MILO was on Real Time With Bill Maher the other night:

“By inviting “alt right” (aka white supremacist) darling Milo Yiannopoulos (known as “Milo”) onto his HBO show Friday night, Bill Maher could’ve seized a great opportunity to expose Yiannopoulos’ history of hate. After all, Yiannopoulos has spewed so much toxic garbage that he was permanently banned by Twitter in 2016, which says a lot, considering the cesspool that swirls on that platform. So when Maher faced Yiannopoulos on Friday, did the HBO host press him on his view that college rape culture is a fiction and that women are often lying when they report being raped? Did Maher ask him about his anti-Semitic comment that “Jews run the media,” or did he ask why Yiannopoulos wore a Nazi Iron Cross when he was younger? Did Maher press him on his demonization of transgender people as, in essence, sexual predators? No. Instead Maher actually bonded with the extremist author and lecturer on their shared anti-Muslim views. Yiannopoulos complimented Maher: “You’re sound on Islam unlike most people on your show.” To which Maher glowingly responded, “Yes, that’s true.” (Although when Maher remarked that all religions were “stupid and dangerous,” Yiannopoulos pushed back noting that, as a Catholic, he thinks his own faith is great.) …”

MILO is going to be the keynote speaker at CPAC:

“Following the news that MILO will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference, both leftists and establishment conservatives have taken to Twitter to express their outrage.

Freedom of speech and the protection of the First Amendment have become one of the defining issues for the conservative movement, especially amongst young people. Based upon experiences on his nationwide college tour — where the events have aroused numerous violent protests by left-wing activists, attracting worldwide attention — the invitation is further confirmation that MILO is now the leading free speech advocate in America’s conservative movement. …”

He’s not claiming to be an Alt-Right leader.

MILO is a conservative or cultural libertarian now. That’s fine. It’s a more accurate label. He’s their problem now. I’m actually enjoying all the pearl clutching from the #TruCons. I do happen to agree with MILO on the free speech issue. My take is that it says a lot about the weakness of the conservative brand that Donald Trump is president and Milo Yiannopoulos is giving the keynote speech at CPAC when he doesn’t even really want to be associated with that label.

If conservatism is so weak it is unable to fend off MILO, where does the Beltway Right go from here?

Note: I’ve been highly critical of MILO, but if he can defund these universities, stigmatize the antifas and break the culture of political correctness on college campuses then I will be the first to give him credit for it.