Josh Marshall nails the appeal of CPAC:
In recent years, especially since Obama became President, CPAC’s wild press popularity and attention has been driven by what we might call a tacit conspiracy of derp between the event organizers and the people who cover it. You be outrageous; we’ll be outraged. And everyone will be happy. (After all, crap like this doesn’t happen by accident.) This has become even more the case as the contemporary Conservative Movement has become less a matter of ideology than a sort of performance art.
Take some “whatever pisses liberals off”, add a teaspoon of reality television and a dash of the spirit of Andy Kaufman and you’ve got the contemporary Conservative Movement.
BruceFromOhio
So being a liberal that is pissed off at these soulless two-bit ratfuck criminals is part of the shtick? Gaia help me, no thanks, I finally got my meds balanced just so.
c u n d gulag
Sarah “The Whore of Babblin’-on” Palin is the greatest performance artist of all time!
“..and a dash of the spirit of Andy Kaufman…”, AND a hint of Theocratic Fascism, and then you’re got modern Conservatism nailed!!!!!
Baud
As much as I love snark, it’s important to remember that conservatives are the enemy, not the entertainment.
feebog
Does the other 73 percent of the country really give a shit what these clowns have to say? Ask your average man on the street in say, St. Paul MN if he liked Bobby Jindal’s speech this week at CPAC and he will tell you he has no idea what you are talking about.
DougJ
@BruceFromOhio:
Yeah, for sure it is part of the shtick. The trouble is that as we liberals have grown more jaded, it’s harder and harder to shock us, and now it’s impossible to shock us without also shocking 73% of the population.
DougJ
@Baud:
Guerilla war struggle is the new entertainment
Joe Max
IOW, the political equivalent of watching a horrendous clown car accident. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but you can’t look away.
c u n d gulag
After every sociopathic freak-show speaker at CPAC, here’s what I expected:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=gabba+gabba+we+accept+you+one+of+us&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=140C3F2AA3ECC9D1F0B8140C3F2AA3ECC9D1F0B8
“Gabba-gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us, one of us!!!”
The poor misshapen people in that movie have nothing on our soulless sociopathic Conservative freaks.
Violet
There’s also the essential Cult of Reagan and its corollary, the perennial Search for a Strong Leader.
c u n d gulag
@Violet:
Pooty-poot’s their boy!
I’m surprised they haven’t forged a US birth certificate for him, and run him in a Presidential election.
He’d win their nomination, in a landslide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BGK
The organizers may be in on the derp, but I don’t give the speakers that much credit. I think Pierce nailed it, and it makes me glad, in a way, my father didn’t live to see it.
Thoughtcrime
“Tony Clifton/Sarah Palin 2016”
MattF
I think this explanation works for the winger con artists– e.g., Palin, Trump, Stockman, Gohmert, et. al. But there are others who are genuinely deluded (or intoxicated by the prospect of real political power) and seem to mean what they say. Cruz, Rand, maybe Santorum and others. Maybe I’m just falling for the grift, but there are some genuinely scary characters out there, IMO.
angler
b.s. to TPM’s take on CPAC. The question there was why is it getting so much attention, and Marshall’s answer says it’s about the freakshow content, an engrossing train-wreck as opposed to wonky tedium at liberal conferences.
CPAC gets attention because conservatives are on stage and conservatives rule the media, setting the agenda and making whatever they do newsworthy. At least those covering this sad affair think they do and so we get another year of I can’t believe they said that from CPAC. We can’t believe McCain said other crap on Sunday either. We get to hear from Heritage and company on NPR, and the pension plunderers on PBS. And no, we, being feebog’s 73% or whatever fraction makes up the majority of listeners, don’t give a damn. It’s just what gets put on the plate, whether we like it or not.
Tune in and there they are. Maybe tuning out is in order.
JDM
Andy without the wit, or the wits.
Violet
@angler: If you read the whole post by Josh Marshall, he points out that CPAC is held in D.C. unlike, say, Netroots Nation that is held in a different city every year. Being in D.C. means news organizations only have to assign someone to cover it, they don’t have to send someone to D.C. They’ve already got reporters in D.C. That alone means it gets far more media coverage than similar events held outside of D.C.
MikeJ
Ted Nugent is a giant puppet of the right. I don’t mean a puppet in the sense of somebody controlling him, I mean something that gets pulled out at protests to scare the straights.
Geeno
@c u n d gulag: Um, yeah – Orly Taitz was there with a certificate showing Putin born in Brooklyn. Again, they outpace anyone’s ability to parody them!
