The annual gathering of conservatives in the United States represented the G.O.P.'s turn away from substantive issues that had previously energized the party.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA – Much of the globe is transfixed and on edge as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. President Biden has named a new Supreme Court justice who is unlikely to receive Republican backing.
The news that was shaking the world appeared strangely distant at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of the right side of American politics. Instead, classic conservative causes have been supplanted by cultural complaints, former President Donald J. Trump, and a pervasive sense of victimization.
Mr. Trump, like so many other Republican officials who have rebuilt themselves in his image, attempted to depict himself as a victim of Democratic and news media attacks in a speech to the conference on Saturday night. They would, he said.
Eight months before the midterm elections, conventional Republican themes such as lower taxes and a tough foreign policy took a back place to the notion that America is slipping back into a woke dystopia unleashed by liberal elites. Even the G.O.P. seemed a little doubtful.
In his keynote to this year's CPAC conference in Orlando, Fla., Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump grass-roots organization focusing on millennial conservatives, lambasted "the Republican Party of old."
"Our excellent 45th president of the United States can teach conservative leaders a thing or two," Mr. Kirk remarked. "I want our politicians to be more concerned with you and our fellow citizens than with some abstract idea or G.D.P. figure."
Republicans are emphasizing cultural resentment as a central theme of their midterm campaigns, even though the party has traditionally been divided into several topics.
As Russian President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine this week, prompting widespread condemnation from American allies, Mr. Trump reiterated on Saturday that Mr. Putin was "smart" to invade Ukraine in exchange for economic sanctions, though he did call the war "a catastrophic disaster." Mr. Putin was hailed by his former adviser Steve Bannon on Wednesday.
This put them at odds with Republican elected officials, particularly congressional leaders, who, like Democrats and Vice President Joe Biden, have condemned Mr. Putin's conduct.
Republican senators on Capitol Hill are discussing whether or not to release an official policy platform before the midterm elections. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, epitomized the lack of urgency in a statement in which he rejected a question about what Republicans would do if they regained control of Congress in 2022. Mr. McConnell responded, "That is a really good question." "And I'll notify you when we return it."
In the absence of a unified program, Republicans hope that a laundry list of concerns would energize voters who are fed up with Mr. Biden's administration. Republicans contended at CPAC that they were the actual victims of Vice President Joe Biden's America, citing growing prices, unauthorized immigration at the Mexican border, and liberal organizations lobbying for more government spending.
Representative Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina applauded China's use of social media to teach "wonderful patriotic and macho ideals" in the country's youth. Representative Billy Long of Missouri claimed that he created the phrase "Trump Train" in 2015 at a Mexican restaurant within the conference hotel. He continued to use it as his wireless internet password, he said. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a son of a banker with degrees from Stanford and Yale, attempted to align himself with disgruntled blue-collar workers who he thought were being treated unfairly.
Mr. Hawley explained, "Rednecks and roughnecks receive a lot of negative press these days."
At the same time, the large Orlando hotel where the event was being held was brimming with Trump memorabilia. There were two distinct Trump malls, a shop selling Trump hammocks, and a five-volume compilation of every tweet Mr. Trump issued as president until Twitter banned him, all for $35 a book.
Speakers mainly avoided condemning Mr. Biden for the crisis in Ukraine, and only a few people referenced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Mr. Biden's new Supreme Court nominee, on Friday.
John Schnatter, the pizza mogul who resigned as chairman of the Papa John's franchise in 2018 after making a racial slur on a conference call about Black people, mingled with the crowd, stating he was among those who had been unfairly canceled. Senator Rick Scott of Florida has issued a statement warning of "woke, government-run everything."
Former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who competed for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 but has since shifted to the right and become a favorite of conservative media, called the government a "secular theocracy" for its attempts to combat misinformation.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was the major attraction of the America First Political Action Conference, which took place eight miles from CPAC at another Orlando hotel, with Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona appearing via video.
Mr. Putin has been compared to Hilter, according to pundit Nick Fuentes, the head of the group that hosted the meeting. "They say it's not a good thing," he added with a giggle.
Mr. Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier, leads the "America First" or "grouper" movement, which preaches that the country is losing "its white demographic core." Mr. Fuentes was subpoenaed by congressional investigators this month as part of their investigation into the attack on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Focusing on the negative at CPAC and elsewhere may be strategic as well as visceral. According to polls, Republican voters prefer Mr. Putin to Mr. Biden, and one takeaway from the reaction against the party in power during the last four midterm elections is that a strong dislike for the opposition party's president is more than enough to propel sweeping victory.
"The conservative movement is always developing, and the issues that truly matter to people alter a little bit as it matures and reacts to the radical notions of the progressive left," said Charlie Gerow, a Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania. "Out in the states, Joe Biden and his minions are the ones unifying factor for conservatives."
Only seven years ago, former Florida governor Jeb Bush told a CPAC audience that "it's good to oppose the terrible things, but we need to start being for the good things."
Mr. Trump has removed Bush-style conservatism from the Republican Party, and it has also been removed from the annual CPAC conference.
Republicans would be far better off appealing to feelings of hatred and alienation than promoting a policy agenda when the party is split on taxation, foreign policy, and how much to believe Mr. Trump's claims about the 2020 race.
"You can always lower taxes, pull back regulations, and elect better people," Florida Senator Marco Rubio remarked. "However, once freedom has been lost or weakened, it is extremely difficult to regain."
There was no shortage of horror stories about cultural and political cancellations at CPAC, yet the speakers provided little evidence of actual suffering.
Representative Jim Banks of Indiana stated he and Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio were victimized when they were removed from the House committee investigating the attack on the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after declaring he would "never, ever apologize for opposing" to Mr. Biden's triumph.
"Nancy Pelosi canceled and threw us both off the committee," Mr. Banks recalled.
Mr. Banks, like others at CPAC who claimed to have been harmed by cancel culture, has seen his fame and political position rise steadily since claiming to have been canceled.
Last year, Leila Centner, the founder of a Miami private school, advised her instructors and staff that if they received a coronavirus vaccine, they would not be allowed to deal with pupils, and she recalled the outrage she faced once her anti-vaccine views became public.
"They went crazy," she claimed of the media's coverage of her.
Ms. Centner, on the other hand, claimed the uproar was beneficial to her and her school. She told the CPAC audience that her student enrolment had increased and that a waiting list had formed. She has become a popular figure on conservative news outlets, and she recently stated in an interview that she now has a cohesive school community that shares her views on the epidemic and the country's racial history.
"This whole situation has actually brought our community closer together," she remarked.
As the incentives in conservative politics increasingly reward persons involved in conflicts that can allow them to be depicted as victims, resulting in greater face time on conservative cable television, several seasoned Republicans are bemoaning that a concentration on policy offers little benefit.
When former Representative Mark Walker of North Carolina, who is running for Senate against a Trump-endorsed candidate, praises his record working for veterans during his three stints in Congress, he says he doesn't get much attention.
Mr. Walker remarked in an interview that "some of the new people entering the political sphere get 12 press secretaries and one policy guy." "Isn't there a problem with that?"
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