Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s finish the job.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Everybody saw this coming.

This fight is for everything.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

White supremacy is terrorism.

After roe, women are no longer free.

T R E 4 5 O N

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / 2024 Elections / 2024 Primaries / Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: CPAC Seems To Be Losing Its Media-Awarded ‘Luster’

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: CPAC Seems To Be Losing Its Media-Awarded ‘Luster’

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Remember the days when TBogg used to refer to Erick Erickson’s still-very-downmarket CPAC shindigs as ‘Tragic: the Gathering’?

Murphy the Trickster God willing, it may yet return to its natural status as a grooming site for young ultra-conservative lobbyists and podcasters. Many people are saying!

Nobody with actual hopes for higher office wants to risk being in camera range if (when) the CPAC audience start shouting the 14 words, or one of the keynotes speakers sets fire to a cross…

Many of the Republican Party’s marquee players — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and the top GOP leaders in Congress — will skip this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, dealing a significant blow to the annual gathering’s stature.

The abandonment of CPAC, which runs from Wednesday through Saturday, comes as its chairman, Matt Schlapp, defends himself against a lawsuit alleging that he fondled a male aide to then-Senate candidate Herschel Walker in Georgia in October, without the aide’s consent…

Despite the mass exodus, the party’s most dominant figure — former President Donald Trump — plans to speak at the conference late Saturday afternoon, according to his spokesman, Steven Cheung.

None of the politicians declining to attend have cited the allegations as the reason for their absence, but several Republicans who spoke on the condition of anonymity said it is a factor in the broader movement away from the conference…

There is a sense among some Republicans that the conference was becoming more of a chore in recent years, said a veteran GOP operative who is not attending this year and asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly.

“Someone said to me, ‘We all wanted an excuse not to go, and Schlapp gave it to us,’” the operative said.

DeSantis, who has been in demand across the country as he appears to be gearing up for a potential 2024 presidential campaign launch, will be in Texas for GOP dinners in Houston and Dallas, as well as in California.

The list of luminaries skipping CPAC is long and prestigious: Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are among them.

A person familiar with the plans of McDaniel, who has spoken at CPAC before, declined to elaborate on the reason for her absence this year. In the past, the RNC has also been listed as a sponsor of CPAC; this year, it is not.

McConnell, notably, has not attended the event in recent years. The crowd booed him in 2021, when former President Donald Trump took a dig at him in his CPAC speech.

McCarthy will be out of town, an aide said…

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who recently launched her presidential 2024 bid, still plans to attend, an aide confirmed. Other speakers on the agenda include Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.

The conservative Club for Growth will hold its annual donor retreat in Florida this week at the same time. DeSantis, Pence, Haley and others are scheduled to speak at that event; Trump is not.

(Remember, the Club for Growth is for people who have money. CPAC is for people who want that money.)

The Washington Post (gift link) has a long retrospective on Matt Schlapp’s career, if you have the stomach for it — “As CPAC’s head faces sexual assault claim, other leadership concerns emerge”:

For nearly a decade, Matt Schlapp has captained the blockbuster Conservative Political Action Conference, bringing together influential figures on the right and establishing himself as a key voice in former president Donald Trump’s movement. Those powerful allies rushed to his defense when Schlapp was anonymously accused in early January of sexual misconduct by a GOP campaign aide…

But as Schlapp rebuffs the allegation by a former staffer from Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign in Georgia, who says Schlapp groped him during an Atlanta trip last fall, dozens of current and former employees and board members interviewed by The Washington Post described a wider range of complaints about the longtime Republican power broker and CPAC’s culture under his leadership…

With CPAC readying to welcome Trump back to its flagship annual gathering in D.C. this week, Schlapp is facing multiple challenges, including the exodus of more than half of its staff since 2021, according to the current and former employees and board members. Some expressed concern that Schlapp has given an inexperienced contractor too much influence. One former employee notified the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month of plans to sue over claims that she was fired in retaliation for complaining about a co-worker’s sexist and racist comments.

“The culture was toxic,” said the former communication director, Regina Bratton, in an interview. “From my perspective, he acted like a bully.”

