If the political descendants of William F. Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan and Antonin Scalia were coming to town, that would be exciting.
But that's not what CPAC is bringing to Orlando, Fla., starting Thursday.
We're getting a new breed of 21st-century conservatives, who, instead of focusing on economic policy and foreign affairs, obsess over fables of stolen elections and delusions of victimhood.
The four-day Conservative Political Action Conference at the Hyatt Regency on International Drive features seven separate sessions — seven — devoted to elections. The titles include, "Protecting Elections Part 2: Other Culprits: Why Judges & Media Refused to Look at the Evidence," and, Protecting Elections Part 4: Failed States (PA, GA, NV, oh my!)."
The panels will repeat over and over the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and they will further rationalize election law changes that make it harder to vote, like those proposed in Florida and in more than two dozen other states.
Among the many election panelists is Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks who, on Jan. 6 in Washington, exhorted a crowd to "start taking down names and kicking ass." Not long after that, a mob took his advice and stormed the U.S. Capitol, attacking police officers in an attempt to stop Congress from fulfilling its duty to certify the presidential election.
But yes, by all means, let's hear more from Rep. Brooks about "protecting elections."
Brooks is a symptom of what ails today's conservatism. It pushes away serious men and women like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney, who adhere to its founding principles, and embraces absurdists like Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert, whose primary political goal is calling attention to themselves.
Setting aside the multiple election panels, the conference's agenda is a window into today's conservative priorities, which primarily focus on grievances against technology companies, wokeism and the left.
The conference title says it all: "America Uncanceled." (Well, except for CPAC canceling one of its own panelists, Young Pharaoh, after learning the hip-hop artist's social media profile was loaded with anti-Semitic posts. Young Pharaoh called CPAC's move "censorship at its best.")
Compared to its new priorities, the right's historic meat-and-potatoes issues are being treated as an afterthought by CPAC.
The best illustration of that is the scant attention given to the annual national deficit and the overall national debt.
Those issues energized conservative thought a decade ago, giving life to the tea party movement that shifted power to Republicans in Congress.
This year, CPAC is devoting just one session to the subject, even though the debt has doubled over the past decade and interest payments on the debt now cost the government nearly $350 billion a year.
Another serious issue, trade, also gets a single session. Health care gets two sessions but the title of one — "Prescription for Pain: The Left's Agenda on Healthcare" — suggests more complaining than problem-solving, which has been the essence of GOP health care policy for years.
Not surprisingly, CPAC didn't schedule any sessions on racial justice or climate change, even though its conference is being held in a state menaced by sea level rise like none other.
Nor did the pandemic warrant a panel, even as the nation passed the tragic milestone of 500,000 lives lost to COVID-19.
It's always possible some of the speakers will address those subjects on their own. We feel sure, for example, that Florida governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis will remind everyone during his Friday morning speech of the terrific job he thinks he's done managing the pandemic, taking on "big tech" and cracking down on left-wing protesters.
One thing seems certain, this conference will feature plenty of bluster, grievance, finger-pointing, media-bashing and conspiracy-mongering, but almost no introspection and self-reflection about the swift and jarring devolution of the Republican Party and American conservatism.
As much as we would like to welcome to Orlando a thorough and thoughtful examination of today's issues based on conservative principles, that's not what we're getting.
Instead, a political clown car is arriving on I-Drive, driven by Sunday's keynote speaker and today's undisputed leader of conservatism — Donald J. Trump.
William F. Buckley would weep at the thought.
