Posted on 02/23/2017 5:23:12 AM PST by Kaslin
I don’t know Milo Yiannopoulos, and I don’t really want to know him. I know he worked for Breitbart News and is a provocateur. I don’t know if Andrew Breitbart ever met him, but neither I nor any other of Andrew’s friends I know remember him mentioning Milo.
When I heard Yiannopoulos was speaking at CPAC, the annual Washington conference for the conservative movement, I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised he had been selected as the keynote speaker.
CPAC has problems in non-election years attracting big names in quantity. This year’s event was scheduled during a congressional recess, so even fewer members of Congress will attend. That leaves large holes in the agenda of a three-day conference. Not to make a double entendre here, but those holes have to be filled.
Simple math dictated this year’s speakers list would lack the star power of last year’s. Last year, there were more than a dozen Republicans running for president. This year, there is President Trump, who will speak, as well as Vice-President Mike Pence and a great many administration officials. That’s a dozen or so out of roughly 100 speaking spots, and none will deliver the keynote speech or closing remarks.
With arguably the two biggest stars on the political right out for those two important slots, a scramble was almost assured.
CPAC disputes he was to be the keynote speaker, but all the stories announcing his participation reported he was – and there was no pushback from the organization to those stories.
Whatever was going to be Yiannopoulos’ role, he did not deserve either of those slots. It’s a “conservative” conference, and Yiannopoulos himself says he’s not a conservative; he’s more of a libertarian, which is a meaningless label now thanks to a rudderless libertarian movement.
Milo seems to be someone who enjoys pushing liberals’ buttons. I’m all for that. But there’s more to politics than simply making people mad. Anyone can make people mad. The skill comes in when you do it for a reason – to expose hypocrisy or advance a larger agenda.
Andrew Breitbart probably was the best at getting a reaction from leftists and exposing their hypocrisy. He didn’t do it by simply saying things he knew would set them off. He did it by setting traps and patiently waiting for liberals to walk right into them.
The ACORN videos were the perfect example of this. The release was slow-walked masterfully. They had a plan – I was told of it a month before the first video saw the light of day – and they executed it to maximum effect.
Before I’d even seen the videos, they were described to me by Andrew and then-Big Government editor Mike Flynn. I figured they’d all be dumped at once, overwhelming the left with disgusting proof of ACORN’s condoning of underage prostitution. That would have destroyed ACORN, but it would not have had the lasting impact the videos ended up having.
Andrew knew as soon as one was released the left would declare it an anomaly, an “isolated incident.” Democrats and media would follow suit. Then, another video would appear, and the pattern would repeat. Andrew knew liberals would hang themselves if he dripped them out one at a time. They’d have to eventually condemn ACORN, but they’d be exposed as frauds willing to excuse the inexcusable if they can get away with it for a few weeks. That’s exactly what happened.
It may not always have seemed like it, but there was a method to Andrew’s madness. The same can’t be said for Yiannopoulos.
Aside from being British, part Jewish, and a gay man who loves black men, I don’t know who Milo is. And I have no idea what he wants to accomplish beyond getting more people angry, making money and selling more books (which has now been canceled).
Anyone can make people angry, but that anger should be a means, not an end. With Yiannopoulos, that appears to be his brand. CPAC should have known this. A simple Internet search would have told anyone that. But they couldn’t be bothered.
CPAC’s leadership came off as the square old guy at the club who wants to appear cool so he speaks in hashtags to impress the young people. Their goal should have been to advance conservative principles; the only “hip” they should worry about is not breaking theirs.
CPAC has a brand to protect, and its mission is supposed to do just that. Instead its leaders opted for what they saw as easy pickings; a way to glom onto someone else’s popularity without understanding why he is popular. After 24 hours, they learned the hard way and uninvited Yiannopoulos. Like so many other aspects of the conservative movement, it was a self-inflicted wound.
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union Chairman and the head of CPAC, announced Milo as a speaker saying, “We think free speech includes hearing Milo’s important perspective.” Without knowing Milo’s perspective, he pronounced it “important.” That was dumb.
I have no problem with the concept of Milo speaking at CPAC as one of dozens of speakers. It’s not a safe space. A wide variety of opinions should be expressed there. But for someone to be elevated to “important,” he needs to actually be important. Or at least known and vetted. It was dumb not to.
That’s was CPAC’s biggest mistake – you don’t associate with someone you haven’t vetted. No matter what you think of Milo, if you’re running an organization bigger than any one individual, you’d better make damn sure you check out the people you imbue with the reputation of that organization.
