A TALE OF TWO CPACS

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and conservatives in general have an image problem. This year they tried to fix it. Tried. This is a tale of how hate met kindler, gentler.

One People’s Project

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD – It was a kindler, gentler outing for the annual and often controversial Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that took place last week, but while the tone of the conference was softer, with groups participating that never would have in the past, black conservatives calling for a more respectable approach towards communities of color and longtime mainstays of the conference such as vitriolic commentatior Ann Coulter not even invited to speak, the hatemongering the conference was known for was seen via comments from other speakers and events held by white supremacist groups that coiencided with the conference.

As this year’s CPAC was held a year before the presidential election season begins, the spotlight was on those who would be looking for the Republican Party nomination to face the Democratic candidate in November 2016. The climate however was driven by the libertarians and young persons who participated that took even more of a center stage than even those potential nominees. It was the kind of climate that was palatable to groups like Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group that opposes the War on Drugs and has members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on their Board of Directors, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and even American Athiests who was disinvited by CPAC last year only to have a booth at the conference and member and journalist Jamila Bey speak on Thursday.

On Saturday, a session to spotlight the Conservative people of color was held near the end of the conference, but while it was titled “Content of Your Character: Conservatives See Deeper,” the panelists felt the need to appeal to the conservatives in the auditorium to work harder to appeal to non-white communities. Speaker Patrice Lee said one area that needs to be addressed is how to reform the criminal justice system, suggesting that narrow what it means to be criminal and design punishments that fit crimes, it would improve the relationship between conservatives and communities of color. “The broken criminal justice system in this country is not the communities of color’s problem,” she said. “It’s not their problem, it’s our problem. It’s the nation’s problem.” New York Post columnist Robert George meanwhile slammed the practice of Republicans telling black audiences that they are the “Party of Lincoln,” saying the GOP uses that as a pandering tool for a community they do little outreach in. “Yes he (Abraham Lincoln) freed the slaves, but what do you as a Republican have to offer now?” he asked. “If you want to start talking about 1880s, I can talk about 1980s. Janet Jackson. What have you done for me lately? I’m glad that you’re a member of the Party of Lincoln and you think its a great idea that slavery shouldn’t exist. That’s very nice. Now what about the challenges today?”

Still remanants of the old hatemongering was apparent, particularly through one of CPAC’s regular sponsors ProEnglish, an English-only advocacy group run by a white nationalist Robert Vandervoot who at one time also ran the group Chicagoland Friends of American Renaissance. American Renaissance (AmRen) is a white supremacist publication created by Council of Conservative Citizens board member Jared Taylor who was also scheduled to speak at a conference at the National Press Club during CPAC sponsored by the white supremacist National Policy Institute (NPI), a white supremacist “think-tank” based in Whitefish, MT and run by Richard Spencer. An effort by People for the American Way was made to encourage the potential presidential candidates attending CPAC that they do not support the continued association that the conference has with ProEnglish.

While the denouncements did not seem to come, there were some CPAC participants that traveled 11 miles from the Gaylord Resort where it was taking place to the NPI conference Friday evening. Titled “Beyond Conservatism,” Taylor and Spencer was joined by Peter Brimelow, editor of the white nationalist VDARE website and regular CPAC attendee to address the approximately 50 persons who came to hear them speak. Regular associates of either Spencer or NPI were there such as Baltimore photographer Kevin I. Slaughter, who has ties to the Baltimore punk scene and attended last November’s conference for the H.L. Mencken Club, a group Spencer co-founded, Council of Conservative Citizens member Sid Secular, and Paul Ramsey, a racist vlogger known as Ramzpaul. In addition, many of the attendees were young persons who were also attending CPAC that weekend, some even wearing their CPAC badges during the conference.

One person seen outside the doors of the conference was New Carsile, OH Councilman Ethan Reynolds, 24, who was attending CPAC as well, and is a rabid supporter of the far right UK Independence Party (UKIP), who recently have been forced to investigate candidates from the party for ties to racist British political groups. UKIP leader Nigel Farage spoke to a near-empty room at CPAC on Friday where he decried multiculturalism, which he once called the “biggest mistake the (European) governments have made” and called for conservatives to defend “Judeo-Christian culture”.

Reynolds, who h
imself survived an attempt to have him removed from office because of misconduct two years ago, and is currently mounting a reelection campaign for his council seat, told One People’s Project that although he was at the Press Club with some friends, he did not participate in the NPI conference, saying that someone was passing out brochures  at CPAC about the conference but chose to sit outside in the Holeman Lounge when he learned the nature of the event. “I did not go into the room where the conference was held,” he said, saying further that he repudiates the group. “I did not attend that conference period.”

A more aggressive group of white supremacists showed up in front of the conference center the following morning. Members of the League of the South (LOS) protested outside in the cold particularly against a CPAC breakout session supporting stronger measures against Russia in the conflict against the Ukraine which is currently fighting to become an independent state. The session included on their panel a member of the Log Cabin Republicans a conservatives pro-gay rights organization that has been the center of controversy since CPAC has disinvited them from participating in the conference two years in a row with the exception of this last minute addition to the panel. The handful of protestors were led by Matthew Heimbach who in addition to the LOS is also an associate of the Traditional Youth Network, which he co-founded, and the American Freedom Party. He and the other protestors, which included longtime neo-Nazi activist Ron Doggett and Marshall Rawson, who last summer worked as an intern for then-Rep. Paul Broun on Capitol Hill, spent much of the afternoon talking with the CPAC attendees as well as reporters that came to their area to question or confront them. Despite the entire Gaylord Hotel Resort Area being private property they were allowed to stay and continue their protest during the afternoon.

In 2013, Heimbach and his associate Scott Terry participated in a CPAC session on racial tolerance by Black conservative K. Carl Smith titled “Trump The Race Card: Are You Sick And Tired Of Being Called A Racist When You Know You’re Not One?” and voiced their objection to it as “disenfranchised whites”.

According to reports, over 10,000 persons attended CPAC 2015.