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CPAC: the Origins and Role of the Conference in the Expansion and Consolidation of the Conservative Movement, 1974-1980 University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2015 CPAC: The Origins and Role of The Conference in the Expansion and Consolidation of the Conservative Movement, 1974-1980 Daniel Preston Parker University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Political Science Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Parker, Daniel Preston, "CPAC: The Origins and Role of The Conference in the Expansion and Consolidation of the Conservative Movement, 1974-1980" (2015). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1113. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1113 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1113 For more information, please contact [email protected]. CPAC: The Origins and Role of The Conference in the Expansion and Consolidation of the Conservative Movement, 1974-1980 Abstract The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is an annual event that brings conservative politicians, public intellectuals, pundits, and issue activists together in Washington, DC to discuss strategies for achieving their goals through the electoral and policy process. Although CPAC receives a great deal of attention each year from conservative movement activists and the news outlets that cover it, it has attracted less attention from scholars. This dissertation seeks to address the gap in existing knowledge by providing a fresh account of the role that CPAC played in the expansion and consolidation of the conservative movement during the 1970s. Audio recordings of the exchanges that took place at CPAC meetings held between 1974 and 1980 are transcribed and analyzed. The results of this analysis show that during the 1970s, CPAC served as an important forum where previously fragmented single issue groups and leaders of the Old Right and New Right coalitions were able to meet, share ideas, and coordinate their efforts. Through their discursive exchanges at CPAC, these actors united behind a common set of policy positions and political strategies. As they engaged with each other and shared their grievances, they also developed a stronger sense of collective identity rooted in opposition to a common enemy - modern liberalism. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Political Science First Advisor Rogers M. Smith Keywords Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, discourse, ideas, ideology, Reagan Subject Categories History | Political Science | United States History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1113 CPAC: THE ORIGINS AND ROLE OF THE CONFERENCE IN THE EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT, 1974-1980 Daniel Parker A DISSERTATION in Political Science Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Supervisor of Dissertation _____________________ Rogers M. Smith Professor of Political Science Graduate Group Chairperson _________________________ Matthew S. Levendusky, Associate Professor of Political Science Dissertation Committee Adolph L. Reed, Jr., Professor of Political Science Richard F. Bensel, Professor of Government at Cornell University ii For my parents, Danny and Brenda Parker iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT There are many people who have supported my research. I would like to express appreciation to Morton Blackwell, John S. Buckley, Frank Donatelli, Mickey Edwards, Robert Heckman, James Roberts, Randal Teague, and Thomas Winter for taking the time to speak with me about their involvement with CPAC over the years. I would like to thank John Murphy and the staff of Lee Library at The Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where the American Conservative Union Archive is located. Richard Carney, who is the archivist at the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, North Carolina, provided copies of two important Helms speeches that I could not locate anywhere else. Rogers Smith provided guidance and support at every step of the dissertation-writing process. Adolph Reed and Richard Bensel provided helpful guidance and feedback, as well. My undergraduate mentor, Elizabeth Sanders, has continued to be a source of great support and inspiration over the years. I would like to thank all of my friends – especially Geeta Aneja, Tim D’Auria, Paul Hayward, Vi Ly, Jay Pepito, and Elspeth Wilson – for their encouragement and for providing feedback at various stages of the dissertation-writing process. My grandmother, Maris Chapman, has supported me over the years and has been a great source of encouragement, inspiration, and wisdom. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Danny and Brenda Parker. I could never have completed this project without their support. iv ABSTRACT CPAC: THE ORIGINS AND ROLE OF THE CONFERENCE IN THE EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT, 1974-1980 Daniel P. Parker Rogers M. Smith The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is an annual event that brings conservative politicians, public intellectuals, pundits, and issue activists together in Washington, DC to discuss strategies for achieving their goals through the electoral and policy process. Although CPAC receives a great deal of attention each year from conservative movement activists and the news outlets that cover it, it has attracted less attention from scholars. This dissertation seeks to address the gap in existing knowledge by providing a fresh account of the role that CPAC played in the expansion and consolidation of the conservative movement during the 1970s. Audio recordings of the exchanges that took place at CPAC meetings held between 1974 and 1980 are transcribed and analyzed. The results of this analysis show that during the 1970s, CPAC served as an important forum where previously fragmented single issue groups and leaders of the Old Right and New Right coalitions were able to meet, share ideas, and coordinate their efforts. Through their discursive exchanges at CPAC, these actors united behind a common set of policy positions and political strategies. As they engaged with each other and shared their grievances, they also developed a stronger sense of collective identity rooted in opposition to a common enemy – modern liberalism. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT ........................................................................................................ III ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ IV CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2 .............................................................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER 3 .............................................................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER 4 .............................................................................................................................. 70 CHAPTER 5 .............................................................................................................................. 91 CHAPTER 6 ........................................................................................................................... 140 CHAPTER 7 ........................................................................................................................... 152 CHAPTER 8 ........................................................................................................................... 171 CHAPTER 9 ........................................................................................................................... 210 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 220 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 234 1 CHAPTER 1 Introduction The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) – an event sponsored by the American Conservative Union (ACU) with the cooperation of a diverse array of political action groups – brings a large crowd of conservative activists, political leaders, pundits, and public intellectuals together in Washington, DC every year to discuss politics and strategy. Although CPAC is a national spectacle that always dominates media coverage during the single week in February when it is held, CPAC has, to date, received only modest attention from scholars working in the discipline of political science. Conference speeches and presentations are often quoted by political scientists and historians in order to document the ideas and concerns of the conservative politicians, public intellectuals, and activists who are in attendance.1 However, at present, there is no definitive, theoretically grounded account of the historic role that the conference itself played in the life of the early conservative movement or in the reshaping of the Republican Party and its priorities.2 CPAC has, in fact, played a very important role in the life of the conservative movement and the contemporary Republican Party. The conference was created in conjunction with conservative movement-building efforts during the 1970s – at a time when the
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