At the end of last week I was lucky enough to attend CPAC 2012, the largest conservative conference in the country. Coming from the UK and having attended a few political conferences in my time I anticipated few surprises. I thought I knew what to expect. Yet CPAC was beautifully interesting, bizarre, theatrical, contradictory, and unpredictable in equal measure.

At first glance CPAC is nothing too out of the ordinary. Having checked in and collected my media pass I made my way down to the exhibition hall to help set up our booth, where we were giving out free copies of the most recent edition and offering subscriptions. Our booth was in the corner flanked by a group calling for the return of Glenn Beck to Fox and the National Taxpayers Union. It was only when I began my first walk around the exhibition hall that I realized how interesting the next three days were going to be.

There were of course the usual suspects on prominent display—The Heritage Foundation, The NRA, American Enterprise Institute, and other familiar advocate groups and right-leaning think tanks. But it was on the peripheries that the really interesting and revealing booths were located. Amongst the most notable was a booth offering free cake that was promoting a Tea Party board game and another where Ron Paul “swag” was being sold along with tasty fudge. Walking amongst the booths I also came across some people with the unenviable job of dressing as bunnies, ticket machines, and eighteenth century Red Coats.

Soon after I had returned from my initial exploration of the exhibition booths I was fortunate enough to be able to interview one of my contemporary political heroes, Daniel Hannan MEP, on the state of conservative coalitions.

Taking advantage of my first ever press pass I moved to the media filing room where I sat with Timothy Stanley, author of the upcoming Pat Buchanan biography The Crusader, watching Herman Cain’s cringeworthy speech. This was after the internet for media had shut down. There is nothing that comes quite as close to stress personified as a room full of professional bloggers trying to operate without a direct line to headquarters.

Friday was a good day, especially considering my Anglo-American background. Hannan spoke at an event on the euro debt crisis with three other MEPs from the UK, Czech Republic, and Belgium as well as Congressman Tom Price. The room was filled to capacity, with many electing to stand for over an hour to hear about what America can learn from Europe’s debt crisis. Later in the afternoon I went to an event on the Thatcher-Reagan relationship and the importance of maintaining a strong relationship between American and British conservatives.

It was on Friday that Occupy DC began their protests. During my lunch I went out to then small assembly where I spoke to some protesters. There was of course the usual Marxist rhetoric amongst the majority, indeed it was oddly refreshing to have someone say bluntly that they want America to ‘enjoy’ a communist economic system. However there was a sixteen-year-old protester who I engaged in interesting and constructive discussion on economics. Although quite easily the youngest protester, she seemed to have the best head on her shoulders. She was a bright girl, with her heart in the right place, it is just a shame her proposed solutions to our economic situation are so misplaced. Later that evening when Occupy DC attempted to storm the hotel I tried to mingle with the protesters, who were in the middle of fending off police. I found the same girl again, who seemed slightly shaken at the shouting and shoving that was developing.

After returning from my Occupy DC encounter I saw a huge number of Romney supporters taking up the central lobby. Pen and notepad in hand I thought this a great opportunity to ask something I have always wanted to ask a Romney supporter, “what is your favorite of Romney’s policy proposals?” I came back to the booth, blank notepad in hand.

Of course to many CPACers the conference is a giant networking event. I had never had a secret password sent to my phone before, least of all a secret password for a party in a hotel suite for five congressional candidates with free booze. Washington DC is renowned as the city of “what do you do?” acting as the genesis of every conversation, and CPAC only served to exaggerate this tendency.

Now that CPAC is over it is not entirely clear what direction, if any, the conservative movement is taking. For the first day and a half I did not see a single Romney sticker, button, poster, hat, or flyer, yet he managed to win the CPAC straw poll. Having spoken to many conservatives over CPAC I know that many conservatives do not like Romney, his electability seems to be his only redeeming feature. The number of times a conservative activist would say “I’ll vote for Gary Johnson”, or “I’ll stay at home in November”, when the inevitable Obama vs. Romney race is suggested should worry conservatives.

Like many conservative events I have been to in the past CPAC made me feel at times optimistic as well as often times depressed. It was great to see so many people finally speaking about the dire state of the economy and the need to reform the social security programs that are destined to cripple this country. It was also refreshing to see more liberty-oriented groups such as Students for Liberty and The Charles Koch Institute represented. What was depressing was the diminished yet present neoconservative influence in many of the conversations I had at our booth, with some Santorum and Gingrich supporters I spoke to insisting that Ron Paul is an isolationist. There was also too much of the aggrieved conservative rhetoric, which will only serve to hurt conservatives in a presidential election. One of my more interesting conversations was with a young man who was shocked that I did not have to take a religious exam as part of my application for U.S citizenship. It was sad and confusing to see that someone could get a booth handing out free cake trying to sell a board game while GOProud was excluded from CPAC altogether. At the moment there is little hope of a Republican victory in November, and it seems odd to deliberately exclude a group of conservatives with the polls as they are.

I was happy to attend CPAC, and look forward to attending more in years to come.  It is hard to imagine any other event that could have expressed the good, the bad, and the ugly of contemporary conservatism while maintaining a jovial and educational atmosphere. What conservative activists and strategists took from the conference will be interesting to see.

Images: shutterstock/Carsten Reisinger