Fifteen months after Donald Trump was voted out of office, countless Republican entities — from the Republican National Committee (RNC) to the Conservative Political Action Conference — continue to promote unquestioning loyalty to the former president. And a decidedly MAGA lineup dominates CPAC 2022, which commenced in Orlando, Florida on Thursday, February 24 and continues through this Sunday, February 27. But an anti-Trump conservative group, the Republican Accountability Project (formerly Republican Voters Against Trump) is reminding CPAC 2022 attendees that not all conservatives are Trump loyalists.
In Orlando, RAP has paid for more than 100 anti-MAGA billboards during CPAC 2022. One of them shows an Arizona-based Republican voter named Nancy, who is quoted as saying, “I’m disgusted by today’s GOP. No integrity. It’s all about power.” And in another RAP billboard, a Colorado-based ex-Republican, also named Nancy, complains, “I don’t recognize today’s GOP. Reagan wouldn’t either.”
A billboard featuring Washington State-based ex-Republican Daniel quotes him as saying, “I’m a Cheney conservative, not a Trump Republican.”
Arch-conservative Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, blames Trump for the January 6, 2021 insurrection and voted for his second impeachment later that month. Because Cheney has been so vocal in condemning the ex-president, she is facing aggressive GOP primary challenges from several Trump loyal loyalists in her deep-red state.
In an official statement on its website, RAP said, “Making excuses for the January 6 insurrection has become commonplace. The lies about the 2020 election grow louder every day. MAGA candidates are falling over themselves to prove how Trump-loyal and Trump-like they are, and they’re driving away key parts of their base in the process. We will be running over 100 billboards in Orlando, FL, throughout this year’s CPAC conference.”
RAP has often been compared to The Lincoln Project, another right-wing anti-Trump group. RAP and The Lincoln Project both supported Democratic now-President Joe Biden in 2020’s presidential election, and members of both groups can often be found on MSNBC and CNN bashing Trump and the far-right MAGA movement.
CPAC 2022’s uber-MAGA lineup ranges from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri to Trump himself. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who was among the many candidates in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, is featured as well.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