Smiling Mortician
@JDM: Exactly. Kaufman was fully conscious of the theatre he was making. These guys? More like The Truman Show, most of them. With a few Bob Robertses thrown in.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think you can also see an incredible amount of elitism in the MSM’s treatment of CPAC and the like. To Cokie Roberts (a dated reference, but like Broder, Cokie is and will remain to me an eternal presence in the Village ) and the cast of Morning Joe, Palin and her followers are a fascinating, confusing and more than a little frightening alien culture. I’ll admit I kind of see them the same way, but where I see people motivated by fear, hatred and ignorance, they see slightly misguided idealists. I see “take this country back!” a declaration of bigotry, they see sympathetic confusion and nostalgia for an America that never existed (that most of them share, see “Tip and the Gipper”)
aimai
It has to be obvious that CPAC is for the rubes and the hustled. Its not like anyone thinks that any really politically important or powerful people appear there or share their recipes for electoral success or their goals. The Koch brothers, the guy who has just been shown to have been backing the MacNeil/Lehrer news hour in order to destroy pensions, Pete Peterson et al either don’t show up, or just put on their “suckers!” mask and walk through their paces. But the real goals and strategies of the right aren’t revealed at CPAC, just what they think the retail buyers might like. Its more like a comic con with cosplay for the punters. If the evil alien races who are out to destroy the world didn’t show up to sign autographs.
Davis X. Machina
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They may consider it a fascinating, confusing and more than a little frightening alien culture, but their alien rule will be very good to their top marginal rate of income tax. And their capital gains will never get taxed like wages.
You can buy a lot of ironic distance with that kind of money.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Davis X. Machina: Exactly, and that’s why Paul Ryan is their Serious Young Wonk. He’s the sort of fellow who can actually talk to Those People, yet one can still invite him to dinner and into the drawing room.
IowaOldLady
@Geeno: Is that true? Cripes.
dr. luba
@IowaOldLady: It was a DKos parody piece.
IowaOldLady
@dr. luba: Thank god.
VidaLoca
Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman nailed this trick almost 50 years ago — now Palin has turned it inside out but she’s making it work.
Mustang Bobby
The Obamas are spending the weekend down here at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, which is a W.A.S.P. enclave. I’m sure he’s doing it just to piss them off. One resident wrote a huffy e-mail to the club:
Shorter version: “How dare they let colored people in here.”
Actually, they do have black people at Ocean Reef. They’re wearing white coats, serving drinks, and changing the towels at the pool.
gogol's wife
OT, but there hasn’t been an open thread for a long time — Shirley Temple marathon starts on TCM in 5 minutes. I know she’s big among the BJ commentariat (not).
If you can only watch one, it should be Stowaway at 6:15.
Violet
@aimai:
According to Wikipedia, CPAC started in 1973 and
I wonder if CPAC was more relevant a decade or two or three ago. It’s more like a sideshow now.
Wikipedia also has a list of the straw poll winners. Mitt Romney won 2007-2009 and 2012. Ron Paul won 2010 and 2011, and Rand Paul won 2013 and 2014. So for the last eight votes, the winner has only been Romney or one of the Pauls.
Shrub won in 2000, and there is no listing for 2004. Did they not have a straw poll then?
Roger Moore
It seems to me that this is just a special case of the Republicans’ general move toward intellectual isolation. There’s a feedback loop where they have to say crazier and crazier stuff to get attention, and the media is willing to reward the ones who say stuff that’s just crazy enough to attract attention but not so crazy that it can be safely ignored. This is the basic principle of pushing the Overton Window, but I think they’ve actually managed to get out of touch enough with the general public that they’re actually pushing on their own little media group rather than society at large.
Mustang Bobby
@gogol’s wife: Sarah Palin will be watching. She thinks “The Littlest Rebel” is a documentary.
? Martin
The right thinks that CPAC rightly shows the world what true conservatism represents, and is eager to point that out.
The left thinks that CPAC rightly shows the world that true conservatism is fucking lunacy, and is eager to point that out.
Everyone comes out a winner here.
Netroots nation is, on its periphery, a little moonbatty and a little embarrassing, but otherwise solid. We’re less inclined to broadcast it beyond the engaged members of the party because we aren’t desperate to get the world to accept our worldview, and the GOP would prefer to pretend it doesn’t exist because it’s not enough of a freakshow, so it gets relatively little coverage.
KG
@Mustang Bobby: honest question… Do these people think that Obama didn’t become president, senator, state senator, and attorney by some means other than hard work and determination?
Also, what are the odds that the emailer was born rich?
