14 Scenes from CPAC 2014

This is a bonus scene ||| CPAC button booth

Today I was among a few brave Reason staffers who spent
the day at the 2014 Conservative
Political Action Conference (CPAC). This year’s CPAC is taking
place just outside the nation’s capital in Maryland’s National
Harbor, in a giant, domed conference center/hotel/mall that
we’ve decided must be a template
for a lunar colony. Matthew Feeney was busy investigating

conservative drug policy and
doing radio interviews, while Matt Welch and Kennedy were
exploring things on-camera. But as a CPAC first-timer, I had no
firm agenda. I was committed to rooting around in search of
whatever seemed like it might interest libertarians.

I did not have the best luck. The major speakers seemed mostly

to repeat tried and true GOP talking points. They made
politician jokes (like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s quip that he
wouldn’t personally be too bothered by increased tanning bed
taxes). They complained a lot about “the mainstream media,” which
was a culture war I thought we were all shaking off but apparently
not. There was ample God-tinged acoustic rock between
speakers.

Donald Trump
was at least candid, and some of the smaller sessions later in
the day proved interesting. But for a good stretch, CPAC seemed
better seen than heard. There were lots of fine, upstanding-looking
young adults in navy blue blazers, interspersed with folks in
cowboy boots and flag-print doo rags (which is, taken together,
pretty much what you’d expect, right?). There were kids rolling
Ronald Reagan posters while talking about Donald Trump. There were
all sorts of lifesize
cardboard cutouts.

There was plenty to see, so I spent much of the time taking
photos. Which I will now share. Are you ready? Welcome to CPAC
2014.

The Weekly Standard booth, one of

many in which cardboard cutouts figured
prominently:

He lives!

Kids rolling up Sarah Palin and Ronald Reagan
posters. Overheard as we walked by: “I’m such a big Donald
Trump fan!”

I have no idea what is happening here. The
booth was for a book called
How Money Walks by Travis H. Brown.

The National Organization for Marriage
booth:

When I got near, I heard a man asking whether the National Oranization for
Marriage (NOM) fought against marriages between “men
in their sixties and women in their twenties,” as these
relationships were also destroying the sanctity of marriage. At
first I thought he was trying to be clever, but it soon became
apparent this was a very real concern of his. “They marry because
the older men have money,” he explained to the man behind the
booth, who was being very patient. “I think you’re talking about a
sugar daddy,” the NOM staffer said.

“A gold digger!” the aggrieved man said excitedly, sure the
staffer was catching on now. “Where is the data?” What was the
organization going to do about it?

The staffer explained that they weren’t really into the
government mandating who could and couldn’t marry, which—while
perhaps the right thing to say to this man—was also patently
untrue, since that’s pretty much NOM’s driving principle. I later
heard the first man bringing up his concerns with the Clare Boothe
Luce Policy Institute folks.

Anyway … they start ’em on the bow ties young in this
crowd.

Persecuted: the movie. Conservative
persecution was an all-around popular theme at CPAC.

Unfair: the movie. Double feature,
anyone?

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz being chased down by the
press:

For sale: foam bricks printed with your opponent’s
name.

The guy in the sash represents The American Society for the Defense of
Tradition, Family and Property, “an organization of
lay Catholic Americans concerned with the moral crisis shaking the
remnants of Christian civilization.” They were very nice and gave
me a pamphlet about 10 reasons to reject socialism. (For the
record, that is not their booth in the background.)