Once Upon A Time... Republicans Were Moral

 A former chair of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday slammed what the event has now become, suggesting former President Ronald Reagan would not get elected by those in attendance at this year’s gathering.

Mickey Edwards — who led the American Conservative Union, which organizes the event, for five years until 1983 — ripped Republicans attending this year’s CPAC in Orlando for their devotion to former President Donald Trump.

In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Edwards likened the GOP to a cult whose members are living in an alternate reality.

Edwards served as a GOP representative for Oklahoma for 16 years until 1993 but quit the GOP in January following the deadly U.S. Capitol riot. The violence was perpetrated by a violent mob of Trump supporters who’d been whipped up by the then-president’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

“The Republican party really no longer stands for any kind of principles, conservative or otherwise,” Edwards told Burnett on Friday.

“The party seems now to be completely following the lead of one man wherever he goes, which is the definition of a cult,” he continued. “Now all that matters is, ‘Trump is for this, we’re for this.’ And that includes denying truth, denying fact, denying reality. It’s such a disconnect from what’s really happened in the world.”

Edwards said Republicans speaking at this year’s CPAC “are living in an alternate reality in which facts don’t matter, the Constitution doesn’t matter.”

He also minced no words when commenting on current ACU chair Matt Schlapp, who has bought into Trump’s mass voter fraud lie.

“He doesn’t have the job that I used to have because when I was head of CPAC, it was a group that was based on conservative principles,” said Edwards. “We were strong supporters of the Constitution. We believed in free elections. We believed in democracy. These people don’t believe in any of those things.”

“You know, they’re no different than the people who flock to other totalitarian leaders in other countries,” he added. “They’re no different than they are in Hungary, they’re no different than they used to be Germany. Whatever their great leader says, they do, and there’s no underpinning of fact, there’s no underpinning or concern about the norms of free democracy.”

Edwards concluded that the CPAC of the Trump era is “not at all the same organization I led.”

“Ronald Reagan could not get elected to anything by the people who were at that CPAC conference this year.”

Watch the full interview here:

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A Cowardly Cult Of Personality

Fellow Patriots, I want to share a definition with you: “A cult of personality arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.” – Wikipedia Sound familiar? This weekend, as Adam Schiff was preparing to speak at the California Democratic convention, he came to the conclusion that one of the most disturbing aspects of the Trump presidency has been the fact that the GOP has allowed itself to become a cult of personality around their dear leader, Donald Trump. The president repeatedly cries “witch hunt” and attacks law enforcement and intelligence officials over the investigation into Russian interference in our elections. Republicans look away. The president calls our free press “the enemy of the people,” labeling any media outlet who reports negative news about him “fake news,” as journalists face growing threats of violence. Republicans look away. The president and his family profits off of the presidency, turning Mar-a-Lago into the informal White House where Trump golfs with foreign leaders and taxpayers foot the bill. Republicans look away. The president is cozying up to dictators and talking like them, suggesting his political opponents be jailed, ignoring the Constitution and “joking” about being “president for life.” Republicans look away. There are hundreds of other examples. It would be bad enough if corrupt Republicans just looked away from these red flags. But it’s actually worse than that. Increasingly, they’re cheering on the president as he pursues ever more callous and disastrous policies. When Trump tries to repeal healthcare for millions of Americans. When he introduces cruel immigration policies to separate families. When he gives trillions in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest few instead of the working Americans they were elected to represent. Courage is contagious, but clearly so is cowardice. These actions are not okay. They will never be okay. And when this presidency is over, and his cruel, amoral policies have been confined to the dustbin of history, it will be up to us to repair the damage and restore America’s place as leader of the free world. And we will. The Republican Party has chosen the cult of personality over duty to country, but our commitment to American values is stronger than ever. We will finish what we started in 2018. We will keep our Democratic majority in the House, and take back both the Senate and White House in 2020. What’s more, we will reclaim our country. With your help, we will go forth again into every state, every precinct, every household, every heart, and deliver such a convincing end to Trump and Trumpism that we will never be plagued by it or anything like it ever again.