Milo had to be dropped as much for the failure of CPAC’s leadership to look into what he says as for the failure to prepare for the backlash having him would create. If they had thought three moves ahead like Andrew Breitbart, rather than just about buzz and ticket sales, they could have avoided this embarrassment. They didn’t, and the damage done to the CPAC brand is their fault.
I’ve said this too many times, but conservatives are still horrible at messaging. It’s hard to advance your message when the biggest problems you face are of your own doing. Perhaps it’s time CPAC and the ACU got new leadership that not only understands this, but acts accordingly as well.
Derek Hunter should give the keynote. The audience would be massive.
How picking a flaming homosexual is a conservative value is beyond stupid.
I am wondering if this guy checked his facts. I am pretty sure Milo was never scheduled to be the keynote speaker. That is Michael Reagan.
I suspect the Milo invitation was a set-up. At a minimum, it was used to get maximum publicity for the attempt to bring down Milo.
The idea that he was given the keynote spot as a way to set-up the takedown seems credible.
*************
Articles stating Milo as keynoter
They may be only specualtion but it was talked about.
Who is Derek Hunter? Never heard of him. All three of my daughters (all college aged) know who milo is. Case closed.
CPAC is the Erik Ericson,Glenn Beck wing of the party, Trump should skip like last year
CPAC’s ‘1776 Man’ Planning Mass Walkout during Trump Speech
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/432318/donald-trumps-cpac-speech-activist-plans-walkout
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/432318/donald-trumps-cpac-speech-activist-plans-walkout
I think that’s exactly right. If CPAC could bring down Trump himself, they would.
> How picking a flaming homosexual is a conservative value is beyond stupid.
That’s why I never hopped on the Milo train.
“CPAC is the Erik Ericson,Glenn Beck wing of the party...”
Yep. They have gone down hill, real fast. Just like the Boy Scouts, they have totally caved on the militant homosexual agenda and have accepted illegal alien invaders.
The Heritage Foundation is where you will find true, conservative leadership.
Derek Hunter should do more homework before he writes hit pieces about people he knows nothing about. Had he viewed one of Milo's campus "events", he would know that Milo does an exceptional job of exposing the hypocrisy of the left.
When the left's agitators react to what Milo does by rioting and destroying property, while denying free speech, they cause more people to join our side.
Milo has done more to promote the right side than Hunter, and others like him, will do in a lifetime.
He is simply an infiltrator using the movement to line his pockets. People have gone gaga because we have ONE homo claiming to be conservative.
During the first few years of the Reagan Administration, there was an ongoing conflict between the conservative and moderate wings of the GOP. Especially after the assassination attempt on President Reagan, conservative stalwarts like James Watt and David Stockman resigned, and the moderates, led by James Baker and then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, became dominant. The conservative establishment would like to push out or destroy the inner circle around Trump, surrounding him with war hawks, supporters of multilateral trade treaties, and compromisers. Flynn and Yiannopoulos are down, perhaps tomorrow it will be Steve Bannon or Matt Drudge.
The liberals are fine with a neo-con palace coup neutering Trump. If he fails to fulfill his campaign promises, he will be easy to defeat in 2020, as long as the Democrats do not run Hillary Clinton or someone equally shrill, like Eiizabeth Warren.
Never heard of this guy. He must be the latest voice of the cuckservative movement. Hopefully his 15 minutes of fame will end soon.
One of the few things that CPAC has gotten right lately WAS inviting Milo to speak. The plain truth is that most people don’t know or care about CPAC. Milo would have brought plenty of new eyes. CPAC, like most cuckservative organizations, folded quickly and completely the moment that the merest whiff of controversy headed their way.
The good news is that Evan McMullin is likely still available to speak and he represents a much better fit with what CPAC stands for. Maybe they can get mittens, too.
Picking Milo was fine—as was disinviting him when some of his comments came out. No harm to CPAC.
The writer of this article has never listened to Milo and admits it. So basically he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The article is just wrong and it’s boring.
“Never heard of this guy. He must be the latest voice of the cuckservative movement. Hopefully his 15 minutes of fame will end soon.”...
Until the riots in SF, I never heard of him either. As a replacement for the Yiannopoulos trivial contributio at CPAC, I have an excellent stand-in, my neighbor. Said neighbor owns a junk yard, is black and is, to say the least, brutally honest when it comes to expressing his opinion, albeit a bit on the colorful side. Anyone brave enough to spend their time listening to the “junk man” speak his peace would come away with a far better understanding of how middle America sees the events of today as they unfold. Wish there were millions more like him.
Milo Envy is YUGE!!
Exactly
Some of us understand this war
You don’t quick poofters out of the Humvee
Especially the one who always volunteers to walk point
Any freeper who hasn’t bothered to read or watch the interview isn’t qualified to comment frankly
They are just bloviating on hunch
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