My notes: Bread and Circuses at CPAC
My notes: Bread and Circuses at CPAC
By Paul B. Skousen
I’m a people watcher, and here’s what I saw during my three days at CPAC:
Some came for education, some for entertainment, but most seemed to be there for direction. And like the sedated masses of the Roman empire who were entertained with bread and circuses while invaders attacked the borderlands, we had our own political ringmasters at CPAC—and they too served bread and circuses with thick bravado while leaving the real issues unattended.
A few samples from the tasting table:
Ron Paul wins straw poll—the hundreds of under-25 crowd swarming through the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel took on targets of opportunity like packs of vegan dogs. Mention anybody but Ron Paul and they barked and snarled, screamed and yelled—but no biting. When the vote was announced, youthful high-five whoops and oh yeahs! thundered throughout the hotel.
- Meanwhile, those more studious about the issues smiled patiently when Mitt Romney took a strong second place in the ballots with 22%. About a fourth of the attendees bothered voting. It became apparent from day one that the youth were largely Ron Paul supporters who flooded the ballot box in droves and packs. But when asked why, the answers were usually thin: “Why do you want Ron Paul?” “He’s the man! He rocks!” “Yes, but why do you support him?” “He’s the man! He rocks!” “And the issues—?” “He’s the man, he rocks!”
See and be seen—Encouragement from the old war horses and newer battle ponies sent a stir across every square foot of the gathering. Cheney’s surprise runway wave to the podium shook the very foundations of the building, an appreciation that was well-earned and well-deserved. Scott Brown exhausted what screams were left, though betrayed them days later on the jobs bill vote. Ann Coulter was her usual spicy self but was escorted out for security reasons, and Mitt Romney had the best one-liners of the whole three days. Newt Gingrich was happy to be mobbed by friends from decades past to present, and a gallery of lesser-knowns waved their arms at this growing national anger aimed at the Obama crowd.
- But did we learn anything new? Not since Andrea Bocelli sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was there ever such raptured preaching to the choir. But alas, a lot of heat, a lot of smoke, but where was the smelter?
Value added or just valuable?—Across every floor for 12 hours a day, a thousand voices screamed for attention, ten thousand web sites spewed literature for links, a million opinions exchanged to save the Constitution—but only a handful of real solutions were delivered. One came in the form of Glenn Beck. He entered the arena with education in mind—and deliver he did. The hoo-rah segment strained with pain at this new discipline called education. Beck was patient with them, bringing along his chalk board to help. Those wanting education, those working hard to be good students of freedom had their engines of determination well primed. The enemy is the progressives, Beck hammered home. Learn to recognize them in their many forms, they know no party boundaries. It was the educational moment of the entire event, but only a segment of the audience seemed to appreciate it.
- And then there was us. We also came with education in mind and found at least one in ten who understood that education is our call to arms. All else falls short of sustainability. Freedom cannot be maintained without knowing what it is, how we got it, and how to keep it.
- Says Dr. W. Cleon Skousen in the opening paragraphs of The Five Thousand Year Leap, “Part of the genius of the Founding Fathers was their political spectrum or political frame of reference. It was a yardstick for the measuring of the political power in any particular system of government. They had a much better political yardstick than the one which is generally used today. If the Founders had used the modern yardstick of ‘Communism on the left’ and ‘Fascism on the right,’ they never would have found the balanced center which they were seeking.”
And so was it last week at CPAC. The measuring stick given us at that gathering of 10,000+ was Obama on the left, everybody else on the right. But what we needed instead was more of Glenn Beck’s education: How much do you know about freedom and do you want to know more?
I witnessed thousands of empty anticipations leaving that building on Saturday night, most of them seemed to be wondering “did I get fed or did I get entertained?” We pointed, we cheered, we booed, and we blamed. But in the end, did anybody get education? May I suggest that next year’s Conservative Political Action Convention be renamed to Conservative Political Action College? I don’t think we can afford any more bread and circuses.