Last Posts

Last Day at CPAC Today was the last day of CPAC, and I must say I am sad it has ended so soon. Today started off with my missing Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s speech due to my not being woken up. After waking up I got ready, went to the train station, and got on the metro. I was running on time to get to CPAC to at least see the speech in overflow, but then my train stopped, because there was a down train in the tunnel ahead of my train. It seems that it’s never enough to have just a little bad luck. That said my day got better. During the panel discussion “Driving Energy Policy for the 21st Century” we heard a rousing speech by Nigel Innes of “The Congress of Racial Equality”. Nigel spoke about how radical environmentalism is the modern civil rights struggle, because the costs of over taxation and policies that lead to higher fuel costs hurt low income people who are attempting to better themselves. Nigel’s speech was more than just one of a series of speeches that take up time, but rather a speech symbolic of the ongoing transformation of the Republican Party. The Republican Party has for far to long been thought of as the party of “backward bigots”, but that image is changing. The Republican Party is becoming increasingly inclusive and in my opinion we are truly the party of the American people. Then we heard from two Irish people who made the film “Not Evil Just Wrong”. This film demonstrates how radical environmentalism is not only harming people through the slowing of economic development, but also leading to human death via the ban on DDT. While I have never thought to think about the effects of the ban on DDT it has become apparent to me that we will never be able to stop the surfing in Africa by defeating AIDS alone. We must also use every necessary tool to prevent the spread of disease. Then came what everyone had been waiting for the arrival of Rush Limbaugh. While I am no fan of Rush Limbaugh he gave a transformational speech that let the nation and the world know what Republicans truly stand for and why the American people should give us a second chance. I have long believed that Rush was a liability to the party, but after listening to his speech I have come to realize that all wings of the Republican Party deserve a seat at the table.   Wrap up I was not very excited about going to CPAC this year, but how I am so glad I decided to attend. I put everything I had into last years election only to watch my party and country crash and burn. This years CPAC was truly about picking ourselves up from the ashes, brushing them off, and ushering in a new spring. Us Republicans do not have the misconstrued notion that we will have any say in the operation of government over the next two to four years or much hope that the nations rapid decline will do anything but accelerate over the next few years, but we know that our party and this great nation will survive. I believe that not only had the Republican Party lost its way via reckless spending but also that the American people had lost touch with reality and have forgotten what makes this country great. An many ways the Republican Party and the American people deserve all that we are going through and the pain left to come due to our unwillingness to do what is right rather than what is easy. That said those of us who believe in America will prevail in the end, because the American spirit is stronger than any recession, war, or tyrannical socialist president. CPAC reminded both those who attended and to some degree the world that we are Americans and we will preserver.