The current turmoil comes as CPAC grapples with corporate backlash over its embrace of the far right and concerns about a potentially lackluster turnout this year as Trump’s political future appears uncertain. The Fox Nation streaming service is not returning as a sponsor, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, an ascendant figure in the Republican Party and Trump’s emerging rival in the 2024 campaign, is skipping it…

As CPAC’s flagship event in the Washington area kicks off Wednesday, ticket sales are lagging from past years, prompting price cuts, giveaways and a special rate offered to congressional staff, according to people familiar with the event’s inner workings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information. Many high rollers who have in the past bought the conference’s biggest premium packages have not registered this time.

This year’s theme is “Protecting America Now,” warning of the threats posed by open borders, crime, inflation and the radical left. In recent interviews with conservative outlets, Schlapp has threatened to bar unfriendly media. The lineup will feature some of the most incendiary figures on the far right, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, whose supporters stormed government buildings after he lost reelection in 2022, and Arizona Republican Kari Lake, who refused to concede her defeat in the 2022 governor’s race.

Schlapp has turned CPAC into a global brand, with events last year in two states and six countries. With his lobbying income declining after Trump left office, Schlapp received a $150,000 payment in 2021 for “business services,” and he started receiving annual compensation of $600,000 in mid-2022, according to tax documents and people familiar with the organization’s finances. The organization’s chairman is traditionally an unpaid volunteer. Schlapp’s wife, former Trump White House aide Mercedes Schlapp, is also on the payroll and received $175,500 for “strategic communications” in 2021, tax records show.

“CPAC used to feel like you were part of something that really mattered and what conservatism means,” said Ross Hemminger, who worked for Schlapp when he first became ACU chairman. “It’s gotten so nutty. … It’s a pep rally for Trumpism, with Schlapp as captain of the cheer squad.”…

Mar-A-Largo’s court reporter, Ms. Haberman, verifies the accusation:

For decades, the Conservative Political Action Conference occupied a center ring in Republican politics.

In 1974, Ronald Reagan used the inaugural event to unveil his brand of optimistic conservatism, describing a “city on the hill” to the conservative activists. In 2010, libertarian supporters of Ron Paul lifted their candidate to victory at the event’s presidential straw poll, an early harbinger of the Tea Party upheaval that would soon shake the party. And in 2011, a Manhattan businessman walked onto the stage to the tune of “For the Love of Money,” declared himself an opponent of abortion and began a yearslong takeover of the Republican Party.

That businessman, Donald J. Trump, will be back at the four-day conservative gathering known as CPAC this week near Washington. He’ll be joined by a long list of right-wing media provocateurs, culture-war activists and a smattering of senators. Missing from the agenda: many of the Republicans seen as the future of the party.

When Mr. Trump became leader of the Republican Party, he remade the conference in his political image. Now, as the party’s voters, donors and officials consider a future that may not include Mr. Trump as their leader, some Republicans say the decades-old CPAC gathering has increasingly become more like a sideshow than a featured act, one that seems made almost exclusively for conservative media…

Since Mr. Trump became the leader of the Republican Party, the confab has become less focused on traditionally conservative issues and intraparty debate. Past CPAC events featured a series of panels amounting to a recitation of the cultural grievances that animated the party during the Trump administration. Despite underperforming in the midterms last year, there is little time scheduled for soul-searching over why Republicans have struggled in the last three election cycles — and how to change that trajectory in 2024. The answers to those questions, in the minds of senior Republicans, often lead to Mr. Trump…

Also, per the Post Millenial, ex-Project Veritas employee JO’KeefeIII:

CPAC founder Matt Schlapp has announced on Monday that Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, who was ousted after what appeared to be a Board of Directors coup last week, will be speaking at this week’s CPAC in Washington, DC.

Schlapp was speaking to War Room’s Steve Bannon, when he made the announcement, “James is gonna come,” he said…

“I’ve been talking with James, James is going to come! So a War Room exclusive, if you want to come root on not only all of us who get the sharp end of the stick and the horns from the left, but James O’Keefe is really getting it.

“And I think we all need to be there for James and I think everyone’s gonna want to hear what he has to say.”…

Not least among those listeners, the IRS. Maybe the FBI?

Unretouched photo from last year’s CPAC:

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: CPAC Seems To Be Losing Its 'Luster' 3

What are the odds some ‘prankster’ (traditionalist) will find the old stash and start handing these out again?

