New York Times: “There was vanishingly little discussion [at CPAC] of why Republicans lost the presidency, the House and the Senate over the last four years, nor much debate about what agenda they should pursue to rebuild the party. The absence of soul-searching owes in part to the Republicans’ surprise gains in the House and the denialism of many activists that they lost the White House at all, a false claim perpetuated with trollish gusto by former President Donald J. Trump himself on Sunday, to the delight of the crowd. The former president was, however, hardly the only high-profile Republican to demonstrate that confronting Democrats and the news media, while harnessing the grievance of the party rank and file toward both, is the best recipe for acclaim within today’s GOP. ‘We can sit around and have academic debates about conservative policy, we can do that,’ Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said to an ovation in his CPAC remarks. ‘The question is, when the klieg lights get hot, when the left comes after you: Will you stay strong or will you fold?'”

“This is the party Mr. Trump has remade – and it’s why so many traditional Republicans are appalled, or at least alarmed, that Trumpism is replacing conservatism. ‘The future of the Republican Party depends on debating and advancing big ideas rooted in our belief in limited government constitutionalism,’ said Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, arguing that the party needed to orient itself around ‘the case for freeing the American people from the mandates, shutdowns, regulations and taxes pushed by a powerful government.’ Mr. Roy appeared on one of the few CPAC panels focused on government spending, once a central issue on the right, and used his time to plead with the audience. ‘There’s nothing more important right now than this,’ he said. ‘We are allowing DC to take over our lives but we’re paying the bill.’ If those in the audience felt the same sense of urgency, they didn’t show it.”