National Harbor, Maryland — “America is founded on a simple idea, and that idea… [dramatic pause] is freedom.” So declared Vice President Mike Pence in a booming staccato during his Friday morning Cpac address. “Freedom works,” Pence assured the room of conservative conference-goers. “We have the courage to stand for freedom.”

Pence played the hits: low unemployment, strong economy, tax cuts and an extended riff about infanticide. A customary “build-the-wall” chant broke out, but fizzled nearly as soon as it began. That’s Cpac’s dirty little secret: The wall is not the fetish object it once was.