If you’re part of the inside-the-beltway conservative cabal, the biggest event of the year is happening right now.
It’s called CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The event has been going on in Washington, D.C. since 1973, when the American Conservative Union hosted an event with Young Americans for Freedom.
It’s been going strong ever since with attendance hitting the 10,000 mark in recent years.
The problem with the event is that it’s turn into a young conservative’s version of a rave. The place is overrun by college kids wearing blue blazer’s and hoping to be the next Sean Hannity.
Other than the kids, the elder conservatives use it as their annual reunion as they hold onto the belief that they still influence a large swath of the electorate.
Understanding the lack of benefit to the event, Donald Trump announced a day before his speaking slot on Saturday (one of the worst slots someone can be given) that he won’t be attending the event.
The snub immediately turned into a firestorm.
The likely winner of the GOP nomination will snub the conference.
In recent memory, the only likely GOP nominee to skip the event was George W. Bush in 2004.
Trump snub is an indicator of the waning influence of the self-anointed holders of conservative values.
While Ted Cruz will be taking the stage in a prime speaking slot, frontrunner Donald Trump is better off playing to a crowd of 15,000 of his own making.
Consider 2016 as the start of the death of the GOP Establishment, but also the aging elders of the a conservative movement that has been ineffective for the last 40 years.