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Much has made of Donald Trump’s racism, his sexism, his corruption, his abject cruelty and what all that says about the Republican Party that nominated and elected him. Also frequently discussed is his habit of compulsive lying and the refusal of his Republican colleagues to hold him accountable for it.

Less frequently discussed is his penchant for conspiracy theory, which is related to but distinct from his habitual dishonesty. One of the uncomfortable and underreported truths about the modern Republican Party and its capture by conservative infotainment is that it has become reliant on a series of increasingly outlandish conspiracy theories to maintain its ideological coherence in the face of modern reality.

For instance, the notion that the world’s climate scientists are all engaged in a massive conspiracy to lie about global warming to secure grant funding is the ludicrous stuff of street corner doomsday preachers, but it’s essentially the common talking point of the Republican Party because the alternative–that climate change is a momentous crisis requiring major government intervention–is deeply inconvenient to their ideology and donor interests.

The notion that millions of people vote illegally in American elections is far worse than even QAnon claptrap, but it’s central to the psychological security blanket that Republicans use to assure themselves that they remain the silent majority in an increasingly diverse and progressive country.

Lately efforts by Democrats to help women in the excruciating position of undergoing nonviable pregnancies has led to an entire cottage industry of irresponsible hucksters claiming that Democrats are pushing for literal infanticide.

Needless to say, an entire political party built around a series of increasingly bizarre and byzantine conspiracy theory cannot end well. It is certain instigate increasing stochastic violence among its adherents and believers, and it makes itself ever more susceptible to an array of grifters, con artists and modern day Harold Hills.

Ground Zero for the conservative conspiracy scam industry is the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. Long home to the most boisterous carnival barkers on the right, CPAC has for years featured its most outlandish voices in search of headlines and attention. So much so, in fact, that in recent years it has even found it necessary to exclude the likes of Jacob Wohl and Laura Loomer, singularities of embarrassing self-aggrandizement who seek it out like moths to a flame.

It is here at CPAC that the President of the United States, a man who truly began his political career by promoting the conspiracy theory that President Obama was born in Kenya–feels most at home. It is here that the President felt comfortable enough in his own skin to deliver a two-hour speech, here that he felt most at ease among his equals. It was everything you might have come to expect:

“You know I’m totally off script right now,” Trump said at the beginning of his speech. As his meandering remarks continued, it became clear that his assessment was an understatement.

At one point, Trump regaled the crowd with a story about a general he said was named “Raisin Caine” (it wasn’t immediately clear who he was referring to). He said he always sits with the pilots when airplanes are landing: “They know what we’re doing.” He boasted about his good eyesight and later added, “I don’t have white hair.” He derided a Hawaii senator as a “crazy person.” And he accused Hollywood of discriminating against conservatives…

The president repeatedly took aim at Democrats in Congress. “We have people in Congress that hate our country,” he said. “You know that, we can name every one of them. They hate our country.” He then bashed the Green New Deal, jokingly encouraging liberals to keep pushing it because it would benefit him politically. “They should stay with that argument,” he said. “Never change.”

Trump revived his divisive immigration rhetoric. “They don’t like it when I say it, but we are being invaded,” he said. He disputed government statistics showing that undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born American citizens, calling the data false propaganda” and citing no evidence to support his claim.

The president also discussed his infamous 2016 appeal to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, arguing that he was just joking and criticizing the press for taking his comments seriously.

More:

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/03/02/the-conspiracy-theory-president-finds-his-comfort-zone-at-cpac/