One of the first speeches at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference challenged the media to stop referring to the “alt-right,” a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state and that strongly backed Donald Trump for president, as conservative.
“There is a sinister organization that is trying to warp its way into our ranks,” said Dan Schneider, the executive director of the American Conservative Union, which runs CPAC. “We must not be deceived by [a] hateful, left-wing fascist group.”
Over a few confusing minutes, Schneider argued that the “alt-right,” a term coined then popularized by the National Policy Institute’s Richard Spencer, was philosophically left-wing because it departed from his definition of conservatism, in which “the individual” is sovereign.
“They hate the Constitution. They hate free markets. They hate pluralism,” Schneider said. “Fascists tend to want big government control.”
The argument wasn’t unique — in “Liberal Fascism,” the National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg drew a zigging line from the fascism of the 1930s to the welfare state liberalism of the Clinton/Obama era. But it made little impact in the conference’s main ballroom, and a few listeners walked out.
One of the walkouts came from Richard Spencer himself, who attracted such a large crowd of reporters that security staff asked him to move away from the entrance, which was rapidly being blocked. More and more cameras and recorders were shoved toward Spencer as he reminded reporters that the self-appointed guardians of conservatism had trusted Trump long after the alt-right had.
“ ‘Donald Trump isn’t a conservative’ — that’s what they were saying a year ago,” said Spencer.
As the throng of reporters moved, Spencer was stopped by JP Sheehan, a CPAC attendee wearing a black-and-gold Make America Great Again baseball cap.
“Praise kek!” said Sheehan, posing for a selfie with Spencer and repeating a meme that had been adopted by the alt-right. “He’s the coolest guy.”