And the Great GOP Bifurcation continues. On one hand, the MAGA loyalists and Reich-wing lifers; on the other, right-wing politicos who still believe there’s a career to made by winking at ‘both sides’ voters who just want “bipartisanship” (defined as ‘political choices that won’t inconvenience me, even as far as causing actual facts to cross my purview’). As ever, rooting for injuries!

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    or one of the keynotes speakers sets fire to a cross

    Following through on anti-drag rhetoric, perhaps they’ll burn Milton Berle in effigy.
    //

  7. 7.

    sab

    OT completely: Tax season just started. I had decided I was too old for that. Then young managing partner called and I agreed. Agreed to work at home remotely.  Then an older partner said he doesn’t want tax files out of the office. On the one hand I absolutely agree. On the other hand this is a new rule since I signed on this year, and is extravagently inconvenient for me. I live an hour away and commuting an hour away is not so easy for me. Brooding all week  and shuffling work priorities inappropriately.

    Decided: older partner (lovely guy) is this time full off shit. I did not volunteer to work in that office this year. He can use other people. Sorry I took of of his files before I knew the new rules.

    ETA I am old with my  life (not business)  partner’s serious health issues and my and our multiple pets’ serious health issues. I have Social Security now. I don’t need to ignore my complicated family issues because my bosses think they need to see me in the office.

    ETA One boss only. The others will adapt.

  8. 8.

    sab

    OT also: Clintons injected the Drugfree workplace into federal hiring and contracting. A problem in search of a solution just because the Clintons could not handle Roger Clinton. I would wish Roger well except for the thousands of lives this thing phucked up. So every federal grant has to prove a drug free workplace in places where that was no even an issue.

    Clinton bad decisions keep on giving.  We have drug problems in my family. No Clinton solutions did not manage to make things worse

    ETA I absolutely love Hillary, but when Bill is lying in state in the Capitol I will let loose about how much I hate about his presidency. DLC. Gore.

  9. 9.

    Butch

    Joe.My.God published a list of the “speakers.”  I noticed that while most of the congress people attending were listed as “the honorable,” ol’ Margie was “congresswoman.” The list is ridiculously long; either the speeches go on 24 hours a day or they each talk for about 30 seconds.  I wouldn’t walk across the street to hear a single one of these folks.

  10. 10.

    Anyway

    @sab:

    I don’t follow. There have been R and D presidents since Clinton. If there was such a surge of opposition to the ruling wouldn’t it have been repealed? I s there a movement against it?

    My peeve is drug tests for any kind of govt assistance. Adding so many layers of hassle to those already struggling.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:

    Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who recently launched her presidential 2024 bid, still plans to attend, an aide confirmed. Other speakers on the agenda include Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York.

  16. 16.

    Marmot

    One former employee notified the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month of plans to sue over claims that she was fired in retaliation for complaining about a co-worker’s sexist and racist comments.

    This is simply a policy disagreement. She favors “wokism,” see.   /s

  17. 17.

    Gvg

    @brendancalling: that got effectively ended several presidents ago and legally killed with Biden yes. Effectively within about 3 years because there was no data base to check and the rules were so lax that all the student had to do was change their answer. They were only supposed to answer yes to a federal drug conviction anyway and most drug convictions never were. They were answering yes incorrectly in the first place. Stupid question, performative politics, wasting our time in financial aid office. No federal data base ever to find out the answer and frankly people didn’t understand the question. I also would not have trusted a federal data base on that subject to be accurate. It would have been underfunded and been subject to political budget fights and pressure every year….and unclear instructions.

  19. 19.

    Geminid

    Rabbit Rabbit!

    A good Ulysses Grant quotation to begin March:

        There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party.

    I read that this is an excerpt from a letter Grant wrote to his father and younger sister in April, 1861.

  20. 20.

    Anyway

    @Baud:

    I was surprised at the vehemence directed towards Clinton. War on Drugs, Just say No, Drug czars … all go back decades and have many authors. Singling out Clinton seemed weird. But what do I know? I couldn’t remember who Roger Clinton was …

  22. 22.

    Princess

    “

    . One former employee notified the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month of plans to sue over claims that she was fired in retaliation for complaining about a co-worker’s sexist and racist comments.

    “The culture was toxic,” said the former communication director, Regina Bratton, in an interview. “From my perspective, he acted like a bully.”

