2017 CPAC Will Take Place February 22-25

The 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of right-wing politicians and activists, will take place on February 22-25 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD. Sponsored by Heritage Foundation, Liberty Health Share, and the National Rifle Association, this year's CPAC will feature multiple members of the Trump administration as speakers, including President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Stephen Bannon, and Reince Priebus. To everyone's relief, the gathering will not feature Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos.

I always find amusement in the workshop listings of right-wing conferences, which blatantly give away a conference's agenda. This year's CPAC will feature the following workshops and panel discussions:

• If Heaven Has a Gate, a Wall, and Extreme Vetting, Why Can't America?


• Trigger Warnings & Safe Spaces: Campus Activism in a PC Age


• Facts, Not Feelings: Snowflakes, Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings


• When Did WWIII Begin? Threats At Home


• Is BDS BS? The Left's Attack on Israel


• Implications of the Energy Renaissance Given to Us by Hydraulic Fracturing in America


• Hush: Abortion's Effects on Women the Pro-Choice Lobby Doesn't Want You To Know


• How Did the Left Capture Education and How Do We Get It Back?

Let's not ignore the book signings! The titles alone are good for a snicker.

• Book Signing: Burgess Owens, Liberalism or How to Turn Good Men Into Whiners, Weenies and Wimps


• Book Signing: Michael Medved, The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic


• Book Signing: Ashley McGuire, Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish Male and Female


• Book Signing: Matt Margolis, The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama

I was surprised to see a workshop on the agenda entitled "The Alt Right Ain't Right at All", hosted by Dan Schneider of the American Conservative Union. Given that the former chairman of Breitbart News is scheduled to speak at CPAC, and the conference agenda features multiple Breitbart contributors, isn't such a workshop incongruent with the rest of the conference's content? Does the presence of this workshop indicate internal division among right-wing leaders over the increased visibility of the alt-right in their movement? Is it an attempt by some conservatives to distance themselves from the alt-right? Until we know more about its content, it's difficult to say.

On one hand, the content of 2017 CPAC matches that of previous CPACs, in that its workshops and books reflect the usual anti-liberal, anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ themes. With Trump and company headlining the conference, and with deep political divisions growing deeper in America, what fresh ugliness can we expect from this week's event?