? Martin
@Roger Moore: Don’t overlook that there are enough billionaires willing to fund the really insane guys. The 2012 GOP primary race was effective a race between a wealthy guy, and proxies for several billionaires. Why fuck around with fundraisers when you can puke out just the right gibberish to get a $20M check dumped in your SuperPAC?
Good god I hope that NewsMAX TV gets up and running soon. The derp arms race will be a thing to behold.
Violet
@KG: Yes, they do. They think Obama got everything handed to him because he’s black. Affirmative action admittance into college and law school. Elected in a black area as state senator, so of course he won because black. Became president only because black people voted for him (see: voter suppression efforts increased now). He didn’t work hard. He’s lazy (aren’t all black people?) and everything was given to him. So he cheated. He didn’t have to work his way up, like everyone else.
Baud
@? Martin:
Huh? Why not?
aimai
@Violet: I think its really changed in the last three decades. Reagan wasn’t as popular as people now think and had to be constantly warding off attacks on him and his presidency at the time–of course he spoke there because it was a good place to speak and be seen by the party faithful (i.e. the voters). But there’s been a rising split between the money end of things and the voters, the actual voters, as the white middle class has experienced a lot of the same wage stagnation and rising inequality that the rest of the country has. This is just my take on it but the Republican voter seems to me at this point to be divided between upper class/wealthy types and an increasingly impoverished, immiserated, and out of luck actual voting class. Its these true believers who CPAC now is designed to entertain and enthrall. Because the moneyed class needs ways to keep this group energized and voting Republican when its less and less in their interest to do so.
Botsplainer
@Mustang Bobby:
Mr. Murphy took a while to light in Florida. He’s only been operating this real estate bidness since Ought 7. Prior to that he was in North Carolina, and prior to that, Saddle River. Wife Fran transitioned on a dime from some sort of retail disposable money service thing to luxury construction.
His baby girl got an NYT nuptial announcement.
Also, his phone number pops right up.
Thinking it might be fun to put such an upstanding example of honest bootstrapping bootstrappiness under a microscope.
dmsilev
@? Martin:
Current NewsMax lead story: “Palin Slams Obamacare with ‘Green Eggs and Ham’”. I wonder if she managed to get further into the book before quitting than Ted Cruz did.
Ruckus
@aimai:
Exactly.
Violet
@aimai: Yeah, I think you’re right. There is a definite split in the Republican party. I guess CPAC is the “circuses” part of “bread and circuses.”
Cervantes
@Violet:
Yes. Prime movers were William F. Buckley and David Keene. Ronald Reagan played a role. The purpose was to parade the Goldwater (as opposed to Rockefeller) wing of the party.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@KG: Overshadowed by Birtherism was the “Harvard transcript” campaign. Trump and others, including one of the Mittlets, were calling on Obama to release his college transcripts to prove he was dumb and only got through Columbia and Harvard based on affirmative action, as @Violet: said. See also “teleprompters”. This was in part why they wanted to draft Christie, cause he was a tough guy who would confront Obama, presumably in a debate, and leave President Affirmative Action T. Teleprompter in a quiver, stammering heap on the floor.
Botsplainer
@KG:
Born rich or operated pretty much criminally, my thought.
See my 39.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And I’m sure Trump-son-of-wealthy-developer and Mittlet-son-of-Mitt-son-of-governor got to where they were entirely through the sweat of their brows and their superior intellect and drive.
Violet
@dmsilev: Well, of course they did. Remember Mrs. Mitt’s story about how they had to sell some stock just to survive while they were in college. A real tear-jerker, that one.
Suffern ACE
@Violet: “Shrub won in 2000, and there is no listing for 2004. Did they not have a straw poll then?”
I think when your party holds the white house, you probably shouldn’t take straw polls. Only Democrats like Shoen and Caddel would do that to show that Obama should just step down for the good of the party.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Mustang Bobby: Shorter version: “How dare they let colored people in here.”
Oh, come now, Bobby. They’re not complaining about him being colored. They’re complaining about the massive tax increases he socked on the rich by, um, pushing this and, um, only making some of the temporary tax cuts permanent while letting others expire exactly as, um, legislated under Bu-
Ok, so it probably is the coloreds thing.
David Koch
When has the corporate media ever been “outraged” at the wingers? As nutty as Michelle Bachman is, as hateful as Coulter is, the corporate media treats them like royalty.
Violet
@Suffern ACE: I guess so. They had one in 1984 when Reagan was running for re-election (he won, no big surprise), but not in 1988 when Bush the Elder ran. Jack Kemp won both 1986 and 1987, so maybe they figured Kemp would win and embarrass the party or something?
