The reports from CPAC were horrific or encouraging, depending on your perspective. I did not attend, but I hardly needed to. I had my choice of mainstream media accounts — with their narrative of a rudderless, racist, classist (et cetera ad infinitum ipso facto blah blah) conservative movement — and cheerful, premature dispatches from friendly sources of The Way Forward.
For the more libertarian-minded among us, Rand Paul’s showing in the straw poll is certainly a good indicator of their strength following a demoralizing 2012. Paulites have always had a talent for affecting the outcome of polls, but at least with Rand they are not supporting a demonstrably crazy man. After his highly publicized filibuster and his performance at CPAC, Paul the Younger is firmly in contention. You too can Stand With Rand — the Palatable Paul.
Meanwhile, social issues seem to be in full retreat as the vogue for downplaying (or abandoning) those discomfiting traditional values in pursuit of potential voters sweeps the GOP. Marco Rubio took something resembling a stand for traditional marriage, though his call for the states to be free to define it is hardly the rallying cry it appears to be.
The only mention I saw of Rick Santorum was in a story about a young man, a supporter of the former Senator, who was compelled in the course of a presentation Q&A to wax nostalgic for the days of slavery. Thanks guy.
Undeniably, there’s a change on the horizon. The grassroots conservative movement, or the vocal elements within it, are advocating a departure from the past — whatever that means to the individual pontificator.
This may be the prelude to a libertarian moment within the GOP. I couldn’t say with any accuracy what to expect as all this business gets sorted out, but if I had to guess:
Very broadly speaking we can all look forward to two years of infighting, jockeying, and the gradual delineations of Paulite Republicans and more conventional (though still next-gen) conservative camps.
Then we’ll have a year of blood and bile as gigantic ambitions are thwarted, followed by months of strained attempts to reconcile and present a united front against the Democrats.
The Democrats, might I add, will be loving it… at least while they aren’t busy figuring out how to trick Joe Biden into taking his Thorazine (hint: peanut butter).
This proposed reordering of the Republican Party may or may not improve its electoral prospects. There are some questions I would like to see discussed at greater length. For all the talk of appealing to young voters, why do we assume that supporting gay marriage or de-emphasizing pro-life policies will make a single convert? Is there really a significant portion of the population that say they would vote R, but for this troubling and backward adherence to the historically and traditionally understood concept of marriage?
“The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and personal sphere,” as the Senator from Kentucky put it.
What does that really mean?
We have some time to work out the answers to these questions and many others.
There’s still a long way to go before 2016, which is coincidentally the next time I think I will have worked up the desire to attend CPAC.