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A Neo-Nazi Walks into a Bar…
Another CPAC has come and gone. I have attended the annual Conservative Political Action Conference here in the Washington area since 1993, when I was a producer on “The G. Gordon Liddy Show.” With the exception of President Trump appearing on Friday, this CPAC was not much different than the many others.
One thing that has never changed are the crushing hordes of people following the biggest names in the conservative world. This year, people like Sean Spicer and Ted Cruz were swarmed by reporters, photographers, curious bystanders, and the ubiquitous college students desperate for selfies. I never tire of watching the tight packs of humanity shuffle down the CPAC hallway with their standard, awkward choreography.
Like most people, I am a curious person and usually try to see who is in the center of these impromptu press conferences/Comic-Con fan sessions. On Thursday, I walked by one of the largest gaggles I have ever seen at CPAC. I just had to see who was captivating all of these people. I was immediately disgusted when I realized it was, sadly, a well-known neo-Nazi leader. I will not use his name in this piece, as I refuse to give him more of the attention he so sickly craves.
Angry and offended at his presence, I immediately walked to the media registration to tell my friends there what was happening. Other than the fact that he is an odious figure who should be shunned, I knew that his presence was feeding into the MSM narrative “Look, there are neo-Nazis here at CPAC. See. See!!!” His presence at CPAC was neither warranted nor wanted.
After I explained what was going on, they immediately got on radios to tell everyone on the channel that this person was at the conference, and holding court. A very large court. I walked back up to see if I could find the CPAC staffer tasked with assessing the situation.
At this point, the neo-Nazi was surrounded for a good 20-25 minutes. I looked at the press badges of the people closest to him, ravenously writing and tweeting his insanity. You guessed it: Think Progress, Vice, Rolling Stone, etc. This is the kind of circus that liberal writers who seethe hatred over their CPAC assignments and at CPAC attendees crave. They weren’t letting him go because they wanted a neo-Nazi lecture. They wanted more copy with which to smear conservatives. I also think they were waiting for someone to punch or otherwise attack him. He was famously punched during the Inauguration Day protests, in a video that immediately went viral. They all wanted a clip of potential viral assault.
I found the CPAC staffer, pointed him out, explained what was going on. Then, I just left. I had enough and had no interest in witnessing the clown show anymore. By the time I got back to my seat and got caught up on my Twitter feeds, I learned that he was ejected from the conference, the hotel, and had his CPAC credentials taken away. I felt like I had done my good deed for the day, even a small part in having the vile cretin expelled.
That was Thursday.
On Friday, after two long days at CPAC, it was time to unwind with some of my favorite people in the conservative world, on Twitter, and in real life. I will not be naming any of them, but many of you have heard of many. We gathered in the hotel lobby bar for fun and fellowship and an occasional unprintable joke or insult.
If you’ve seen this movie before, you’ve probably guessed by now that the same neo-Nazi ejected from the same hotel on Thursday was now waltzing into the same hotel bar where we were gathered. On his way in, he posed for pictures with some really stupid college kids. While he was sitting down, he was approached by more stupid college kids. It’s enraging to watch people actually want to be seen with him, much less record it for posterity.
It didn’t take long for most of our group, and some of our friends at adjoining tables, to figure out who he was. The reaction was immediate, and it was really, really angry. I can’t remember being in the presence of a famed neo-Nazi before Friday but, as a Jew, it made me very sick and uncomfortable. Members of our group talked of various ways of dealing with the situation. Some of them involving going over and either staring at, videotaping, or confronting him. Some of them involving forcibly removing the sub-human from the bar. At different times, I agreed with different ideas. Thankfully, cooler and reasoned heads prevailed. It would have been a temporary sense of satisfaction to knock his teeth out, but, it would have been 1) illegal and 2) ill-advised.
It was great feeling, however, to go into this temporary, hypothetical war between good and evil with my friends at my side. I am blessed that my involvement in the world of conservative politics has led to solid friendships with some of the best and smartest people in the movement. These loyal, kind people are ready to call out those who need calling out and ready for a fight with a bottom-dwelling neo-Nazi.
You know, people who liberals call deplorable.
Published in Politics
Good for you to write this article, he and those who think like him need marginalization. I looked up who it was and he was quoted as saying,”I feel very welcome here, no one is punching me”. Eh, probably not worth being arrested but I’d enjoy it. Maybe just throwing a drink in his face would be enough.
Good for you, Cameron. I’m sorry you had to witness this. Unlike, oh, 80 years ago, this time we’ve got your back.
Ugh. It’s awful when these loons show up for anything.
I remember when these NN cretins would show up at gun shows and pass out tracts, thankfully the local show organizers banned them some 20 years ago now.
C’mon, he’s just being un-PC. College kids think it’s edgy, and we need those people.
Of course, that’s nonsense, but I can imagine John Gill making the argument that’s possible to make some sort of rapprochement with these people because, c’mon, at least they’re right on the importance of having a strong domestic steel industry.
Probably funded by Soros.
Sad they get any traction at all.
I’ve never understood why organizations like CPAC or political campaigns don’t have a person assigned to check out attendees and donors… even if it’s to have a few savvy people read through the list for red flags. Not that hard to do these days with all the info available on the internet, yet it seems like so few do and they get caught out by the media.
Why shouldn’t they get traction. St. Milo himself explained to us how really misunderstood their alt-views are. They aren’t the peddlers of a defunct ideology they are the bold intellectuals asking the questions everyone else is too afraid or PC to take on.
Questions like “what’s wrong with banging teenagers so long as they’re 16?”
I feared conservative boundaries had totally collapsed. Dan Schneider (ED of ACU) sank that idea. One day those college kids who took pictures with Spencer will be anxiously plumbing the brain of the internet to find out whether their careers have been been terminated.
Two things on Spencer (if it really was Spencer)
I don’t think Neo-nazi is the most appropriate term for him. White supremacist works better. IIRC, he specifically is hateful against non-whites, as opposed the anti-semitic lines you would here from a Nazi. Names have meaning, they aren’t just pejoratives like how the left uses fascist and racist.
Also, he really is a wannabe politician that can’t attract a large following. (Comparing him to Milo is giving him way too much credit) He gets lots of play from the media. His fearsome convention had about 200 people attending. He’s a lot like Lyndon LaRouche, a crackpot candidate with a small fanatical following.
@camerongray do not fret, there is a certain fascination with fairly famous evil people. I remember having a surreal but polite conversation with terrorist Bill Ayers at an event in college. It’s odd being next to a person like that, and I don’t know if the driving force for the college kids was agreement, as opposed to fascination that the monster did not have horns and a tail.