I attended the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC. Organizers tell me attendance was up 17 percent, not surprising given the current political climate. Conservatives from all over the country gathered to hear speakers and hawk their websites, books, movies and ideas.
This event has always been well-populated by young conservatives. Just guessing, I would say clearly that half appeared to be college students. That may account for how Ron Paul won the straw poll with 31 percent of the vote. Mitt Romney came in second with 22 percent and Sarah Palin was a distant third with 7 percent.
No wonder the group listed reducing the size of the federal government and reducing spending as its top priorities. Also, 53 percent wished the Republicans had a better field of potential candidates.
The crowd cheered wildly for the likes of Newt Gingrich and Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter was treated like a rock star. It was encouraging to see over 10,000 people come together seeking solutions to our government’s sprint toward socialism, but there were divisions among the ranks that either need to be resolved or set aside.
The Ron Paul supporters have always been vocal and unified. The straw poll illustrated that. However, 69 percent of those polled chose someone other than Congressman Paul as their presidential pick. This isn’t so troublesome for 2012 as it is for the mid-term elections coming up this year. Mr. Paul and his supporters have a sympathetic ear in conservative ranks when they call for an audit of the Federal Reserve or even ending it altogether. This is an issue that Ron Paul brought to the forefront and they should take pride in the fact that it’s being talked about in conservative circles.
Where many Ron Paul supporters depart from the rest of us is when it comes to foreign policy. I heard several discussions regarding our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the “Paulies” seemed adamant that any candidate who supported either was not viable. That’s going to rule out a lot of Republican candidates in November. By contrast, it will include a lot of Democrats. What worries me is if this issue becomes big enough in the minds of the Paul supporters, they might end up either staying home in November, or worse, backing any Democrat who vows to get us out of Afghanistan. I talked with pro-lifers who would only support pro-life candidates, even only candidates who put that issue first. Gay marriage was another passionate issue by some, but apparently not many. Only 1 percent in the CPAC poll listed stopping gay marriage as their second most important issue and no one listed it as their first. Still, they are out there and, I suspect when it comes right down to it, we all have that pet issue that raises our blood pressure. I can’t imagine I could support any candidate who is for amnesty for illegal aliens. These are the types of divisions in which conservatives will have to come to terms if they expect to regain control of Congress. As one guy put it to me, who’s more of a threat to our country, Elton John or Ben Bernanke? Great point, but when you place ending the fed side by side with allowing 12 to 20 million illegal aliens to stay here, then you start to see the complexity of unifying the conservatives.
I subscribe to the 85 percent rule. If we agree on 85 percent of the issues, we can do business. The problem is, people like me probably clock in at below 50 percent.