The straw polls started up again in 1993 and Jack Kemp won again. Weirdly, there wasn’t one in 1996. Were they afraid Bob Dole would have lost it?
Mustang Bobby
@KG: I know someone who winters there. He has never worked a day in his life; all his money came from his mother. Even people who are his friends call him the laziest man on earth. I am sure he agrees 100% with the Murphy’s; probably has drinks with them every night.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Outrage is these wankers drug of choice. Their maintenance dose has passed the point of being fatal to the rest of America. The Republican party’s thorough lack of imagination created a vacuum of ideas which was filled by the fringe right. The necessity of catering to them in order to get through the primaries leaves any R candidate for office looking just like the wingnuts when election time comes around.
Ron Paul, really? Ron “Aqua Buddha” Paul?
Villago Delenda Est
@Mustang Bobby:
That person really needs a tumbrel ride, stat.
David Koch
@Suffern ACE: What happens is CPAC is held after Iowa, NH, and super tuesday. By then, the nominee is effectively determined, so there’s no need for a straw vote. That said, they also can the vote as it would also make them look bad, because the convention would likely vote for someone unelectable derp.
Roger Moore
@KG:
Absolutely. They think he was handed everything he has by affirmative action, i.e. a nefarious conspiracy by Those People to advance each other despite their utter lack of qualifications. It’s one more example of conservative projection. They know they got ahead in the world through the old-boy’s network, so they assume that almost everyone else has gotten ahead the same way.
James E. Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The same thing explains the big boost Romney got from the first debate when he yelled at and interrupted Obama. The great mass of Republican voters had been waiting so long, so very long, for somebody anybody to stand up to that [insert racist epithet].
Villago Delenda Est
@David Koch:
You mean like Rand Paul?
hamletta
CPAC is Fan Fair for wingnuts; a freak show of the faithful, designed to part them from their money.
David Koch
Have you ever noticed, NN has never had a straw poll. I imagine they don’t want to be embarrassed with the predictable outcomes.
aimai
@efgoldman: Frank Rich can fuck off and die already. The only thing you throw a drowning enemy is an anvil.
? Martin
@Baud:
Because most of the world accepts our worldview. Hell, most of the country does as well. We’re not trying to sell something that is diminishing in popularity. Over time, our ideas win.
David Koch
@efgoldman:
But who is he talking about? The vast majority of liberals don’t watch it. The only ones I know are Media Matters, Jon Stewart and Colbert and they do for great comic effect. Is he saying they shouldn’t bother? Makes no sense.
eta: besides, what does Rich know, when Apocalypse Now came out, he gave it a terrible review.
? Martin
@David Koch: NN doesn’t have a straw poll for many reasons, but mainly because they don’t seek the validation that 200 people agree with them. The GOP has straw polls all over the place. Name one Democratic straw poll. There aren’t any. This is not a coincidence.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@efgoldman: I read that a while ago, and I think Rich underestimates the effect of Fox as a GOTV operation, and its influence on those Sunday Show types you mention. Also, IRRC, he even indulges in a bit “MSNBC is a mirror image of Fox”.
aimai
@efgoldman: They have enormous agency and continue to set a lot of the debate in the country. You can’t ignore them anymore than you can ignore the bully in highschool and figure he’ll “grow out of it” or something. Fox News blares in every airport and hospital. We know for a fact that it is actively brainwashing its viewers–he’s got it backwards, by the way, the viewers who came to Fox didn’t come because they already believed all that crap, they were seduced into watching it when it was much less virulent and now can’t get out because they need their fix. Frankly: Fox needs to be attacked and shown up more frequently–like NewsMax it is entirely supported by advertisers grifting on the credulity and stupidity and fear of its viewers. Passing stricter truth in advertising laws and shutting down the fear merchants would go a long way to freeing up our pathetic Fox watching Senior Citizens.
David Koch
@? Martin: first of all, it’s 2000 who attend, not 200, but NN’s parent GOS holds broad straw polls all the time and the results are embarrassing, only it doesn’t get the media coverage that occurs at a convention, where assignment reporters are looking for a story line..
Violet
@aimai:
I can’t remember the last time I saw Fox News on in an airport. I always see CNN on in airports.
Cervantes
@aimai:
Except that if it’s MSNBC that “hopped on the story fourteen times in a single week,” as opposed to, say, Fox, then how are “our pathetic Fox watching Senior Citizens” to be liberated?
Bill Arnold
Also doctor’s offices, and many small businesses, and health clubs.
