I came out of the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) armed mostly with Rand Paul memorabilia – An “I Stand with Rand” t-shirt, “Stand with Rand” pin and a signed copy of his book, Government Bullies were some of the standouts. Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), a relatively new nationwide student-driven organization endorsed by Rand Paul, had arguably the most popular booth over the three days of CPAC. It was there that one could observe, at some point or another, almost every student jostle to place their flag on YAL’s political spectrum or play “Pong Off Your Debt,” a beer pong offshoot with cups labeled “End Corporate Welfare,” “End the War on Drugs,” “Repeal Obamacare,” and “End the Fed,” amongst others.
The hype surrounding Paul’s sweeping win of CPAC’s annual straw poll was representative of a slight swing towards change in a previously “stuffy, establishment” GOP. The American Conservative Union, the force behind CPAC and its Chair, Al Cardenas, was persuaded once again to exclude GOProud and American Atheists from this year’s selection of invitees. My best friend, a three-time attendee with whom I attended, suggested that there have been similar forces at play trying to push Paul and Young Americans for Liberty out every year, without success. But the GOP line-up has included the occasional, deviant politico as CPAC gets younger, year-by-year. There’s Paul’s non-interventionism bordering on isolationism, Rubio who, controversially, supported immigration reform, and Christie, viewed by many as a sell-out for working with President Obama.
During my time there this past Spring Break, I struggled to gauge whether it was the newly resurgent libertarians, the Tea-Partyers, the RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), or the Neo-Cons who were in the majority. Sure, the bright red “I Stand with Rand” shirts stood out like no other amongst staid business attire, and Paul had the most standing ovations of any speech over all three days.
But Paul’s speech wasn’t the only one with standing room only in the Potomac Ballroom – Rick Santorum didn’t do too shabbily, and Sarah Palin had people shrieking with her rendition of Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham. Not one person in my cross-section of friends and acquaintances at CPAC, some from Fordham University, Princeton University, and others from the University of Miami and the Citadel, knew who Dr. Ben Carson was. But Carson, a black neurosurgeon from John Hopkins, enjoyed a standing room only audience as well, and no one minded or left when he went nearly ten minutes over his allocated speech time.
As confident as I am about Paul’s viability as a candidate who might, at the very least, bring the American youth together as an electoral demographic, I remain concerned about how far his celebrity truly reaches. Large numbers of the Citadel Republican Society would stream into the VIP seating section at the start of every big speech, and another friend from the Citadel told me that they were able to be there because they were “Santorum’s guys.” He scoffed when we informed him that we would be attending Paul’s meet and greet at a local bar as did my friend from Miami, whose group was more enthusiastic about attending Ann Coulter’s and Sarah Palin’s events.
It seems to me that mainstream national media does not seem to accurately capture a cross-section of politically active youth when it talks of rallying support behind Paul, or a cross-section of the American electorate (especially the GOP base) when it discusses Governor Christie’s or Senator Rubio’s potential as presidential candidates. It is, however, able to capture the changing face of the GOP.
I was also eager to attend the panel “Can Libertarians and Social Conservatives Ever Get Along?” I had previously understood that one could hold socially conservative beliefs but advocate for socially liberal policies, hence adopting the Libertarian and Social Conservative labels simultaneously. The panel did not include anyone of this color; Michael Medved consistently peddled what he called the “conservative goals, libertarian means” agenda that completely precluded the adoption of any socially liberal policies, while the libertarians on the panel, Matt Spalding and Matt Welch, came across as far too liberal both in personal opinion and public advocacy to appeal to a large swath of their audience. The panel ended in an impasse, with both sides agreeing to disagree on the very definition of libertarianism.
To me, that was the most worrying trend at a conference that does, nevertheless, continue to attract droves of young, educated Americans – far more than it did three or four years ago. It is self-proclaimed libertarians like Paul who are largely responsible for bringing younger Americans back to CPAC. But how far can the GOP progress with America’s increasingly libertarian-leaning youth if it cannot settle upon a common understanding of libertarianism?
Full Disclosure: Young Americans for Liberty subsidized Pi Praveen’s ticket to CPAC 2014.
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