Politics: What Does a Smart Person Do at CPAC?

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Politics What Does a Smart Person Do at CPAC? Follow Derek Khanna, the GOP wunderkind that the House Republicans were too stupid to keep around. By David Weigel Posted Friday, Mar 15, 2013, at 09:26 PM ET The Republican Party's future is sitting in the dark. It's early Thursday morning, the start of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and Derek Khanna is somewhere in the shadowed media corner to the far left of the main stage. As Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey talks about the 2012 election, and how Republicans "never had an alternative, compelling narrative," I find the 25-year-old Khanna in front of a laptop, tweaking some remarks about the balanced-budget amendment, fitfully paying attention to the noise from the podium. "It's typical flag-waving stuff," he says. "Apart from Cuccinelli—Cuccinelli was surprisingly interesting." Ken Cuccinelli, the Virginia attorney general and candidate for governor, had given a pretty basic campaign speech to a crowd built to adore him. What impressed Khanna was Cuccinelli's moderate twist. "Conservatives should lead the campaign to changing the culture of corrections in America," Cuccinelli had said. Too many of his peers were "excited to lock people up and throw away the key." That was what Khanna wanted: Republicans talking about something new, tricky, important, even somewhat boring. Four months ago, while working for the House Republican Study Committee, Khanna put out a memo on the deeply un-sexy topic of copyright law. Intellectual property rights, wrote Khanna, were viewed as pure capitalism, when they should be treated as a government monopoly at its worst. The memo was retracted; Khanna was out of the RSC. David Brooks was merely the most famous pundit heralding Khanna as a brave new wonk ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Methods to the Madness Past Their Prime Earth Hour Is a Colossal Waste of Time—And Energy	Advertisement
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