    These women who work for the far right and then expect an egalitarian work place where their rights will be protected…. Lady, which party fought for your right to sue these guys? Never mind, she doesn’t care.

    Also I’m thinking maybe there’s a subtext hinted here that Schlapp has been schlapping that “inexperienced contractor.”

    Also too, this year they’ll fly Russian flags on purpose. Maybe Putin will even speak.

  23. 23.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Anyway: Clinton was a huge improvement over Reagan/Bush, but his era coincided with the Democratic Party’s great post-Reaganism cultural-economic cringe and his policies do seem oddly conservative in hindsight. It led to a lot of “the two parties are the same” sentiment on the left that is still with us today.

    The thing is, you could say similar things about Jimmy Carter and most liberals don’t seem to blame him for that now.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The thing is, you could say similar things about Jimmy Carter and most liberals don’t seem to blame him for that now

     
    You could also vilify FDR for internment and LBJ for Vietnam (hi, raven) but most liberals choose to view their administrations as some sort of moral glory days.

    I’m ok with honest assessments, but I’ve found that most criticism, even if based on fact, is opportunistic and often historicallly unprincipled.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    They still believe it’s all going to just go away – that if they pretend it’s a normal political Party it will….become one – with no post mortem work or uncomfortable discussions or hard decisions of any kind.

    Their Party has been taken over by insane racists and liars and grifters and losers. Until someone or something stops it will keep going in that direction.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @Baud:

    IMHO when everything is taken into account, there has never been a more morally righteous political party in American history than the Democratic Party of 2023.

    Probably a minority opinion, but I leave fake nostalgia to conservatives.

  28. 28.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Also, Bill Clinton ended his term in office more popular than any post-honeymoon Democrat since FDR. That implies that for his many faults he certainly wasn’t out of step with the people. Of course, from a left ideological perspective, that meant he left some opportunities on the table.

  29. 29.

    Princess

    @Baud: I buy that. Biden deserves enormous credit, and Harris too, which is why people are desperate for us to get rid of them.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Right, I was listening to Michigan public radio about democracies and one of the experts said the Democratic Party is one of the most successful political parties in history. But – they got there through self criticism and evaluating losses and mistakes and trying to get better.

    “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican” turns out not to be a good approach to “improvement” or “progress”. They won’t go to CPAC because it’s full of racist loonies and Trumpists and grifters but not one of them will actually criticize the racists loonies and Trumpists and grifters. They’re hoping “the bad stuff” just goes away.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Of course, from a left ideological perspective, that meant he left some opportunities on the table.

     

    Possibly. It seems to me to not be a good way of thinking about it though. Politics is continuous. It doesn’t get recreated afresh afresh after each election. The idea of leaving things on the table assumes you know in advance when the game ends.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Michigan public radio about democracies and one of the experts said the Democratic Party is one of the most successful political parties in history

    Wow. I can’t believe they allowed the public to hear that.
    IMHO, one of the underappreciated stories in political history is how successfully and, relatively speaking, rapidly the Democratic Party transformed itself from the party of white populism to the party of civil rights.

  33. 33.

    Mustang Bobby

    Being gay is tough enough without having creeps like Matt Schlapp groping his way into someone else’s business.  I’ve been saying for years that we need an admissions committee.

  34. 34.

    Marmot

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It led to a lot of “the two parties are the same” sentiment on the left that is still with us today.

    Yeah, that was me too. Was Clintonism as bad as we were all saying? It certainly felt like Dems bent over backward to appeal to the religious right, instead of championing a better way, but maybe I just got caught up in the BS. I used to read a lot of The Nation.

    I certainly regret talking smack about Dems then.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @Mustang Bobby:

    I’ve been saying for years that we need an admissions committee.

     

    Make it a church so you can be tax exempt and can get government funding.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    None of the politicians declining to attend have cited the allegations as the reason for their absence, but several Republicans who spoke on the condition of anonymity said it is a factor in the broader movement away from the conference… There is a sense among some Republicans that the conference was becoming more of a chore in recent years, said a veteran GOP operative who is not attending this year and asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly. “Someone said to me, ‘We all wanted an excuse not to go, and Schlapp gave it to us,’” the operative said.

