***UPDATED*** The Uninvited: Robert Spencer on “Why I am not a CPAC conservative”

Some of you may be aware that Breitbart is sponsoring an alternative CPAC if you will..its called “The Uninvited”.

Breitbart – Among the topics covered: Crony Capitalism, Global Jihad, Illegal Immigration, the ongoing global persecution of Christians, and the gutting of the American Military.

Speakers include Former Attorney General of the United States Michael Mukasey and NY Times best-selling author and Breitbart Editor Peter Schweizer. Panelists will include Robert Spencer, Dan Goure, Nina Shea, Rosemary Jenks, Frank Gaffney, and Pamela Geller.Larry Solov, CEO and President of Breitbart News Network, said, “Andrew Breitbart never shied away from tackling controversial issues. He also understood that people need vigorous and sustained discussion and debate to make their own informed decisions. It is in Andrew’s spirit that we are proud to host this event.”

Breitbart Managing Editor Alex Marlow, Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro, and Editor-at-Large Larry O’Connor will also participate.Stephen K. Bannon, Executive Chairman of Breitbart News Network, said, “This session is not simply about speakers and panelists, but about direct engagement and participation by the CPAC audience. Andrew Breitbart believed in more voices, not less, and that is what this session will be about. We will get as many people as possible to the microphone to ask their questions and engage our speakers.”

Robert Spencer has two posts out: one on his website, and the other at FrontPage, on the subject of “Why I am not a CPAC Conservative.”

Here is a portion of his article from FrontPage.

Spencer – Many years ago, when I interviewed the great avant-garde saxophonist Charles Gayle, I asked him about bitter criticism he had received for his tendency to preach a pro-life message in the middle of his concerts. “Yeah,” he said with some amusement, “they always call me ‘right-wing.’ Man, I ain’t got no wings!” Neither do I. And as the events of the past week have shown, I am not “right-wing,” either; nor, by the standards of some of the organizers and chief figures of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), am I a conservative.

Throughout my public career, of course, the mainstream media has insisted that my colleagues and I are indeed “right-wing,” and often even “far right.” Since the “far right” is the label generally given to advocates of authoritarian government and racist discrimination, this label, as common as it is, is a sheer calumny, since we are not only advocates of neither one, but opponents of a system that advances both. If working to defend the principles of the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law is “far right,” then we should all be “far rightists”; but in reality this label is just a tool of the foes of those principles, used to discredit those who defend them.

But I am nonetheless generally considered to be a conservative. It is a label I have used myself, as a way of distinguishing my position from that of the liberals and Leftists who have generally sold out to the jihad, so blind in their hatred of Western civilization and the United States of America that they eagerly cast their lot with the foremost enemies of both. And on a practical level, that identification has been easy: Regnery Publishing, a foremost conservative publishing house, has published six of my books. Many of my books have been endorsed by the late, lamented Conservative Book Club.

Nonetheless, for all that, I am not a CPAC conservative.

Why? You’ll have to read the whole article to find out.

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**** UPDATED WITH VIDEO ***


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