The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is an annual conference of conservative activists and elected officials. This began in 1974, and is hosted by the American Conservative Union (ACU). This event has become more radicalized as evidence by the fact that one if its speakers, recently, was Viktor Orban, the authoritarian leader of Hungary and a Putin ally.

The conference started Thursday and will culminate with a speech from the person who occupied the White House prior to Joe Biden. It will be a coronation, of course.

One of the major themes, so far, has been the celebration of January 6. That is not a misprint. The following are some quotes that have come from the conference.

“After we burn that swamp to the ground, we will establish the new American republic on its ashes, and our first order of business will be righteous retribution for those who betrayed America,”

Retribution, does that sound familiar.

Then there is this nugget.

“Ashli Babbitt has not had justice for being murdered on January 6 and that’s very important that justice comes to Ashli and everyone else who was impacted by January 6. I believe that my vote going into 2024 is going to be for whoever is going to be true to the American people about the events of January 6.”

Finally, this one about January 6.

“It’s all been cherry-picked, what you guys show on TV, and if Congress would release all the real videos. There’s thousands and thousands of hours on people’s phones. All you need to do is open your eyes and you can see what actually happened from the videos,”

What is frightening is that maybe ten years ago these comments would have been considered far right-wing extremist talk it is now part of mainstream Republican culture. Then again this is no longer the Republican party. It is the party of one person. Just like the government of 1930’s Germany was the party of Hitler where similar rhetoric was in the mainstream.

For those who say it can’t happen here, it already is.