The crowd at the summit seemed much younger than at typical Republican events, with a strong libertarian-leaning element. Attendance was expected to be around 500, but because the admission is low they were getting a lot of walk-ins and they had already exceeded the estimated attendance by Friday afternoon. Featured speakers for the weekend include Michelle Malkin, Grover Norquist, Michael Steele, Barry Goldwater Jr., Robert Novak and a number of Texas politicians. The only bigwig I got to see today was Barry Goldwater Jr., who was signing his new book Pure Goldwater, co-authored with John Dean, and based on Goldwater's fathers journals. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but by all accounts it provides new insights into the character of the most principled and influential conservative leader of the last century. Ironically, John Dean was not at the signing, because he had a signing for his anti-Republican book Broken Government over on the other side of town at Netroots Nation. Based on his increasing hostility to the political right Dean might not have been terribly welcome at Goldwater's signing.
, co-authored with John Dean, and based on Goldwater's fathers journals. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but by all accounts it provides new insights into the character of the most principled and influential conservative leader of the last century. Ironically, John Dean was not at the signing, because he had a signing for his anti-Republican book I also got to pay a brief visit to the small exhibit hall, and was pleased to see that the Libertarian Party had a prominent booth. I also got a chance to talk with some folks at the Sam Adams Alliance booth. They're another of the new groups working within the Republican Party to promote liberty and responsible government, like the AFP and the Republican Liberty Caucus. They seem to have a LOT in common with the Sunlight Foundation, which I mentioned in my last report. To the extent that they appear to be trying to duplicate a lot of the same efforts; suggesting that a non-partisan alliance between the two would make a lot of sense.
There are some real differences between what's going on at Defending the American Dream and Netroots Nation. While Netroots Nation seems geared very much towards building an organization and developing on existing relationships, Defending the American Dream seems more focused on bringing people together, discovering the conservative blogosphere and bringing bloggers and activists together with party leaders. It's smaller, seems more intimate and has a cash bar in every corner, which certainly encourages conversation. The difference may just be that Netroots Nation is farther along in the grasroots development process, but I think there's more to it than that. Defending the American Dream seems less controlled, more open to diversity and focused more on the party reform than Netroots Nation. The smaller size, lower admissions fee, local organization and absence of establishment institutions and their surrogates, makes Defending the American Dream seem like part of a much more genuinely popular reform movement, while Netroots Nation looks too much like top-down progressivism with its version of reform pre-approved by party insiders.
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