CPAC 2013: Trump in the house. Why, God, why?

There is nothing quite like seeing a crowd applaud professional better-than-you asshole Donald Trump, the elitist's elitist, to really make a person lose all faith in humanity. Trump exists as a political entity for of course one and only one reason'birtherism. He was eager to take up the flatly racist conspiracy theory that even though all evidence is that Barack Obama is an American born in Hawaii, in reality that could not possibly be true because, well, because certain people are quite certain of it. His very invitation by party organizers is evidence of something, and none of that something is good. Nobody ever gave a damn what Donald Trump's position on Donald Trump's taxes are, and that was never his reason for being feted by an increasingly silly base. It was the reflexive loathing of Obama, coupled with his supposed claims against Obama's very legitimacy, that fueled his dubious political rise.

It gives rise to the other question, and yes'this crowd is white, white, white. If you see a black person here, at all, they are probably a panelist. This is a crowd that is certain that racism is dead, or at least dead enough, a few thousand white people praising their own modern outlook on things while a staff comprised almost entirely of black and Latino members.

Trump's speech starts with a collection of generic deficit talk, which gets mostly perfunctory applause. He makes the case for more immigration from Europe, saying that after we educate these people, after they go to Harvard and other schools, "we throw them out of the country." Then Trump notes that Newt Gingrich offered him up to perhaps pay for the White House tours for the rest of the year, saying he's up for it.  The rest of the speech, in fact, is about Donald Trump, the things Donald Trump has done and is currently doing, and how America should do things more like Donald Trump. He says we should take Iraqi oil in proportion to the costs of the war. "What the hell are we thinking?" he says of the decision not to. He says we should pay a million dollars to each deceased service members families, because even to the deficit hawk, that is "nothing". He says of protecting South Korea, monetarily, "we get nothing." It is all about the greenbacks. The whole speech. He says the OPEC members "I know them, they're all friends of mine."

He gets a brief ovation, and everyone gets on with their lives. Or to Mitch McConnell, which isn't quite the same thing.