It was one of the best parties I’ve been to in a long time–and everyone was there. Even the SoCons.
I have more pictures, I do. But what’s a girl to do about a thing like that? Social conservatives, partying it up with homosexuals . . . monkeys are flyin’, here.
UPDATE: Roger L. Simon gets it right; I was standing next to him when he showed me the picture he’d taken on his iPhone and said he had to get back so he could write about the event.
Does this indeed mean that libertarianism in its various strains is taking over the GOP? Again, that is possibly wishful thinking (and I wouldn’t want it to be that brand of libertarianism that seems to think the common defense can be accomplished with BB guns in someone’s garage), but there are indications across CPAC. Again, maybe this is anecdotal, but I’ve hardly heard much talk of abortion or other social issues at the conference — and when I have it seems vaguely discordant or anachronistic. Most people wanted to discuss the economy or the looming dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood. And, of course, who would be best to put Barack Obama out of office.
Now all this may emerge in another light in the next few days, but if this party is not a one-off, but at least a partial game changer, it will open up a whole new constituency for the GOP. The younger generation, watching Glee and living in a world very different from that of their fathers and mothers, does not see gayness as a sin but as a civil rights issue. Many of them brand the GOP as bigoted. Yet these same young people often see eye-to-eye with Republicans on government overspending to a degree that has imperiled our nation. They also recognize full well the threats from abroad from primitive extremists who endanger the rights of women, gays and everybody else and the necessity for our country to stand tall against them. In fact, these young people are the ones who will be doing the standing tall. Andrew Breitbart is opening the tent for them.
UPDATE 2: People are still fighting about this, and it’s a shame. AllahP asks the right question, though, for those who are put off not by Jimmy’s scrappiness but by having homosexuals here in the first place: do those who don’t want a gay presence at CPAC think we should exclude Dick Cheney? The man is no supporter of “traditional marriage,” after all . . .
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Dogs and cats living in the streets, mass hysteria!
Nice but parties don’t elect and defeat presidents….. at least not cocktail parties. The amazing statement here is “I’ve hardly heard much talk of abortion or other social issues at the conference.” Maybe that’s a consequence of a rare chance to see and talk with each other, but if it is a more fundamental change, you can’t swap out the gay conservatives with the pro-life set and come up with a net gain in membership and electoral clout.
I actually think most gay republicans are pro-life (she says, in her nit-pickiest fashion).