interest” from GOP donors and expects to be well-financed for primary season.
Officials with the super PAC declined to say which donors had committed support or how much money they had pledged. They said former lawmakers are expected to join in upcoming weeks but declined to name them.
The super PAC is expected to back the 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment, as well as Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is up for reelection in 2022. The goal is to target donors who would support Republicans such as former House speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) — contributors who want to stay with the GOP but consider Trump noxious.
Some Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley have criticized the president in recent weeks, only to be repudiated by his supporters. McConnell recently said he would support Trump if he was the 2024 presidential nominee but noted that many others were likely to challenge him. Some Republicans who initially were critical of the president’s role in the riots, such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina, have moved back to support him.
Lindsey Graham said ‘Count me out’ after the Capitol riot. But he’s all in with Trump again.
Trump’s traditional PAC has raised more than $70 million so far, and he is planning to launch a super PAC to collect unlimited sums from donors. During a speech Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he was expected to criticize Republicans who have spoken out against him. And he has begun using his political firepower against them: On Friday, he backed a former White House aide against Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, one of the 10 Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump.
The ex-president has a particular disdain for Kinzinger, advisers said, and wants to draft a primary challenger against him.
It remains to be seen whether major party donors will invest in the new anti-Trump efforts.
George Conway, a longtime anti-Trump conservative who advised the Lincoln Project, said he mainly saw interest from Democrats to support that group. “I don’t really know about the interest of Republican donors,” said Conway, adding that some libertarian and anti-Trump donors might give.
Sarah Longwell, who leads Republican Voters Against Trump, said she remained realistic about the odds of attracting anti-Trump donors, adding that her constituency has “slightly to moderately” grown since Jan. 6.
“I’m not saying it’s great — I’m not saying we aren’t woefully outnumbered,” Longwell said. “But there are actually people out there standing their ground right now, like [Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)] and Adam Kinzinger and Lisa Murkowski. There are more than there were before.”
Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor who has criticized Trump at times, said many mainstream donors were still interested in giving money to lawmakers like Cheney, who spoke out strongly against Trump. He said he thinks Trump’s ability to raise money against Republicans is diminished without Twitter, which kicked him off the platform after the Capitol riot.
“Anyone with a stake in rebuilding the economy and addressing tough policy challenges is going to come down on the side of establishment Republicans,” he said, adding that Trump’s influence could wane if the party’s internal battle costs Republicans in 2022.
Brendan Buck, a former top aide to Ryan, said he appreciated the effort from Kinzinger and his allies because “things are not going to change on their own.”
“One of the thriving dynamics that keeps at least elected officials on the Trump side of things is a fear of political repercussions for not doing so,” Buck said. “If you can create a system where people are less fearful and can be more confident in being independent, that can change behavior. Putting some money behind that is really important. The more they can see there are alternative political universes to live in, the better. It will be an inch-by-inch effort, but that’s better than standing still.”
Buck said there was no lane for Republicans to win without Trump right now. “So it’s either self-loathing people like me, or they have departed the party and they’re no longer there,” Buck said.
Castillo said the group wants to help broaden a “big tent” of Republicans where members can vote their consciences without fearing a backlash that ends their political careers.
“This effort isn’t so much about President Trump himself as it is about building a GOP where members are able to pursue a path beyond Trumpism,” he said. “I’m personally not looking for the next Lincoln or Reagan, but simply to help leaders not mired in spittoon politics and who resolutely put the good of the republic before political self-interest.”
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