The North East has less of this; more CNN or HLN. I try to walk if Fox News is playing, or if that is not an option, try to turn the sound off. (Often nobody in the room wants to hear it.)
feebog
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Pretty sure you mean Rand Paul. He got 31%, so not really an overwhelming choice, although most everyone else tied for second.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@feebog:
Yep, Rand. I’m so accustomed to Paul the father acting as the libertarian Grifter in Chief that his is name that comes to mind first.
Violet
@Bill Arnold: Wondering where you live. I live in a red state and would expect more than average instances of Fox News playing. I visit various doctors, including accompanying older relatives on their doctors visits. Only a few of the doctors waiting rooms even have TVs, and none of those have had Fox News on. The Geriatrics practice has a TV tuned to CBS.
I belong to the YMCA and visit a couple of the gyms. They do have Fox News on, but only as one among many. The larger of the Y’s has Fox, CNN, CNN International and MSNBC on the larger overhead TVs. There are individual TV screens on the cardio equipment so people can watch what they want there.
I have seen Fox News on at various places, but it certainly isn’t the only thing that’s on all over the place, even in a red state.
BruceFromOhio
@aimai:
Well said, I believe you have it correctly identified and categorized.
@aimai:
You are, it would seem, on a roll.
Mike G
@Mustang Bobby:
I’ll bet you dollars to donuts whoever said this grew up rich and inherited daddy’s business and connections.
Bill Arnold
@Violet:
Hudson valley, southern New York. Fox isn’t typical here (more CNN country), sorry if I left that impression. Anecdotal very small sample (around 6 doctor’s offices) had Fox playing in 3. More generally, if a TV in a public place is playing a news channel, my impression (again anecdotal; I’m not keeping a scorecard) is it’s on Fox around 1 in (3 or 4).
Violet
@Bill Arnold: That’s probably about average. Heck, occasionally I tune to Fox because CNN and MSNBC are running their non-news shows (prison shows, etc.) and I want to see some headlines. Even Headline News (HLN) won’t have news–running Nancy Grace or whatever.
joel hanes
@aimai:
Fox News blares in every airport and hospital.
and in bars, and waiting rooms. However, I’ve found that if you ask, the person with the remote is often only too happy to change the channel — few of the proprietors or staff really *enjoy* Fox, they just think it’s what their customers expect.
I’m not a sports person, but I have about a 70% success rate with “Could we maybe watch the game instead?” (There’s always a game)
Mustang Bobby
@Violet: A couple of years ago Fox News was on in the waiting area at Toledo Express Airport. I wrote a note to them complaining and they replied that they “rotate” the news channels. Really? The next time I was there, it was Fox again. I guess I was just lucky in my timing, eh?
Not Adding Much to the Community
@KG: “Do these people think that Obama didn’t become president, senator, state senator, and attorney by some means other than hard work and determination?”
Surely, darling, you know it had to be some mixture of affirmative action and low, thuggish, cunning.
karen
The young libertarians at CPAC who are Paulites are the ones we need to be worried about. They have the social liberalness about things like gay marriage and marijuana legalization but with the money hungry greed and disregard for people who have no money. And labor rights. And union rights. And non-insured.
muricafukyea
Accidental troll Ball Juice Doug finally gets a clue….about shit that has been going on for years. Yet he will still play along with the game along with all the the other clueless bloggers. They need shit to write about. All the right has to do is continue to say crazy shit and they are sure to get left wing bloggers talking about it…which is all that matters.
Humptydoo
@Mustang Bobby: I hope you corrected the grammatical error. They are over-whoming. It should be ‘whoever’
Mustang Bobby
@Humptydoo: Well, you would think all that money would buy them a first-class education at St. Grottlesex, wouldn’t you? I guess not.
Cervantes
@Mustang Bobby: There’s an elementary school on the premises. What kids learn there is an open question.
serena1313
Booman posted 4 examples of CPAC’s 2014 seminars:
. Fossil Fuels Improve the Planet
. More Guns, Less Crime: How law enforcement is beginning to embrace a well-armed population
. Healthcare After Obamacare: A practical guide for living when no one has insurance and America runs out of doctors.
. Tech Workshop: Beyond Politically Correct: How to configure WordPress for success
Fossil fuels improve … Seriously?
And Law enforcement embraces … I’d like to hear what law enforcement has to say about that.
Did the Tech workshop really need to add “beyond PC” in its title.
These people … who… how … errr… I cannot wrap my head around how anyone could fall for this “beyond ignorant” drivel. And yet they do.
CPAC: Working to Keep You Misinformed, Dumbed-down, Fearful and E_motionally Unbalanced.