Gaylord Resort and Convention Center, where CPAC is taking place. (Photo by IamJomo

ABOARD THE CPAC SHUTTLE VAN — Back in the day—as recently as last year, actually—the Conservative Political Action Conference took over Woodley Park as the nation’s right-of-center power players swarmed to the Marriott Wardman Park. Those days are over, and CPAC this year has decamped to the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Md. (Sometimes known as National Harbor.)

With CPAC now beyond the Metro’s reach—and today’s weather a bit too frosty for a jorts-clad bicycle ride—the conference is providing shuttle buses from D.C.’s Union Station. The run leaving about 1:30 p.m. picks me up, along with a gang of college Republicans down from Elmira College in Western New York.

As the shuttle leaves Union Station, it passes an advertisement for Spartan Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning stating that the company is a woman-owned business. One of the college kids remarks that he finds the statement peculiar compared to the popular conception of ancient Sparta as a city-state ruled by burly masculinity.

“In Sparta women had more voting rights,” Madelaine Whalen, sitting in the next row, remarks. Whalen says that while she doesn’t go in for many of the statements Republican leaders have made about women’s health and rights, she holds to “true conservative ideology,” which, to her, does not encompass the bedroom or doctor’s office. She chalks up her CPAC attendance to economic policy. “I think the Republican fiscal plan is better than the Democrat plan,” she says.

The Elmira College Republicans, about 10 in the bunch, say they’re more socially progressive than what they expect to meet in the rank-and-file CPAC crowd. Brian Nichols, the chapter’s president, points out that the club told the rest of their campus that they support the Supreme Court case to overturn the California law prohibiting same-sex marriage.

The oldest of the bunch, 23-year-old Adam Pontius, is wearing a Log Cabin Republicans lapel pin. But neither that group, nor another organization of gay Republicans, GOProud, is part of CPAC this year. “The reason why I want to come is to make a statement,” he says.

I ask the the college kids if they’re at all worried about violating a dress code offered earlier this week by a media consultant who wants to make sure CPAC attendees don’t appear too casual. For the record, they’re all wearing conservative business attire; the most flamboyant choice being Nichols’ black oxford shirt with white pinstripes.

“It’s almost as if our elders are adopting a liberal approach to younger members,” he says. At CPAC, “liberal” does not mean liberating. But sitting across the van aisle, Diane Boileau, seems to agree with the aims of the dress code’s author, who says she issued it to help younger CPAC guests further their careers.

“Theoretically, if we’re the future of the party,” she says.

Perhaps the van will not live up to one’s hopes that it will be a drunken CPAC party bus. But it’s still early.