    Just incredible cowards. They can’t even muster the courage to criticize this stupid grifters convention.
    Whispering to Maggie Haberman or Politico about how you’re uncomfortable with the sleazebags at CPAC and then running and hiding is not going to fix the problem.

  44. 44.

    stinger

    @Butch:

    either the speeches go on 24 hours a day or they each talk for about 30 seconds

    Even if they do each talk for about 30 seconds, it will still seem as if they go on for 24 hours.

  48. 48.

    stinger

    @sab: I have to say, references to what “the Clintons” did during his presidency hark back to images of ball-busting Hills shoving her way in where First Ladies oughtn’t to tread. I was glad to see the ETA where you say you love Hillary, because your first paragraph seemed to indicate otherwise.

  51. 51.

    Eolirin

    @Marmot: Culturally and politically the religious right was ascendant and in control of congress after the first midterms. The Satantic Panic bullshit was only starting to die down, Newt Gingrich leveraged Christianist rage to regain control of the House of Representatives for the first time since FDR, and we had just had 3 terms of Republican presidents. There was no better way to champion at the time. It honestly looked like the Democratic party was on the brink of being done for most of the Clinton administration.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    Maumee is right outside Toledo. I go to this one sometimes so I’l have to cheer them on:

    MAUMEE, Ohio (WTVG) – Workers at the Starbucks on Dussel Dr. in Maumee are taking steps toward unionizing. If the effort goes through, the location would become the first in the Toledo area to be under a union.
    A barista confirmed to 13abc the employees signed a letter that was sent to the store manager and the company C.E.O. It calls for a vote to see whether a majority of those working at the Maumee location want to join the union.
    According to the organization Starbucks Workers United, there are more than 278 stores across the country that have unionized. Some of the sticking points the group has posted to its website involve fair wages, better hours, protection against unfair discipline, and representation to help resolve issues at the store.
    The letter of intent can be viewed as a first formal step toward unionizing. A timeline has not yet been announced.

  53. 53.

    James E Powell

    @Anyway:

    I was surprised at the hate for Gore. I liked him more than Clinton & believe if he had been elected president in 2000, the whole 21st century would have been better. I mean, supreme court alone . . .

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: This is true at every level of the party apparatus, including Fox News. I started a post yesterday, which I may or may not finish today, on that theme. It was inspired by Charlie Sykes’ interview with Paul Ryan. Just incredible cowardice and stupidity! He still thinks if the “sane Republicans” just freeze and don’t make a sound, the monsters will go away. They’re all nuts.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @James E Powell: Gore would have needed to win reelection in 2004.  Rehnquist would have died in his second term, and we would have had a 5-4 majority with his replacement.  Open question whether O’Connor would have stepped down if Gore was president.  Her stepping down gave us Alito.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    He still thinks if the “sane Republicans” just freeze and don’t make a sound, the monsters will go away.

    lol. Perfect.
    I saw a clip of Tim Scott lavishing praise on Donald Trump. They’re doing it again.
    I get that Democrats get attacked from (alleged) “friendlies” on both the Left and the Center Right and that can be damaging but there’s an upside – the criticism does actually spur improvement. Not always! But no one gets better by hiding and hoping the bad things go away.

  57. 57.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: Open question whether O’Connor would have stepped down if Gore was president.

    IIRC, O’Connor explicitly announced (to a friendly right-wing group) that she would *not* step down unless a Republican was in the White House.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I like to kind of add up the Bedrock Prinnciples they abandon every WEEK.

    This week they decided DeSantis can monitor and determine the content of what Disney puts out and punish Disney if they don’t comply with his censors. Unfuckingbelievable. It’s speech, sure, but that’s been bullshit on the Right for a long time but now it’s also free markets.

    I am now a better capitalist than any Republican. Who would have thought?

  59. 59.

    Anyway

    @Baud:

    So much of the Clinton hate is based on hindsight. For all his faults he fought back against the Rs. I am one of the rare Ds that doesn’t reflexively dismiss Bill..

    ETA – funny thing is during Clinton’s presidency I was a snooty pox-on-both-your-houses “non-partisan” that would never identify as a D.

  60. 60.

    Frankensteinbeck

    CPAC has been the conservative trolls convention as long as I can remember.  The obsession with claiming Republicanism used to be respectable is crazy.  Even this highly critical article blames it on Trump while mumbling under its breath that, yes, CPAC was the extremist fun fair long before him.

