Conservative activists will gather at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) annual convention on February 25–28.  This year's event will be held in Orlando, Florida.  This is the first time in 50 years that CPAC's annual meeting was not in the Washington, D.C. area.  This is because of strict coronavirus guidelines in Maryland and D.C.

Here is a list of CPAC speakers to date.  At this point, neither Donald Trump nor Mike Pence is scheduled to speak, but it is hard to think they won't be there.  One shouldn't count Eric Trump out, either.

This year's meeting will be an important indication of which way the Republican Party is headed.  Will it be a MAGA party or one in the Bush/McCain/Romney mold?  The fact that none of the big-name Trump antagonists like Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Mitch McConnell, and Liz Cheney will be there to make their case is telling.

The liberal media will try to bury what comes out of CPAC.  When they're not doing that, they'll be twisting things to look as unfavorable as possible.  Any hiccup will be magnified, and conservative activists will be painted as near domestic terrorists for questioning the 2020 election steal.  Silicon Valley is doing its part also to tamp down enthusiasm at CPAC. The Washington Examiner reports that CPAC "is likely to offer its own streaming app now that YouTube has moved to bar videos questioning the 2020 election."  This is censorship by the geeks, which has become the new norm.  

Whatever else, CPAC 2021 will be barometer of the future of not just the GOP, but the country itself.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.