Several ISU students were going to the conference but we all flew separately and met each other in DC. I took a 6am flight to Detroit and then on to DC where I met two friends. We got there a day early to do some sight-seeing and spent the day walking around the Mall and Capitol Hill.
We walked around the Capitol and then walked through the House and Senate office buidlings. We saw several offices including John McCain, Mark Kirk, and John Kerry, and then stopped by Adam Kinzinger's office to see him (pictured above). We had campaigned for him in the months leading up to the election so it was fun to see him in his congressional office.
That night we met up with two other group members and hung out at our hotel. Thursday was the first day of the conference. We basically sat at the conference all day but it was very fascinating. We heard speaker after speaker after speaker after speaker. Surprisingly, it was not boring at all. The speakers were great and we even got to see a little rioting action. This CPAC was rather controversial; although it was a conservative event, the different types of conservative people (primarily libertarians) definitely clashed which caused some drama.
Donald Trump was the surprise speaker (pictured below). He was great to listen to, but I won't give him too much credit. He's a television personality and public speaking is his job. He's very good at selling himself. I do, however, appreciate Trump's ability to be quite frank. He gets to the point and says what he means, something too many politicians refuse to do. I hope he sticks with his day job though, I wouldn't want to have to support him for President.
We got to watch another little riot, too. Dick Cheney (pictured above) awarded Donald Rumsfeld the Defender of the Constitution award and some libertarian (notice any patterns?) Ron Paul supporters thought it would be cute to stand up and yell harsh words at Cheney. They were immediately escorted out in handcuffs by secret service men. Good action.
We skipped the conference on Friday to spend some time seeing some more sites around DC. We basically walked around the entire mall to see the major monuments. I was proud to say that, surprisingly, I was not the one to complain about my feet hurting all day :) Other than the monuments, we went to the Supreme Court museum and the American History museum.
The Lord had been speaking to me a lot about abortion and the spirit of death so I wanted to make it to the JHOP - Justice House of Prayer while I was in town. Unfortunately, it happened to be closed on the days I was there. JHOP is a house of prayer strategically placed a couple blocks away from the Supreme Court building and the Capitol building where people fast and pray for the ending of abortion and for true justice in our nation. It is the headquarters for Bound4Life, an organization and movement that has set out to end abortion and bring revival to America.
Itinerary for my next trip to DC:
JHOP, Holocaust Museum, National Archives, and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving
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