NEWS AND OPINION:
The clarion call has gone out: The four-day Conservative Political Action Conference — affectionately known as CPAC — is now on the calendar, set for Feb. 24-27 in Orlando, Florida.
From a historical perspective, this is the 48th CPAC — the first event was staged by the American Conservative Union in 1974 and counted Ronald Reagan as its keynote speaker that year. It is now the largest gathering of conservatives in the nation, according to the host organization.
There’s a timely mission afoot, however — made clear by Matt Schlapp, the group’s current chairman.
“2022 is a pivotal year for our nation, with congressional elections that will determine the direction we take. We will be at CPAC making the case for decisively ending the lockdowns, empowering parents in their children’s education, and protecting individual liberty,” Mr. Schlapp said in a statement.
“We can take a bold stand for liberty in 2022, and it all starts with CPAC as the kickoff event on the pathway to victory in November,” he advised.
The big doings include the annual Reagan Dinner — described as “the year’s best networking opportunity for conservatives” according to a public outreach.
Registration is open for the convention, which has drawn some 10,000 attendees in recent years and typically sells out.
“We will not be canceled,” the outreach advised.
Find information at Conservative.org.
AND FROM A HUMORIST COMES THIS
Dave Barry — a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 30 humor books and a syndicated column for the Miami Herald — has weighed in on 2021. The lengthy, month-by-month examines what went on in the last 12 months.
Here’s a partial entry for December published by the aforementioned newspaper.
“President Biden, in a reassuring address to the nation on his strategy for dealing with a potential winter coronavirus surge, urges Americans to ‘do what it says on the teleprompter.’ Meanwhile the news media, performing their vital, constitutionally protected function of terrifying the public, run story after story documenting the relentless advance of omicron, with headlines like ‘First Omicron Case Reported in Japan,’ ‘Omicron Now Reported In California,’ ‘Omicron Heading Your Way,’ OMICRON IS IN YOUR ATTIC RIGHT NOW,’ etcetera,” he advised.
“In federal-budget news, congressional leaders, facing what we are required, by the rules of professional journalism, to describe as a Looming Deadline, work feverishly to prevent an unprecedented partial shutdown of the government for the 27th or 28th time. Finally they hammer out a deal under which the government will be temporarily funded via a loan from an individual named Vinny, to be repaid in cash by Feb. 18 or else Vinny takes legal possession of the nuclear aircraft carrier of his choice. No, that would be insane. Although not as insane as the way we actually fund the federal government,” Mr. Barry noted.
WHEN WILL COVID END?
Veteran pollster Scott Rasmussen has asked an unsettling question.
“Pessimism about the pandemic is growing again. Just 29% of voters now believe that the worst of the pandemic is behind us. That’s down three percentage points from two weeks ago and 14 percentage points from a month ago,” Mr. Rasmussen said in an analysis of a new survey of 1,200 registered U.S. voters he conducted Dec. 14-15.
It found that 40% now believe the worst is yet to come; 29% say the worst is “behind us” and 32% are not sure where we are.
Another 11% of voters said the pandemic will never end, 11% surmised it will last several more years, 5% said the pandemic is over and 3% said the pandemic itself was a hoax.
“Perceptions about the pandemic have varied. When the lockdowns first began, a majority of voters believed the pandemic would end by Memorial Day 2020, In 2021, optimism rose when the vaccines became available. By May, 56% believed the worst was behind us,” the analysis said.
“Confidence fell over the summer with the arrival of the delta variant. By July, just 28% still believed the worst had already come and gone. Confidence began to grow again in early October before falling again in November. Voters are clearly frustrated with both the pandemic itself and the government response to it,” the analysis noted.
LEAVING BLUE STATES BEHIND
Not long ago, Clay Travis — cohost of the nationally syndicated “Clay Travis-Buck Sexton Radio Show” — pointed out that the current U.S. Census found that Democrat-controlled states were losing residents.
More than 350,000 New Yorkers left the Empire State in 2021 and California lost nearly 370,000 residents. In total, about 1 million people departed blue states in 2021.
“These are the states that added population: Texas, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Tennessee, Idaho, and Nevada. Almost all of those states are red states. What is going on here?” Mr. Travis asked during the broadcast.
“The majority of these internal migrants are as strong advocates for conservatism and our founding principles as the original residents. In uprooting themselves and making the trek across the country to start a new life, they have demonstrated that,” wrote Epoch Times columnist Roger Simon in response.
“They also demonstrate it by their actions when they arrive, very often joining, or even helping found, organizations to protect constitutionally republican government that can be in jeopardy even in red states from the left or from local RINOs. That’s been my observation, but of course I am biased because I am one of them,” he said.
And “RINO” — in case you are unfamiliar with the acronym — stands for “Republican in Name Only.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 41% of U.S. adults say U.S. Congress is accomplishing “less than usual”; 62% of Republicans, 42% of independents and 26% of Democrats agree.
• 42% of this group blame Democrats; 74% of Republicans, 36% of independents and 7% of Democrats agree.
• 37% of this group blame Democrats and Republicans equally; 22% of Republicans, 48% of independents and 28% of Democrats agree.
• 18% blame Republicans; 2% of Republicans, 13% of independents and 61% of Democrats agree.
• 2% are not sure; 2% of Republicans, 2% of independents and 2% of Democrats agree.
• 1% blame neither party; 0% of Republicans, 0% of independents and 1% of Democrats agree.
SOURCE: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. citizens.
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