Former CPAC Chair Minces No Words Slamming What The Event, GOP Have Now Become | HuffPost
By: Lee Moran (HuffPost)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
This year's Conservative Political Action Conference attendees "are living in an alternate reality in which facts don't matter," said former GOP Rep. Mickey Edwards. By Lee Moran
A former chair of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday slammed what the event has now become, suggesting former President Ronald Reagan would not get elected by those in attendance at this year's gathering.
Mickey Edwards — who led the American Conservative Union, which organizes the event, for five years until 1983 — ripped Republicans attending this year's CPAC in Orlando for their devotion to former President Donald Trump.
In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Edwards likened the GOP to a cult whose members are living in an alternate reality.
Edwards served as a GOP representative for Oklahoma for 16 years until 1993 but quit the GOP in January following the deadly U.S. Capitol riot. The violence was perpetrated by a violent mob of Trump supporters who'd been whipped up by the then-president's lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
"The Republican party really no longer stands for any kind of principles, conservative or otherwise," Edwards told Burnett on Friday.
"The party seems now to be completely following the lead of one man wherever he goes, which is the definition of a cult," he continued. "Now all that matters is, 'Trump is for this, we're for this.' And that includes denying truth, denying fact, denying reality. It's such a disconnect from what's really happened in the world."
Edwards said Republicans speaking at this year's CPAC "are living in an alternate reality in which facts don't matter, the Constitution doesn't matter."
He also minced no words when commenting on current ACU chair Matt Schlapp, who has bought into Trump's mass voter fraud lie.
"He doesn't have the job that I used to have because when I was head of CPAC, it was a group that was based on conservative principles," said Edwards. "We were strong supporters of the Constitution. We believed in free elections. We believed in democracy. These people don't believe in any of those things."
"You know, they're no different than the people who flock to other totalitarian leaders in other countries," he added. "They're no different than they are in Hungary, they're no different than they used to be Germany. Whatever their great leader says, they do, and there's no underpinning of fact, there's no underpinning or concern about the norms of free democracy."
Edwards concluded that the CPAC of the Trump era is "not at all the same organization I led."
"Ronald Reagan could not get elected to anything by the people who were at that CPAC conference this year."
Tags
Who is online
142 visitors
Facts? We don't need no stinkin facts...
I know that I keep repeating myself, but...
Is it really any wonder the once Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln is now known merely as the gop?
It rhymes with slop and flop. Their party devolved!
To me, this says it all:
Trump does lend himself to the Pied Piper meme very well.
And the rats follow...
Reading about what some of the speakers said, it still sounds like nothing but a hate fest sprinkled with fear mongering.
After what happened at the capitol, they are still using the same rhetoric about fighters and having to fight others.
They are nothing but hatred personified.
The three stooges in the picture above gladly leading the way.
Amen!