This week, CPAC â the Conservative Political Action Conference founded in 1974 â will lay siege to Orlando instead of Washington, D.C., amid a global pandemic that has, as of this week, taken a staggering 500,000 American lives. Hopes of mask-wearing and social distancing seem as likely as a panel on the return to fiscal conservatism. (I checked. There isnât one.)
As a young, up-and-coming movement conservative, I attended this conference a number of years, spoke on panels, signed books and autographs, posed for pictures, did radio row. It was an opportunity to network, socialize and gain exposure, and I usually enjoyed it.