Mona Charen: Party

“I’ve been a conservative my entire life…. So you’d think that the. We built and organized this party — but now we’re made to feel like interlopers.”

Mona Charen

2010s, 2018, I'm Glad I Got Booed at CPAC (2018)

Life , Feeling , Thinking

“Like the Republican Party, CPAC has become heavily Trumpified. … So it has come to this: a conservative group whose worst fault in years past may have been excessive flat tax enthusiasm now opens its doors to the blood and soil nationalists of Europe.”

Mona Charen

I'm Glad I Got Booed at CPAC (2018)

Past

“I am disappointed in people on our side for being hypocrites about sexual harassers and abusers of women, who are in our party, who are sitting in the White House, who brag about their extramarital affairs, who brag about mistreating women—and because he happens to have an "R" next to his name we look the other way…This is a party that endorsed Roy Moore for the Senate in the State of Alabama even though he was a credibly accused child molester. You cannot claim that you stand for women and put up with that…Speaking of bad guys, there was quite an interesting person who was on this stage the other day. Her name is Marion Le Pen. Now, why was she here? Why was she here? She’s a young, no-longer-in-office politician from France. I think the only reason she was here is because she’s named Le Pen. And the Le Pen name is a disgrace. Her grandfather (Jean-Marie Le Pen) is a racist and a Nazi. She claims that she stands for him. And the fact that CPAC invited her is a disgrace.”

Mona Charen

As quoted in "Trump’s Takeover of Conservatism Is Complete and Total" https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/25/donald-trump-conservatism-cpac-2018-217081 (25 February 2018), by Tim Alberta, Politico

Women , People , Disappointment , Way

“But this time, and particularly in front of this crowd, it felt far more urgent to point out the hypocrisy of our side. How can conservative women hope to have any credibility on the subject of sexual harassment or relations between the sexes when they excuse the behavior of President Trump? And how can we participate in any conversation about sexual ethics when the Republican president and the Republican Party backed a man (Roy Moore) credibly accused of child molestation for the United States Senate? I watched my fellow panelists’ eyes widen. And then the booing began. I’d been dreading it for days, but when it came, I almost welcomed it. There is nothing more freeing than telling the truth. And it must be done, again and again, by those of us who refuse to be absorbed into this brainless, sinister, clownish thing called Trumpism, by those of us who refuse to overlook the fools, frauds and fascists attempting to glide along in his slipstream into respectability. I spoke to a hostile audience for the sake of every person who has watched this spectacle of mendacity in disbelief and misery for the past two years. Just hearing the words you know are true can serve as ballast, steadying your mind when so much seems unreal.”

Mona Charen

I'm Glad I Got Booed at CPAC (2018)

Women , Hostility , Truth , Hope

“I’ve been a conservative my entire life. … So you’d think that the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, would be a natural fit. It once was. But on Saturday, after speaking to this year’s gathering, I had to be escorted from the premises by several guards who seemed genuinely concerned for my safety. What happened to me at CPAC is the perfect illustration of the collective experience of a whole swath of conservatives since Donald Trump became the Republican nominee. We built and organized this party — but now we’re made to feel like interlopers.”

Mona Charen

I'm Glad I Got Booed at CPAC (2018)

Nature , Perfection , Thinking , Life