February 11th 2020

By Hunter

Daily Kos

It was easy to miss in all the [raises arms, gestures broadly in all directions], but on Sunday Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Chair and aggressive Trumpophile Matt Schlapp delivered a warning of sorts to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney: Not only are you not invited to this year's CPAC, Mitt, but it could be very bad for you if you dared show up.

"We won’t credential him as a conservative. I suppose if he wants to come as a non-conservative and debate an issue with us, maybe in the future we would have him come. This year, I’d actually be afraid for his physical safety, people are so mad at him," Schlapp told interviewer Greta Van Susteren.

This suggestion of violence at the hands of Dear Leader's political allies is not entirely new, but even a few years ago CPAC itself pretended to distance itself from such hints. A little. Now the warnings are more explicit, and fascist: Go against Dear Leader's wishes and we, the self-appointed leaders of Republican ideology, are likely to do something to you if we catch you unprotected in our midst.

It is consistent with Schlapp's own embrace of avid Dear Leaderism, and with the remolding of CPAC into its new incarnation as Republicanism's Nuremberg Rally. Gone are the debates over the direction of conservatism; now "conservatism" does not even mean whatever Trump thinks as it does opposing Trump's enemies, real and imaginary, on his behalf.

Indeed, CPAC is in many ways now the heart of the new Republican fascism. It has always been a den for the crackpots of the far-far-right, but that did not stop it in past years from becoming a must-stop speech location for conservative lawmakers, pundits, hangers-on and archconservative administration officials. The discussion has always been conspiratorial and angry, but in recent years has become more explicitly fascist in nature. The Rand Paul speeches railing against government overreach have become Rand Paul speeches demanding government overreach, so long as it is aimed where he wants it aimed; the previous the United Nations is coming to take your cows and children, replacing them with bike paths is replaced with dire warnings of the Deep State, a national and global conspiracy of the unseen other to sabotage Dear Leader.

The movement is young, and very white, and very male. It loves guns, embraces the NRA call for good violence as the solution to bad violence, and adores brute force as policy, here and abroad. It wraps itself in religious speech to justify calls for extremism and vengeance. It is white nationalist, with carve-outs for an approved-of, devoted few. It is autocratic; it does not believe non-conservative ideologies, parties, or officials are merely wrong, but illegitimate. It is anti-communism and anti-socialism, and sees both lurking in every shadow. It sees itself as the rebirth of the nation, a new movement that will make America "great"—or, alternatively, the group that will mount a last, doomed stand against a new multicultural nation in which their own members are persecuted, and marginalized, and perhaps sent into "camps."

But mostly, it is very, very convinced of its own righteousness in seeking to eliminate the threat of that ever-shifting other. Meaning experts, mostly. Book-learners, and liberals, and people who are not afraid of immigrants or Muslims, and absolutely anybody who not just criticizes Dear Leader, but offers up any information whatsoever contrary to Dear Leader's latest verbal pantsload.

The weather forecasters who calmed the public after Dear Leader proclaimed that a hurricane was now headed for them, even though it was not? Deep State. Budget and tax experts? Deep State. The stock market? Heroic on rising days, the Deep State on falling ones. The Deep State is any government statistic that makes Dear Leader look bad. It must not only be explained away, but those that produced it must be punished, severely and permanently.

Mitt Romney, a Republican senator, has therefore committed the ultimate sin. When Schlapp says he would fear for Romney's physical safety if Romney sought to speak to Dear Leader's troops, we should believe him. He means it. A fascist movement is one that is not afraid to use redemptive violence against those that would oppose them; if Schlapp estimates his conference-goers are teetering on the edge of that precipice, we should believe him. He has built a political empire by knowing precisely what the new “conservative” base wants, and delivering it.

Posted with permission