As the Conservative Political Action Conference held its annual gathering in National Harbor, Maryland, a small group of dissident Republicans opposed to President Trump gathered nearby.
The weekend event in Washington, D.C., the Summit on Principled Conservatism, primarily featured dissident Republican voices on a variety of panels. The voices sought to define the principles they believe ought to be “conserved,” encouraging conferencegoers to reject Trump’s populist messages that were getting the spotlight at CPAC.
Top Never Trumper Bill Kristol chided younger generations who engage in “totally unmerited boasting” about “American exceptionalism,” as it is used today, attributing the country’s greatness to those in the past who exhibited a “healthy conservatism.”
“We didn’t create an exceptional nation. We didn’t found the country. We didn’t write the Constitution. We didn’t fight, deliberate to end slavery,” Kristol said. The editor-at-large of the Bulwark invoked French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, who, in his view, once criticized the “boastful patriotism” of Americans.
“Nothing is more annoying … than this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A foreigner will gladly agree to praise much in their country, but he would like to be allowed to criticize something, and that he is absolutely refused,” de Tocqueville said. Though Kristol said he believes in American exceptionalism, the principle requires the conservation of elements from classical liberalism, including “liberal democracy,” “constitutional government,” and “individual opportunity” while “not succumbing… to a kind of authoritarian, nativist strand of European conservatism” exhibited by Trump.
Before Trump’s rise to the presidency, Kristol was regarded as a leading conservative voice, championing Bush-era neoconservatism as an editor-at-large at the Weekly Standard. In 2015, Trump courted Kristol for his endorsement in the presidential election, but the relationship between the two dwindled after Trump took shots at Arizona Sen. John McCain’s war record. Since then, Kristol has become the face of the Never Trump movement, telling conference attendees over the weekend that he will always be “Never Trump.”
The first panel at the summit on Saturday attempted to answer a central question: What is “principled conservatism?”
“How did the crazies take over the movement? Is there anything left of the principled conservatism that we thought had underlaid the conservative revolution?” Bulwark editor-in-chief Charlie Sykes said.
Some panelists tailored their answers to matters of public policy, and some answered from the perspective of conservatism as a “sensibility” while others used their time to attack the modern conservative movement. Mona Charen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, introduced the idea that civilization is an “accomplishment,” though one that is constantly “fragile.”
“We rely upon norms, institutions, rules, and laws to keep our society healthy,” Charen said, a principle other panelists said Trump blatantly disregards. Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist, channeled this sentiment with a more belligerent tone after being confronted by Will Chamberlain, editor-in-chief of Human Events, for his insults about Trump voters. “You embraced a guy who shits on the rule of law of the Constitution … and if I call you a name, tough,” Wilson said to Chamberlain.
“Donald Trump is a nationalist populist with a psychological disorder that leads him to be both mendacious and narcissistic in equal measures, and that is something I think the founders were terrified that we would produce someone like that,” Wilson said earlier in the panel, adding that Trump would “give into delusions of monarchy.”
In Maryland, CPAC was a far more boisterous event where speakers decried socialism, lauded the actions of the Trump administration, and harped on current events such as the coronavirus outbreak. Trump and many of his supporters made an appearance and were well received. In 2019, more than 19,000 people were present at the conference, and the number is anticipated to be higher for its 2020 conference.
In the entrance of the Principled Conservatism Summit, where about 200 people gathered on the 12th floor of the National Press Club, Post-it notes could be seen stuck to walls and windows with complaints about the existing conservative movement. “Putting #PrinciplesFirst means… ” read a blank white poster, giving those in attendance the chance to finish the thought. “Not governing by tweet,” “character matters all the time,” and “political cults are for Banana Republics,” read a few of the notes.
Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said the disposition conservatives are supposed to have includes recognizing the “inherent human dignity” of others, not the “dehumanization of other people with whom we disagree.”
Wehner mentioned 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, which was once copied by President George Washington as a handwriting exercise, arguing it reflects the conservative “sensibility.”
Populism was a central idea nearly every speaker vehemently opposed because of its ability to enable despotism and statism. Wehner argued that “conservatism historically has been resistant to the dangers of populism.” David Frum, senior editor at the Atlantic, gave nearly an hour talk to attendees on how to “confront nationalist populism.”
By and large, conservatives present at the summit opposed the populism associated with Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, fearing the future of the country should either candidate win the election in 2020.
Speakers, including Charen and Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor at National Review, addressed the idea of “zombie Reaganism,” a common criticism shared by Trump-supporting conservatives to describe the ideology of Never Trump Republicans as outdated.
“There is some sense in the phrase, the idea being that the agenda of 1981 can’t be the agenda of conservatives today,” Ponnuru said, adding that the conservative agenda of old “no longer inspired people.”
