Like most of the rest of our current politics, this is something out of a movie: The annual Conservative Political Action Conference, aka CPAC, very quickly went from a gathering spot for coronavirus denialism to the new coronavirus hotspot after a very well-connected but anonymous attendee was confirmed to have been ill with the virus as he mingled with high-level Republican officials and lawmakers.
It appears that CPAC organizers went out of their way to inform lawmakers who were exposed to the virus, which include Ted Cruz, Doug Collins, Paul Gosar, and Matt Gaetz, when the infected man notified CPAC he had tested positive. It also appears CPAC even went so far as to tell other top officials that they did not have contact with the man. But the rest of the hardcore conservative CPAC attendees? They're not getting the same treatment, and now some of them are getting steamed about that.
Politico reports on some of the complainers like perpetual troll Mike Cernovich, who groused that CPAC informed Cruz and Gosar but "they haven’t told the other people who were in and around the green room." Meanwhile, perpetual troll Jack Posobiec complained that "there’s one tier of people with information and another tier without." Other attendees have taken to social media to complain.
The common refrain is that while conservative VIPs are being notified of their exposure or non-exposure, CPAC officials aren't giving anyone else the same information. The name of the infected hasn't been released, for privacy reasons, but CPAC has said the person was a "gold-level" ticket holder, giving him enhanced access to the conference's featured guests. There's little other information that could help other, non-important guests identify whether they too may have been exposed.
Yes, it has dawned on the common rabble of CPAC that the important people are getting much better treatment from the conservative power class than they are. And this is new information? You idiots: You are conservatives. Insisting that non-powerful people be treated worse than powerful ones is the whole point of your movement.
This is the movement that insists on cutting benefits to the unemployed because if Americans can't find jobs, it's just because they're not looking hard enough.
This is the movement that wants to cut food aid to the poor because if the poor want food, maybe they just need to get second jobs to go with the first jobs.
This is the movement that is absolutely certain that health care is not a "right," clean water is not a "right," decent air is not a "right," and if lower classes die of things that the upper classes can spend their way out of then that is just the inherent majesty of the capitalist system.
Of course you're not going to get the same health notifications as your own movement's VIPs, you dimwits. You've spent the past 50 years getting steamed that unimportant rabble like yourself would dare ask for such a thing.
Having a collection of internet trolls and spitemongers put on their huffiest pants when they realize that, when crisis strikes, they are not actually considered essential cogs of the movement but are no better than the other hangers-on, is certainly a Moment. The usual assortment of rabid convention gun-humpers coming to the awkward realization that their flag-painted assault weapons did not, in fact, murder the coronavirus upon entering the building—that's going to set some back on their heels. Conservatives, however, have literally made the demand that the lower classes not get a minimal standard of health care a central plank of their new movement. It's a little late to back out now.
It would be nice if non-important people got the same consideration in a health emergency that Republican lawmakers get, wouldn't it? No, you were all opposed to that during the conference, up until the announcement that the conference itself hosted a potentially deadly illness. There were quite a few speeches to that effect.
In fact, you’d better watch your words, common rabble. Some of you may even be getting close to realizing that giving vaccines to the poor and to refugees absolutely free might prove a hell of a lot more effective, before the next national health crisis, than telling them to pound sand from the fragile safety of your YouTube channels. I don’t envy what the movement will do to you for that apostasy.
The usual disclaimers are necessary: Nobody wishes a terrible disease on anybody. It is likely, and we can all hope, that everyone will be fine. It is merely coincidental that the conference predicated on dismissing whatever facts Dear Leader has been having the Angries about has run afoul of a contagious Fact that does not care, not even a little, whether you believe in it or not.
But don't get all high and mighty about how betrayed you feel by a conservative movement that does not actually give a damn about your health, in a crisis, while giving personal attention to anyone rich and important enough to require their continued flattering. That is the point, you dolts. If you wanted the leaders of the Conservative Political Action Conference to answer your questions about your exposure to a dangerous disease, you probably should have gotten a better, more important job.