March 4, 2023

A CPAC Speaker Wants Transgenderism “Eradicated”

The conservative confab is in a dark place.

U.S. Representative Ralph Norman (R-SC) and U.S. Representative Scott Perry (R-PA) speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Michael Brochstein / Sipa/AP

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The Conservative Political Action Conference, the New York Times reported on Saturday, is not what it used to be. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis skipped out on what has for years been the conservative movement’s premier cattle call. Mike Pence will be at a donor retreat instead. Fox News will not be streaming the event, nor will its popular hosts be speaking from the stage. Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which organizes the event, was recently accused by a Republican campaign aide of groping, and his star is, it’s fair to say, somewhat diminished.

But if CPAC has fallen from its pedestal, it remains a useful barometer for gauging where the conservative base is, and where it is headed. And the future, right now, looks grim as hell.

Here’s Michael Knowles, a commentator at Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, receiving a loud cheer for saying that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life.”

Knowles is a replacement-level conservative pundit, whose name I know only because he co-hosted Ted Cruz’s podcast for two years. But that is sort of the point. The call for transgender identity to be “eradicated” is chilling; it is not a word normal people use, unless they are describing a pestilence. But this is not at all out of step with much of the Republican party. DeSantis has weaponized his state government against trans kids. So has Texas Gov. Greg Abbot. As David Weigel reported in Semafor last month, Donald Trump, too is proposing to establish “that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female, and they are assigned at birth”—that is, erasing the category from existence.

Conservatives don’t really talk about abortion like they used to, because they’ve largely won that battle, and perhaps out of some self-awareness how unpopular that victory ultimately was. But they’re speaking about the lives of transgender kids and adults in increasingly apocalyptic terms.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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