On Bill Maher’s New Rules segment this week, he talked about a “relatively small group of very shrill people [who are] devoted to — and succeeding at — convincing us that this is a much more conservative and religious nation than it is.”
Maher goes on to explain that CPAC is merely an extension of such devotion:
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Maher discusses his term Shit Kicker Inflation “the phenomenon of all things conservative being portrayed as way bigger than they really are” with the following examples:
- ONE MILLION MOMS: the number of followers that One Million Moms has on Twitter: 2,258.
- THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE: just as there aren’t a million moms in One Million Moms, there is no “league” in The Catholic League. It’s one guy with a fax machine.
- OBAMACARE: as an idea, it’s unpopular. But ask voters about the elements in it, they’re all very popular. It’s like saying “I hate pizza! I love tomato sauce and melted cheese on dough, but pizza? I hate that shit.”
- GUNS: gun ownership is actually DOWN in this country… way down. And yet the NRA, with just 4 million members, has a stranglehold on the gun policies in a nation of 300 million.
- CPAC2013: Among the featured speakers at CPAC this year include Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, Wayne LaPierre, Donald Trump, and Sarah Palin… a virtual who’s who of what the fuck.
Here are some highlights from a few of CPAC’s featured who’s who of WTF:
Sarah Palin: “We’re not here to rebrand a party [but to] put on a fresh coat of rhetorical paint.” Then she said: “More background checks? Dandy idea, Mr. President. Should’ve started with yours.” Fresh birther paint!
Next, she dazzled the audience with a boob joke followed by heroically (according to crowd reaction?) drinking from a Big Gulp. Wolverines!
“Outside the ballroom afterward, CPAC attendees raved about the stunt. “Hilarious.” “I thought that was awesome.” “I loved that.” One woman I spoke to said the moment “just really symbolized American freedom.” A man named Tomas told me that Palin holding up the Big Gulp “gave a new look to the Statue of Liberty.” Whether or not anyone, including Palin, realized that Mayor Bloomberg’s soda restrictions wouldn’t even have affected Big Gulps is not clear.” — Dan Amira
Freedumb!
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Donald Trump: “Behold, the scene at Donald Trump’s CPAC speech this morning in the main ballroom. Empty seats were everywhere, although it’s not entirely Trump’s fault. He was given an 8:45 a.m. speaking slot, the very first of the day. Many CPAC attendees aren’t even out of bed yet. Still, Trump was invited not because of his conservative bona fides (he’s donated more money over the years to Democrats than to Republicans), but because he’s supposedly a crowd-pleasing draw.”
Pre-speech:
Post-speech:
These empty seats are Totally False.
Photos via ‘flunky’ Dan Amira
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Mitt Romney: “‘It’s up to us to make sure that we learn from our mistakes — and my mistakes,’ Romney told the crowd Friday. [...] Romney’s re-emergence at CPAC comes after months spent almost entirely out of public view. People close to him say he consumes large volumes of news every day on his iPad and on Fox News. He stews as he reads the coverage of the various budget showdowns in Congress, frustrated that the president has pursued what he sees as an aggressively liberal agenda that won’t solve the country’s economic problems.”
So to Mitt Romney, “learning from his mistakes” includes continuing to bravely watch Fox and continuing to bravely label the President’s insistence on a balanced approach to deficit reduction (spending cuts alongside closing loopholes and subsidies for the wealthy) an “aggressively liberal agenda.” Sure. Apparently the only mistakes Mitt made with his CPAC speech were omitting some birther jokes and not drinking from a Big Gulp.
Let’s be honest: the theme “America’s Future: The Next Generation of Conservatives” really doesn’t describe CPAC. This annual gathering of wingnuts could be more efficiently labeled “Keep F*cking That Chicken.”
Related: Keep F*cking That Chicken
- And Now, the National Review Chimes In: “Putting the Shine on CPAC” — What right wing racism?
- Tea Party Event On Racial Tolerance Turns To Chaos As ‘Disenfranchised’ Arrive
- CPAC’s ‘Trump the Race Card’ Panel Derailed by Actual Segregationist
- CPAC Slavery Defender and “Disenfranchised Whites” Illustrated
- Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze Reports CPAC Racism, Commenters Go Full-on Neo-Nazi
- CPAC: Black Man Tossed Out After Breitbart Hack Screams at Him ‘Race Doesn’t Matter — The white guy continues to scream at the black guy, and doesn’t get asked to leave. The black guy gets asked to leave.
- NRA Organizer: We Don’t Want “Anti-Gunners” To Vote
- CPAC 2013: Lions and tigers and communists, oh my
- Rove mocks Palin: I’m may be a ‘balding fat guy,’ but ‘I wouldn’t leave office midterm’
- Sarah Palin Reads Joke About Obama’s Teleprompter From A Teleprompter
- CPAC attendees condemn Sen. Portman’s endorsement of marriage equality
- Steve King: Undocumented Immigrants Are ‘Undocumented Democrats’
- Ann Coulter calls Bill Clinton ‘Forcible Rapist’
- Ten reasons why Ronald Reagan would be persona non grata at CPAC 2013
- Rand Paul Proposes Eliminating the Dept. of Education, Crowd Goes Wild
- Rand Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll
- Bachmann Accuses Obama Of Living A Life Of Excess — Obama has actually one of the lowest net worths of any American president, and has less wealth than Republicans like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Bachmann and her husband Marcus have also done well for themselves and have an estimated net worth of between $1.3 million and $2.8 million. Bachmann, meanwhile, has faced criticism for refusing to pay $5,000 to five staffers from her failed presidential bid, even though she has more than $2 million in her campaign account.
God Save Us from the next generation of conservatives.
