Left-of-center media have descended into a feeding frenzy to attack the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in the wake of its 40th year of hosting a successful gathering for conservative activists. False allegations of insensitive “rape” comments spew forth, along with false assertions of CPAC being nothing but rich elderly white men gathering to talk about how to oppress the world’s poor.
Contrary to the Left’s alternative “reality,” CPAC was dominated by young activists, from Townhall’s Katie Pavlich winning “Blogger of the Year” to self-organized networks of high school bloggers and internet entrepreneurs.
Breitbart News met with several young conservative activists at CPAC for a roundtable discussion.
Tanner Brumbarger, a 17-year-old internet entrepreneur who founded a popular website for conservative highschoolers called TheHighSchoolConservative.com, said “It’s probably a little awkward for some to have so many highschool students around, but overall, I feel we are respected and embraced.”
Tyler McNally, an 18-year-old from Virginia who writes for Brumbarger’s site, said he identified more as a libertarian. He said the issue he is mainly concerned with is the persecution of Christians around the world. He went further and discussed his intentions to get involved with another conservative website named MisfitPolitics. The site was founded by Brandon Morse and is known for being quite edgy. McNally, clearly very socially conservative in his own views, saw no issue with being involved with an edgy site or working with others who may have differing social views than the ones he holds.
One young woman, whose real name is Morgan but goes by “RepubGrlProbs,” has become somewhat of a young conservative social media phenomenon with over 40,000 Twitter followers. She started in San Diego, California by creating a website to sell catchy Romney/Ryan shirts. Her site, RepublicanGirlProbs, grew as an online hub for young people with right-of-center views to congregate and speak truth to power. When asked if she felt out of place in any way at CPAC, she responded by saying “The older people stand out more than we do.”
Benji Backer, a 15-year-old from Wisconsin, said he came to CPAC with a group known as Turning Point USA. He said the group avoids social issues while focusing on fiscal matters and providing space for meetings, speakers, and debates at universities. He said “I think the conservatives at CPAC appreciate and value young people here.”
Isabella Penola, a 15-year-old from the Midwest, is a co-editor at Brumbarger’s website for conservative high schoolers. She also writes for Smartgirl Politics. She said her interests were in discussing “why we believe what we believe.” She focuses on history and reviving young peoples’ faith in our nation’s heritage. She said “It’s great that there are so many young people here.”
The Breitbart News gathering of these brilliant young minds was put together by Bethany Bowra, the 16-year-old blogger extraordinaire who gave the opening prayer for CPAC. Bowra said the most interesting aspect of the young minds here is that they all met over Twitter or other social media, though they live across the country from each other. She felt that such a well-organized showing of youth would go a long way to convince older people that young people do have a voice and do matter in the dialogue.
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