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Each year, conservatives converge on Washington, DC for the Conservative Political Action Conference. Started in 1973 by the American Conservative Union (ACU), the event has grown to be the largest right-of-center conference of the year. This past weekend, more than 11,000 people attended and set a new record.
Even though the event is closely affiliated with President Ronald Reagan, it's not without controversy. And controversy reigned from numerous corners this year.
In many ways, CPAC is a gut-check for the state of the conservative movement. Since there's no official gatekeeper or organization deciding who is allowed in the movement and who isn't, there's always some strange partnerships at work, and people who are upset at those partnerships.
Highlights from the Conference
The best parts of CPAC always happen behind the scenes and away from the cameras. When so many grassroots conservatives, prominent politicians, aspiring politicos, presidential front-runners and a handful of celebrities converge into one space, interesting things always happen.
A few gossip sites picked up the true story of my friend who refused to admit New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd into the FreedomWorks Blogger Lounge because she lacked the right credentials. Citizens United had a huge Ronald Reagan birthday cake made by the famous Cake Boss bakery. I had the opportunity to meet actor Richard Dreyfuss and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld within a 2-hour period. I also realized how tall and pretty Congresswoman Kristi Noem is in real life, and sadly missed both the Sarah Palin impersonator and the cameo appearance of The Rent is Too Damn High guy.
Amidst these fun memories and highlights, one can nearly sense the trouble that is brewing in the future of the movement. While liberals may rejoice to hear that, I do believe that conservatives will remain united overall on the issues of spending and government growth.
As long as President Obama continues to send budgets to Congress that increase spending and government programs and refuses to face the seriousness of our fiscal crisis, the movement will fight with a united front.
The GOProud Dilemma
Since conservatives took over the Republican party at the 1980 convention, the movement has existed on Ronald Reagan's three-legged stool ideal: social conservatism, fiscal conservatism and strong national defense.
Most of the time, we can work together, but what happens when social values are no longer so clear?
Last year, CPAC allowed GOProud, an organization of gay Republicans, to have a booth in the exhibit hall. CPAC went on as planned with only a few groups protesting. Nothing major happened, and the controversial group hardly made an impact.
Fast-forward to 2011, and more groups, including the Heritage Foundation, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, Media Research Center, Senator Jim DeMint and others publicly and loudly boycotted the event.
While I'm still baffled over what spurred the increase in boycotting organizations, I personally had no problem with them appearing at CPAC. As I heard a friend explain it to a liberal blogger this weekend, it's best to follow Reagan's 80/20 rule. If we agree 80% of the time, can't we work together?
As I stated earlier, CPAC serves as a gut-check for the conservative movement and the issue of gay marriage is going to be an ugly battle. It crosses numerous issues including generational outlooks and states' rights issues in addition to the morality issues.
As a Conservative Millennial, I personally believe that homosexual behavior and lifestyles are wrong due to my religious beliefs. However, since we don't live in a theocracy, we should still respect the civil rights of individuals who choose this lifestyle. Yet, as a states' rights advocate, I strongly believe that marriage should be under the purveyance of states, not the federal government or judicial system.
Do you see the dilemma facing conservatives like me? Until the president of GOProud started publicly trashing members of the ACU board, they had my respect. However, given the comments of the president, I think the organization lost much of the goodwill held by libertarians and undecided members like me.
At this point, who knows how this debate will end. All I know is that it will likely be a long and divisive battle. However, the media has been proclaiming wars among the three legs