  61. 61.

    Marmot

    @Eolirin: I’m more amenable to that position now than I was then, that’s for sure.

    Would it not have worked to say, “no, there’s a better way?” And plan around that, obviously.

    Your recap takes me back. Those were frustrating times, and I didn’t feel Dems offered anything. That’s definitely changed.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Anyway:

    I liked him because he was popular with normie Dems. Snobs sneered at his salesmanship but good salesmen are “good” because people buy things from them.

    The thing I got most upset over was putting Hillary on the health care team. I just thought it was dumb and looked bad. I wouldn’t defend it. You have to have standards. She’s great and smart but her husband shouldn’t be appointing her to a public role. That’s bad.

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I am so glad I am here for Bill Clinton Hate Week.  Christ, people, the first and most important thing Clinton did was win.  While alternative history is generally not my thing, can you imagine where we would be if GHWB had won in 1992 or Dole in 1996?  We can start with no RBG or Breyer.  Our choices were between two alternatives, and the better candidate won.  Full disclosure: I volunteered for his campaigns both times.

  67. 67.

    Marmot

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m not a Clinton hater. I wish he’d reflected more of my values back then, but nobody’s perfect.

    At the time, I seriously misunderstood how broadly shared my values were. Not very — 2004 made that unforgettably clear to me.

  69. 69.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Kay:

    I was listening to Michigan public radio about democracies and one of the experts said the Democratic Party is one of the most successful political parties in history.

    Makes sense. The Democratic Party is the oldest existing political party in the world. (The UK Conservative Party is the second oldest, and the US Republican Party is the third.)

  70. 70.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Kay:

    I am now a better capitalist than any Republican. Who would have thought?

    Long ago it hit me: The Democratic Party is the real conservative party in the US. Preserving Social Security and Medicare are conservative positions, no?

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @…now I try to be amused: No.  Preserving Social Security and Medicare are sensible positions.   Preserving good things and looking to make further progress, which I would say in the Democratic platform, is not conservative.

  72. 72.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Clinton was a product of his times.

    The 1992 voting electric was 87% white. In 2020 the white vote was only 67%.

    It wasn’t just resentful whites, the public was also, as Mao would say, poisoned by religion. In 1990 religious attendance was 68%. Today it’s 47%.

    On top of that, the media loathed the Clintons. They were attacked hysterically every day.

    Like any marinier, Clinton had to navigate those headwinds and crosswinds.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @…now I try to be amused:

    I love how none of the dopes on the Right even consider the BUSINESS case for diversity. It’s good business because they are international and most of the world is not white.

    These morons actually believe the leadership of huge companies are ideologically “woke”. Why does Disney have Latino characters now? Because they are selling to Latinos. It’s like they forgot everything they knew about the world the moment the first Black Lives Matter banner went up.

  74. 74.

    VOR

    @Butch: I think even they recognize that nobody would describe MTG as “honorable”. re: large number of speakers, they probably have multiple tracks running aside from the keynotes. And there probably are a fair number of panels in these tracks and members of panels are generally listed as speakers at conferences.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    @David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    Clinton had to navigate those headwinds and crosswinds.

    Right. I liked that about him too. How he was combative. I read his (too long) book about his life. He’s a classic striver- Obama was too but in a different way. I think people tend to like strivers unless you’re a total snob.
    The book is kind of poignant. He has all these extraordinary accomplishments and credentials but still fancy people won’t let him in. And he wants to come in. It made me like him more- how he wasn’t ashamed to say he wanted to be accepted by a class he didn’t come up in and yet never really was accepted. It’s why our stodgy, conventional media attacked him constantly. They’re boring snobs.

  77. 77.

    trucmat

    As an atheist you’ll excuse me for not remembering Clinton fondly. He was all too happy to triangulate against liberals. Are we so sure he couldn’t actually have defended us against the religious right and still won? Look where we went after his leadership if you want to see his legacy. He was a mediocre interim President who unfortunately did not stop the electorate from careening to the right. Yes he preserved personal power but did so by weakenening the party. Good judgement? Monica.

  78. 78.

    WereBear

    @sab: Good for you. I’m glad it was only the one.

    Competence might be making a comeback. As opposed to the suckup who makes the boss coffee. Remote work is a disaster for them.

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