A Quiet Convention
Yesterday we talked about cancellation of the New York primary, because there was only one active candidate on the ballot. Normally, the convention delegates are apportioned based upon the primary results. To some degree, that’s likely going to be a moot point. The Democratic National Convention has already been postponed into August. What’s the chance that there will be some sort of online voting in order to select the nominee? Probably pretty good. And if that is the case, if they do cancel the on-site convention in Milwaukee, there’s no need to wait until the new date of Wednesday, August 19 to select the nominee…they could always go back to the original date of Wednesday, July 15. That locks the nominee, and the vice presidential choice, in sooner.
As hard as it is for a political history junkie like me to accept, the national nominating conventions are not what they used to be. These days the nomination process is so sanitized, there’s virtually no chance of a convention fight…we’re going to know who the nominee is months in advance, as is the case this year and has been the case for decades. Network television long ago abandoned the wall-to-wall coverage, limiting themselves to a highly scripted one hour per night. And even the cable networks have chosen to be there but ignore what’s happening at the podium in favor of listening to their own analysts talk.
It’s a wonderful vestige of times gone by, with discussion of platform planks, fights about credentials, and people wearing goofy outfits waiting for balloons to fall from the rafters. Sadly, not the same now, and so we won’t really be missing much if there are no national party conventions. Platform committees can meet by Zoom, delegates can make their preferences known by tapping a few images on their phones, and Milwaukee will have a stockpile of beer leftover. At least Charlotte, where the GOP is supposed to meet later in August, will still have NASCAR.
So let’s say the Democrats do the convention virtually in July. That might actually set the table for something most fiction writers wouldn’t touch, because of how far fetched it would seem. That scenario, tomorrow.
