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February 08, 2012 4:54 PM Pas D’Enemmi a Droite

By Ed Kilgore

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It appears a likely collision with Occupy DC members will not be the only source of controversy for the activists gathering to beat the drums and vet the candidates at CPAC ‘12, the American Conservative Union’s annual gathering of the wingnut tribes in Washington that kicks off tomorrow. Via the vigilent folk at People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch, we learn that this year’s CPAC will include in the Big Tent an interesting array of people who may be clinically questionable:

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, along with several Republican senators and congressmen, are set to appear at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference, but the GOP brass aren’t the only ones set to be at CPAC. As we’ve previously reported, CPAC will play host to anti-gay groups such as the Family Research Council, the birther leader of WorldNetDaily, and the Apartheid-nostalgic Youth for Western Civilization.
But that isn’t all.
Following speeches from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Michele Bachmann, CPAC is hosting the panel “The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity” with Peter Brimelow, the founder and head of VDARE.com.

Oh my. RWW calls Brimelow’s group “white nationalist,” but even if you lean over backwards to doubt that term, it’s reasonably clear VDARE has a pretty unwholesome preoccupation with the declining honkitude of American demography, culture and politics.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for CPAC sponsors and attendees to get defensive about VDARE. Best I can recall, the biggest recent controversies about the inclusiveness of CPAC involve heartburn about gays and Muslims being in the house. Maybe that will change, but on the other hand, this is a time when movement conservatives continue to fret that their presidential field is feeling insufficient pressure from the starboard flank. Besides, when pressed, CPAC attendees can always change the subject to their horrible persecution by the dirty hippies of Occupy.

UPDATE: Should have probably explained that the title of this post is a play on the old Popular Front slogan: “Pas d’ennemi a gauche!” (No enemies to the left!). Sorry for getting pointy-headed on you, particularly in French. Don’t worry, I’m hardly fluent.

Ed Kilgore is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly. He is is managing editor for The Democratic Strategist, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, and a Special Correspondent for The New Republic.
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Comments

  • kindness on February 08, 2012 5:25 PM:

    Where is Tim Leary when you need someone to spike the punch?

  • MuddyLee on February 08, 2012 5:39 PM:

    And repubs accuse Obama of being a "socialist" - I guess extremism in the defense of extremism is no vice...

  • Arlington BigFish on February 08, 2012 5:47 PM:

    "Declining honkitude...."? Man, I love the way you turn a phrase.

  • Ken D. on February 08, 2012 6:07 PM:

    Ditto Arlington BigFish, and it's a Google-certified original coinage. Good coining.

  • threegoal on February 08, 2012 6:47 PM:

    I came just to "like" "Declining honkitude" myself. A major winner I hope to hear used more.

  • Celui on February 08, 2012 7:22 PM:

    Mon cher Edouard, Bienvenue au WaMO! Mais gare au français (la langue et pas les hommes): c'est Ğl'ennemiğ (deux n), et pas Ğenemmiğ. Merci. On ne veut jamais tromper Willard, celui qui fait un effort à prononcer le français.

  • berttheclock on February 08, 2012 7:27 PM:

    "Declining honktitude" - What? Archie Bunker moved out of the neighborhood before George Jefferson did? Or did Chevy Chase walk off the "SNL" set before Richard Pryor?

  • barkleyg on February 08, 2012 7:36 PM:

    "Sorry for getting pointy-headed on you, particularly in French. "

    LIBERALS don't have to Apologize for knowing FRENCH!

    Congrats Ed: No matter what anybody else might say, the previous will Always make you a LIBERAL to me, just like ME!

  • Kathryn on February 08, 2012 7:50 PM:

    What says CPAC more than a White Nationalist Group?

  • chopin on February 08, 2012 8:12 PM:

    What Celui said. I think :-) Something about tromping Willard the MittShit in his jammies?

  • Patango on February 09, 2012 12:53 AM:

    Now the dems can openly call the GOP "bigots" in the news papers and on tv right ? If not , why not? We get to here the GOP call us FOOD STAMP PRESIDENT , COMMEY SOCIALIST , WE HATE THE FREE MARKET , PRO ABORTIONIST , TERRORIST SUPPORTERS , ANTI CHRIST'S.......

    The dems need to put on their big boy pants , take the gloves off , and stick it to these bigoted turnip heads , stop letting the hate groups have the moral high ground for crying out loud!!!!

  • Frank Wilhoit on February 09, 2012 7:16 AM:

    The French phrase you need to know is "le politique du pire".

  • Sgt. Gym Bunny on February 09, 2012 10:28 AM:

    declining honkitude

    What a colorful expression, Ed. I give you 50,000 points.

    For the right, who seem to always be grabbing their smelling salts for all the perceived lefty-librul offenses and insults carried out daily in the lefty-librul media, they have absolutely no shame in the kind of offenses they will hawk to remain relevant... "Big Tent" material it definitely ain't. More like side show material...

  • robert mcclellan on February 09, 2012 1:19 PM:

    For those that don’t know Virginia Dare was the first white woman born in America, her name and Kathy Ainsworth were the two most popular names for the KKK’s women’s auxiliaries.