Behold, the target audience in New Hampshire flocks to be shorn at their “Freedom Summit”:
… There’s Ted Cruz, who Jean Ferreira, 55, was most excited to see at the event — which is organized by Americans for Prosperity, a group best known for the people who started it, the Koch brothers, and Citizens United, now synonymous with the Supreme Court decision that led to super PACs and the expansion of corporate political spending.
Ferreira was wearing a “Truth Has No Agenda” T-shirt, but she had another in her bag that read, “I Cruz With Ted.” “I’m praying he’ll sign it,” she said.
Ray Shakir, who is 65 and can now qualify for what he deems “socialist security” was also looking forward to Cruz. Shakir voted for Newt Gingrich in 2012, but he thinks Cruz is “the strong, aggressive conservative we need today. He has the hmm, how should I put this. The cojones.”…
Rand Paul was the other person highly anticipated by the people attending the conference. Spec Bowers, a former New Hampshire state representative (and future one, he hopes), likes the junior senator from Kentucky . He voted for Ron Paul “about 30 years ago,” but didn’t in 2012. “I didn’t think he could be elected.”
The conference marks Lauren Rumpler’s first day on the job as a field coordinator with Americans for Prosperity in New Hampshire. Rumpler, who is 25 and also runs the YouTube channel “Objectivist Girl,” likes Rand Paul and his father quite a bit. Ted Cruz, not so much. “He’s all right, but I’m a libertarian,” she said. “I’m more of an anarchist, really.” Rumpler moved to New Hampshire from Ohio to join the Free Stater movement, another reason she supports the Paul family.
There is a far longer list of people who spoke at the Freedom Summit. There are former presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, Tennessee congresswoman Marsha Blackburn and Donald Trump, all people who have expressed interest or have ended up on lists of possible 2016 presidential candidates.
There was also Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), Rep. Steve King (Iowa), Rep. Louie Gohmert (Tex.), radio host Laura Ingraham and Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute — all people who either articulate conservative political ideas or can guarantee a fired up tea party audience.
But for the audience and the organizers, Cruz and Paul are the people who defined the event and make it the 2016 “cattle call” Americans for Prosperity has marked it as…
Cattle call, indeed — that would explain the strong scent of BS.
Apart from wondering how some of our fellow citizens manage to use forks without putting their eyes out, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the weekend?
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