After experiencing government-run travel on Amtrak for 13 hours, with three overnight naps in a sitting position, Dissident Prof arrived at Union Station in Washington, D.C., around 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 8, to experience her first C-PAC.
After returning by plane, she mused: which form of travel is worse? A federal train system where no one checks the bathrooms in the middle of the night and where apparently some travelers can’t aim, or standing in the security line with a TSA agent barking orders to have boarding passes and ID’s out and ready, while images of Big Sis Napolitano beam at you from a screen behind her? If you grumble (as Dissident Prof did), you risk inviting suspicion from the uniformed goons who display the attitude that you travel at their pleasure. One of the sheep in front of Dissident Prof said, “Well, you probably wouldn’t want her job.”
Well, no. Nor would plastic-gloved authoritarians want to spend their weekends grading freshmen essays. Plus, they get paid a lot more.
Really, Dissident Prof remembers when employees were nice to customers and when flying was a special and dignified event.
The unpleasantness of government travel, however, was soon relieved by meeting up with Tina Trent, who had just produced an excellent, must-read report for America’s Survival, Inc., on the Soros-Funded War on Police.
The two intrepid researchers of brainwashers, provocateurs, ne’er do wells, and bomb throwers navigated their way to the Wardman Park Marriott, where they met up with ASI President Cliff Kincaid and award-winning blogger, Trevor Loudon, who knows what every subversive lefty in America is up to—and he does it from New Zealand! During the event, Dissident Prof spent a few hours helping to man the ASI booth and was awarded by Trevor with his must-read book, Barack Obama and the Enemies Within. Buy the book here.
Dissident Prof avoided the big speeches at C-PAC, partly because Dissident Profs care more about the ideas undergirding campaigns. She realizes that the speeches will change as the campaigns go on, as politicians attempt to garner votes. This proved true: as Rick Santorum enjoyed his wins in three primary states, Newt Gingrich backed off from making accusations and instead laid out a detailed plan, thereby impressing at least three attendees Dissident Prof spoke to over ice cream sundaes as they waited in a packed room for Representative Steve King and Phyllis Schlafly. Gingrich had been their third choice, but then they were impressed by his speech.
Dissident Prof did catch a bit of Mitt Romney’s speech in an overflow room as she left a session on “The Future of Conservative Education” sponsored by Regent University. Her view was disturbed, however, by a line of ten punks of about high school/college freshman age beneath the very presidential jaw on the giant screen. How dare they, she thought. But apparently their “statement” is more important than the right of citizens to listen to political candidates speak. And their statement printed on their t-shirts was to their brainwashed minds, no doubt, profound. Dissident Prof gives it to you in entirety: “If money is power, poverty is silence.” The best part is that they had their mouths taped shut with big bumper stickers that read “99%.”
Had they remained this way, Dissident Prof would not be complaining, for they represented that old Victorian rule that she approves of: children should be seen and not heard. A few of the men in suits and ear pieces, however, finally went up to discuss the inappropriateness of the behavior of these speakers of Truth-to-Power. It seemed to work to as they filed out quietly. Alas, once they reached the lobby they tore the stickers off their mouths and began chanting, “We are the 99%”. The young people, who made a good percentage of C-PAC attendees, then shouted back heartily, “We are the 1%” and “Get a job.”
The 1% reference was appropriate, for in a couple workshops Dissident Prof heard tales of conservative loneliness among the student body on our nation’s campuses.
Ideological loneliness, however, seemed to be leading to the wrong kind of camaraderie sometimes, for there has been some discussion on conservative sites about the dress and comportment of the young C-PAC attendees. Erick Erickson, dutifully assuming journalistic in loco parentis, did lecture the randy young men and scantily clad young women. Of course, there was pushback from Townhall columnist Laura Donovan, who legitimately took some critics to task for likening the girls to “two-bit whores.” Dissident Prof does not feel such harsh language is necessary, especially when there are few female role models for these girls—even on Fox News, where exposed cleavage is part of the uniform. She does wish the teenagers would cover themselves up, but was more concerned for the safety of 18-year-olds tottering on six-inch heels like preschoolers playing dress-up. Perhaps they believed that a gallant young Romney campaign volunteer would catch them in their arms as they toppled over from their oxygen-thin heights, but Dissident Prof does not believe that the code of chivalry requires such extreme measures.
Besides, conservatives are literally under siege by hordes of smelly barbarians, such as was the case when Occupiers tried to storm the back entrance of the hotel a couple times. On one of those instances conference-goers reported that exhibitors and security successfully held them back. The stiletto-heeled damsels might need to move quickly in such situations or even contribute to the defensive efforts.
Such are the times we live in! Dissident Prof lived through the race riots in her neighborhood and high school, but she never thought she’d see the day when the side that sermonizes on “civility” and “dialogue” winks and nods as the ignorant hordes agitate on their behalf. More is coming from them and their intellectual mentors, professors in law schools and elsewhere, as Tina reports.
The “Occupation” of C-PAC had the feel of a rehearsal.
It was definitely amateur hour.
One other group provided comic relief during a panel discussion when they came in trailing a huge banner calling Kris Kobach who is running for Kansas Attorney General a “racist”…because everyone who is committed to enforcing immigration laws is a racist, dontcha know. Laughing, audience members shouted out that the Occupiers struggling with the unruly banner were in the wrong room, and volunteers with bright red shirts ushered them out.
But these appeared to be a handful of duped (and doped) high school students. The dupers, funded by the likes of George Soros, have big plans for the warmer months of spring, when a young slacker’s fancies turn to revolution. While much of the media has been infusing their deliberately vague message with meaning, Tina has been digging up the dirt on them.
So be prepared. Read her report. Draw up the bridge. They are coming.
