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Thursday, Mar 14, 2013 3:27 PM UTC

Allen West at CPAC: No moderation!

The former congressman says there's nothing liberals fear more than black conservatives

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Topics: Allen West, CPAC, cpac 2013, Black, Conservatives, Republicans,

Allen West at CPAC: No moderation! Rep. Allen West, R-Fla. (Credit: Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Allen West may have lost his seat in Congress, but he’s still a star here at CPAC, where attendees rose and waved Tea Party Gadsden flags as the former soldier took the stage to give a rousing speech filled with conservative red meat.

“Last November, we did take one on the jaw,” West said of the 2012 election. “There is no shortage of people telling us … how we must change our values to fit the times. But ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you, that truly is a bunch of malarkey. Last time I checked, a bended knee is not a conservative tradition.”

West went on to tell an odd anecdote about Winston Churchill. A woman once told the famed British prime minister that she did not like his mustache or his politics, West said, to which Churchill responded: “You are not likely to come into contact with either.”

“Winston didn’t know it, but he was channeling every black conservative in America,” West continued. “There is nothing on this green earth that a liberal progressive fears more than a black American who wants a better life.”

The former congressman announced yesterday that he’s starting a nonprofit organization to train conservative minority candidates to run for public office.

West also decried what he saw as Americans’ dependence on government, saying, “When more Americans prefer freebies to freedom, these great United States will be a fertile ground for tyranny.”

Alex Seitz-Wald

Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald. More Alex Seitz-Wald.

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