Speaking of unintended consequences, Democrats may not realize it, but they may have just sounded the death knell for national party conventions.
When Vice President Kamala Harris won her party’s presidential nomination in a “virtual roll call” in August – 13 days before the Democratic National Convention was scheduled to begin last week – it revealed the futility of this elaborate and extremely expensive quadrennial tradition.
There is simply no escaping reality anymore. The emperor has no clothes. The event is now as outdated as powdered wigs and the town crier.
When the first national convention was held in the United States, it was for a reason. About 155 delegates from 18 of the then 24 states met in a large tavern in Baltimore on December 13, 1831, and unanimously elected Henry Clay as the Republican candidate for president for the following year. Although the candidate was defeated, a successful tradition was born.
For more than a century, a party’s candidate has been chosen at the party congress. The adoption of the party’s manifesto during this meeting was extremely important but often relegated to the background. It is a statement of what the party stands for and what it intends to do in office.
Over time, the situation changed. Although state primaries had been held since the beginning of the 20th century, they were often little more than political beauty contests with little practical impact.
But they showed their true strength in 1960, when John F. Kennedy used the primaries to demonstrate to the city bosses who then controlled the Democratic Party machine that his Catholicism would not be an obstacle to his victory in November.
Then a wave of populist reform in the early 1970s shifted power from the smoke-filled chambers of convention history to the primary and caucus system. When little-known former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter used that system to emerge from nowhere and secure the Democratic nomination in 1976, the paradigm changed once and for all. Whoever could win enough delegates in those early elections secured the nomination.
From then on, the party conventions were little more than coronation ceremonies with which voters confirmed their decisions from the primaries.
Another trend emerged. Presidential candidates from both sides began to ignore their party’s platform. Even if that document said X, if the candidate believed Y, he would just shrug his shoulders and carry on campaigning. Party platforms, once long and detailed documents, shrank to political Happy Meals. Soon they became irrelevant to politicians, pundits, and the public.
The last of the suspense had dissipated when candidates announced their running mates days and sometimes weeks before the convention began. (Trump’s choice of JD Vance at the opening of the Republican National Convention in July was a rare exception.)
With the last bit of drama snatched away, what’s left? A four-day infomercial in which a mix of Washington stars, Hollywood types and everyday people are herded on and off the stage in a mashup that resembles a political version of “America’s Got Talent.”
There is, however, the balloon toss. Democrats and Republicans alike cling to this tradition. They want to see their candidates appear together, arms raised in unity, waving, with their families by their sides as a cascade of colorful balloons slowly descends.
So what is the price of this orgy of partisan excess? Open Secrets estimates that the big Republican party in Milwaukee last month cost $65.7 million. When you add up all the bills, the bigger Democratic party in more expensive Chicago could probably be even more expensive.
And what do you get for all that money? A few seconds of falling balloons on TV.
Here’s a thought: Why not put a stop to this waste of time and money? Instead, focus on a single national campaign kickoff day to mark the official start of the fall campaign. Hold it right after Labor Day, when summer vacation is over, kids are back in school, and Americans are finally getting serious about voting. It could even be a multi-city event, with the candidate in one place, the running mate in another, and various other well-known figures hosting high-profile events in key swing states.
They could host National Campaign Kickoff Day for a fraction of the cost of a week-long convention. The tens of millions of dollars saved could instead be used for voter registration drives, advertising, and the all-important Get Out the Vote (GOTV) drives on Election Day. In short, these are the things that can help decide which candidate wins.
That would be a far more responsible way of using the party’s resources. And of course there could always be balloons. You have to have balloons.
J. Mark Powell is a novelist, former television journalist and die-hard history buff.
