Politico: “Ronald Reagan, the president who reinvigorated the Republican Party, promoted the GOP as the ‘party of new ideas’ on his way to a landslide reelection in 1984. In the post-Donald Trump era, judging by the fare inside the Orlando ballroom where the Conservative Political Action Conference unfolded, the GOP has evolved into the party of precisely two ideas: re-litigating Trump’s defeat and seething over the de-platforming of the former president and his supporters. At the first major gathering of Republicans since Trump left office, conservatives spent the weekend clinging to the false claim that Trump’s presidency was stolen from him and raging over the perceived ‘cancel culture’ of Big Tech and the left.”

“Nearly four months after the election and one month into Joe Biden’s presidency, the politics of grievance has become the near-singular organizing principle of the post-Trump GOP. And whether at CPAC or in statehouses across the country, policy prescriptions for restoring so-called voter integrity have emerged as the primary focus of the party’s energy. ‘There are two things the conservative grassroots care about more than anything else,’ Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and founder of the youth movement Turning Point USA, said at CPAC. ‘No. 1, restoring election integrity in our country for fair and free elections. And No. 2, it is challenging Big Tech, it is giving us the ability to speak freely on social media.’ Much of the intellectual and legislative thrust of the Republican Party nationally remains grounded in the election and its aftermath – a preoccupation sparked by the former president’s unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him through voting fraud and other means.”