CPAC - the Conservative Political Action Conference - is in town. It's like a circus, except all the animals are elephants, and they're all white (with a special guest appearance by Herman Cain). There's a lot of energy here (relatively speaking, considering the average age), with participants eager to propel the Republican party...um... backwards. But the realities on the ground do not bode well for their agenda, nor their future.

To be accurate, this is a conservative conference, not a Republican conference. But for some time now, it has been the defacto Republican strategizing session (even though there IS a Conservative party - it is even less effectual than the Libertarian party). Republican leaders tend to be the speakers, and we can assume that all of the Republican presidential candidates have or will make an appearance. Also making appearances are people like Grover Norquist, et al. The attendees seem to understand their chances this election:
(bold-face mine)

So in other words - because of their desire to beat Obama because he's violating our Constitutional rights, they want the party to pick someone else at the convention other than those the party faithful voted for. Ironic much?

But even more interesting is who is and who is not invited:

In last year, Out this year:
Log Cabin Republicans
John Birch Society

In this year:
white nationalist Peter Brimelow
white nationalist Robert Vandervoort

So out with the pink 300 thread count sheets, and in with the white sheets... with hoods. Yeah, THAT should help.

What will be interesting is to see the results of their presidential "straw poll" this year for who they want the presidential candidate to be. If you recall, Ron Paul won it the last two times. That was quite the embarrassment for the party who thinks of him as the nutty uncle who sits in the comfy chair and mutters to himself.

So what does it say about a conservative conference that allies itself with the Republican party, invites white supremacists to host a panel on "multi-culturalism", would rather have Anyone Else as their presidential candidate, and picks the pseudo-Libertarian as their preferred candidate? What does it say about the Republican party?

To me it says they have been so busy playing politics, so busy being the Anti-Democrats, that they no longer know who they are or what they stand for. Sure they'll say they stand for "going back to the Constitutional values that made this country great" or some other empty rhetoric, but from a tire-meets-the-ground standpoint: what do they stand for? What can they offer the American people?

Perhaps it's time they wander in the wilderness and reassess themselves. They can't do that when they're constantly in political mode and in front of the cameras. It would be better for them and better for the country if they stopped being the Anti-Dem and started being for something concrete.