Posts in "Ryan Sorba"

By Kelse Moen at 2:34PM

Feb 22, 2010

Reflections on the Revolution at CPAC 2010

I have been to two CPACs, in 2008 and 2010. In 2008, the Ron Paul supporters were a few isolated crazy people and Paul came in fourth in the presidential straw poll, with 12% of the vote. In 2010 -- well, you already know.

The shift in power toward Ron Paul and the Campaign for Liberty is so astounding that I probably would not fully believe it had I not been present at CPAC this year myself -- which is not to say that C4L is anywhere close to its goal of reclaiming the Republican Party. We should remember that 69% of straw poll voters voted for someone other than Ron Paul. Dick Cheney got a standing ovation, to chants of "Run, Dick, Run!" (meaning "run for president," not "you better run, you bastard" as per my chant.) And Marco Rubio got similar applause when he giggled over the thought of waterboarding terrorists.

Nevertheless, revolutions don't occur by sheer majority force alone. They occur when a determined minority is well organized enough to actually realize its ideals. It is often cited that before the American revolution, one third of people were patriots, one third were loyalists, and one third were indifferent. By this standard, the libertarians are well on their way to reclaiming the GOP. When I was passing out flyers for C4L, more than a few people responded, "I already have five of those! You people are everywhere!" This is true testament to C4L's excellent organizational capacity.

Leaving Aside Sorba, the Whole Panel Was Rotten

In addition to that YAF Creep, most of the rest "Two Minute Activist" panel in which he participated was also awful. And with the exception of SFL's Alexander McCobin, none of them challenged the drone neocon component of the audience to the slightest. I'm not saying these other guys aren't independent thinkers -- I don't know them -- but they certainly didn't exhibit any independent thought through the panel.

Particularly funny was how anti-liberty the panel's message was. I could point to so many ridiculous examples, but I will here mention I counted four speakers telling teens to promote their career by running for office under the now-meaningless platitude of "conservativism." A real "conservative" would never become a parasite unless he is doing it of principle, not self-advancement!

Also shocking was the hokey MC's description of these kids at the end. She said something along the lines of: "Later in life these people will rule the world, and we can say we knew them." After this, the neocons in the crowd clapped raw -- as if the thought of conventional politicos "ruling" us is desirable!

Power, not principle, is what much of modern conservativism is about.

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