http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2013/03/08/is-cpac-relevant/

Kate, I think the big problem is path dependence. What would be harder to “rah rah” than high earner tax cuts to an audience of high earners? But tax cuts are part of a Republican narrative of electoral and policy success in the 1980s so it is considered a “real” political issue in the way that health care policy isn’t. What did health care ever do for Ronald Reagan? Helath care policies like Indiana’s HSA/catastrophic health insurance program for state employees would seem to offer more benefits to more people.

I remember at one point during my sophomore year in college I had some small college success with a play I wrote and fancied myself the next David Mamet. At 19-years of age I kicked myself for having devoted so many of my best years to politics when I should have been writing plays (hi-larious!).

Now, nearly 30 years later I’m still kicking myself, but for the first time since I was 19 I have actually managed to stop paying attention, or I at least stopped paying attention to 80% of what I used to pay attention to (and spent tens of thousands on, and wrote about, and so on).

I heard recently that the big idea for the revival of the Illinois GOP is an endorsement of the redefinition of marriage. Maybe it was just civil unions…I can’t remember. Our two leading GOP candidates for governor next time are both thought gay by just about everyone, and they offer only enough lip service to social issues to make clear that they aren’t sincere about it (think Obama saying how a marriage can only be between a man and a woman).

I hope I don’t sound whiny, because I don’t feel that way at all. Bernard said the church is in the best position when it is under attack from all sides and so with the GOP keeping itself within a 10% reach of the Abortion Party, things for the church should be looking very good. By Jefferson’s count we are way, way past time for another revolution and I can’t say the dim prospect of that cheers me.

Because all my friends and my far more numerous acquaintances are mostly all Republicans of some stripe or another, I still hear most of the talk. The younger they are the more convinced they are if only the GOP would green light the government redefinition of marriage, family and life itself, they will then be able to make the government their GOP lap dog on all the stuff that really matters, like marginal tax rates.

So all this is my way of asking, what in God’s name do they talk about at CPAC these days? Crazy kids.

You are certainly right about some of the Tea Party groups being all about the conservatism of Medicare preservation. Given the healthcare system as it is today, it is certainly in their self-interest to demand Medicare benefits as the alternative is an evaporation of their assets in case of illness is likely. At the moment, I do not see what a coherent health care policy would be. Mind, I know you and others have laid out sensible plans and worked out reasonable policy suggestions. How do you “Rah-Rah” those things at an event like the one you describe?

Actually, when I was looking around for the post I wrote this morning, I hit on a website about conservative health care policy. Hmmm. Why aren’t they at CPAC? I wonder.

So since federal-level government policy is here to stay in one form or another, and since the form of that policy matters (would you want that which is favored by Paul Ryan or Bernie Sanders?), then deemphasizing the issue only make the government health care policy we will experience the exclusive business of the Democratic party. But at least we focus on real issues like cutting Mitt Romney’s tax rates and opposing “socialism” in every way possible (protesting, wearing funny hats, complaining of losing our country to those kids with their long hair and Obamacare) short of actually thinking about how to beat socialists and offering real alternatives.