A less lively CPAC
There are two main classes of politically aware folks that predominate these days. The first are people who believe that global warming and income inequality are the spinning out-of-control dangers that will eventually render civilization unrecognizable, and sleep-depriving in the meantime. They don’t worry at all about the national debt or sovereignty, and are inclined to care more about our harmonization with other countries and universal precepts than protection against either intruders or radical Islam.
The people at CPAC are in large part the mirror image. Global warming doesn’t keep us up nights, but owing China a trillion dollars does. We stick with the observations and arithmetic to undergird our worries, and CPAC provides plenty of information about bad trends and unintended consequences. (This morning’s pick – apparently increased use of ecologically correct cloth shopping bags instead of plastic bags for groceries has increased the E. coli infection by 25% in some jurisdictions and precipitated some real life martyrs to the green cause.)
A heavy sense of resignation lies on the CPAC audience this year. Although the mainstream media hasn’t mentioned this, 2012 featured the first American president since every state started relying on popular vote to determine the Electoral College to be reelected with fewer votes than when he was first elected. A president reelected after producing virtually no progress on the slowest recovery in the modern era and having presided over a nation with only 58.6% of its citizens working and the first credit downgrade in history. A president who we now know chose not to ask the American military to defend our embassy in Libya while it was under attack for seven hours because of the optics of possible additional casualties just before the election.
The White House seems to be pursuing its agenda with increased intensity, and conservatives fear that the unthinkable might be possible in a world where John Kerry is secretary of state and Gina McCarthy runs the Environmental Protection Agency. There is real concern that the United States might sign onto the Law of the Sea treaty, which is a mammoth wealth transfer to poorer countries, or that the administration might be able to arrange a deal to trade the Keystone pipeline in return for enhanced subsidies on alternative energy projects which mostly brighten the futures of only the early investors.
Even though many of the elected champions like Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., are here, the only repeated standing ovations I’ve seen so far were for the executive director of the National Rifle Association and the last movie to feature the work of Andrew Breitbart.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was not invited, which I’m sad about, because it is hard to see how conservatives can win by riding any other horse than the GOP, and he appears likely to redefine Republican executive electoral success in one of the bluest states around. The 30 Republican governors have been mentioned several times as a hope for the party. I think the hope of the nation as well may depend more and more on these men and women state executives engaging 21st century challenges in our state capitals.
