#CPAC2018: The Wave of the Future
This week, Conservatives from all over the nation are converging on National Harbor Maryland, just outside of the nation’s capital for their annual pilgrimage known as CPAC, or the Conservative Political Action Conference. It is four days of fellowshipping with like minds, networking, blogging, and yes some enjoying of adult beverages. No one gets a lot of sleep, but they don’t seem to care. They are having too much political wonky fun.
As a second-time attendee of this event, I am struck as usual by the diversity of this crowd. You know, the diversity that the mainstream media will insist does not exist in this group of people. But this year, something is different, and it is most definitely a good different. The most outstanding thing about this year’s gathering is the amazing amount of young people who are here. College students are here literally from all over the country. There are even high school students, perhaps something not many would believe, including myself unless I had not seen it. I have spoke to many of these, as Rush would say, “young skulls full of mush”, and let me tell you, they are anything but.
The mainstream media would have you believe that no one under 30 is actually a Conservative. So once again, we have discovered something they are very wrong about. These are young people who are, how do I say this without sounding insulting, phenomenally, amazingly smart, articulate, have a fabulous grip on the issues, and know exactly what they believe and why they believe it. We have heard plenty of stories of college students being challenged not only by their liberal classmates, but by their liberal professors. There are more than enough stories of conservative students merely parroting what their hippie professors teach in class out of fear that they will receive failing grades. This is not only going on at the college level, but in high school. One seventeen-year old that I spoke with talked about being spit on by her classmates after a political discussion in class about the recent school shooting in Florida where she spoke up in favor of the second amendment. This only means one thing, the indoctrination of our children is beginning earlier and earlier.
These young people also have one very important thing in common. They all are very committed to advancing the Conservative movement. There are plenty of people their parents ages around them here trying to give encouraging advice. Confession, I am one of them. But they do not seem to need it. They are not being discouraged, they are not being deterred, and it seems that as they tell their classroom horror stories, their experiences have galvanized them, and made them did their heels in and become even more convinced of what they believe. Many of them talk about running for office in the future.
So what might this mean for Conservatives and the Republican Party? Mark Twain once said, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” From what I have seen here, nothing could be truer about the Conservative Movement. And this is just a small microcosm of young people. How many of their friends back home are of like mind? We are no doubt talking about a substantial amount of people.
The election of Donald Trump and the sheer number of his supporters has scared Liberals nearly out of their shoes. If they saw this group, it would send them running to their safe spaces. The future of Conservatism is in very capable hands.
