CPAC: A Star Trek Convention for Trump Fans

By shrinking its focus to a single politician, CPAC is also shrinking its appeal.

posted by Dianny at Patriot Retort 

Back when Barack Obama was president, I used to spend the four days of CPAC watching the live stream of the panels and speeches on my computer. At that time, the Tea Party was on the rise, inspiring, invigorating, and motivating the Republican base, and CPAC was solidly rooted in the rising Tea Party’s conservative, America First ideals.

But when social media took over much of our political discourse, CPAC began to lose its luster for me. It became a “too online” shadow of itself, eager to serve up Twitter-style red meat that its attendees devoured with gusto.

Post-Trump presidency, however, CPAC has devolved into a Star Trek convention for Trump fans. While the social media-driven red meat is still at the heart of it, now that red meat is made up entirely of Trump Steaks.

The CPAC of today is a ghost of what it once was, geared solely to appeal to the way-too-online Trump fans with Twitter handles like @UltraMAGADeplorableSusie and @MAGADefender037530267.

This explains why the organizers chose Arizona gubernatorial loser Kari Lake to be the keynote speaker at the Reagan dinner. When your target audience is Trump’s most ardent fans, you have to give them what they want. And they want the Republican Stacey Abrams.

Many of this year’s speakers were members of the Trump Trek cast. In addition to Kari Lake, the Yoeman Rand of Trump Trek, CPAC also featured Donald Trump Junior, the MyPillow guy, Majorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, and, of course, the star of the show, Donald Trump Shatner himself.

Unsurprisingly, Trump won the presidential straw poll at the Trump Trek Convention, which is a vast improvement to how Trump did seven years ago when, in March 2016, Ted Cruz topped the field with 40%, followed by Marco Rubio with 30% and Donald Trump with just 15%.

Then again, in March 2016, CPAC wasn’t a Star Trek Convention for Trump fans. In fact, Donald Trump skipped the 2016 CPAC entirely, much like Ron DeSantis did this year.

Now, if CPAC wants to turn its conservative conference into a Star Trek convention for Trump fans, more power to ‘em. And as long as enough people are willing to pay the exorbitant admission price to attend and the organizers can still find advertisers willing to sink money into it, CPAC will likely continue riding on Trump’s coattails for as long as it’s profitable to do so.

But by shrinking its focus to a single politician, it is also shrinking its appeal, which is probably why most of the possible 2024 Republican candidates decided to give it a pass. Ron DeSantis or Mike Pence is no more likely to attend CPAC than Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford is to attend a Star Trek Convention.

It certainly didn’t help that CPAC chair Matt Schlapp is currently being sued for allegedly groping a former Herschel Walker staffer last fall. Like a noxious fart in an elevator, that kind of stink isn’t particularly inviting.

I also couldn’t help but notice that the enthusiasm for CPAC has dried up on social media. I used to see tons of tweets with video clips featuring the various CPAC speakers and panelists. But not so much this year. It just doesn’t seem to be the “must-see” event that it once was.

The only video clips I saw were posted by members of the Anti-Trump ResistanceLOL who were breathlessly “well-I-nevering” over something one of the speakers or panelists said.

For me, the thrill is gone. Then again, I pretty much stopped caring about CPAC eight years ago. And since I don’t dress head-to-toe in Trump swag or get my “news” from the Gateway Pundit, it isn’t as if CPAC is going to go out of its way to try and win me back.