POLITICAL CONVENTIONS

August 30, 2020.

When I was a little girl, I remember my mother getting all excited about political conventions. She sat glued to the radio and was impatient if I distracted her. 

In those days (the late 1940s) the results of the convention were not known ahead of time. There might be several strong candidates, but not until one of them had received the votes of at least half the delegates was a winner declared. That meant that there were usually several roll calls with the results changing each time. One candidate might take the lead, then his support would begin to fade while another candidate grew stronger. Sometimes there was a "dark horse", someone who didn't seem to have much of a chance until suddenly and unexpectedly, support for him swept through the crowd. I can understand now why this was exciting. 

A little on-line reseach revealed that Article II of the  U.S. constitution mandates that the preseident be a natural-born citizen of the U.S., at least 35 years old, and a resident of the U.S. for at least 14 years. There are a few reasons that a person can be disqualified, and no one may be elected more than twice. But there is no constitutional mandate for how a person becomes a candidate in the first place. 

In each election cycle there are usually several --- sometimes many --- indpendent candidates who fulfill the basic requirements. But realistically, a candidate must have the support of a major political party to win an elecion. It is up to each party to set up their own way of selecting a candidate.

During most of my adult life, political conventions have been held in big convvention halls. There are thousands of people milling around, funny hats, placards, balloons. Much of the time the crowd doesn't seem to be paying much attention to what's going on at the podium. The presumptive candidate has already been selected by state primary elections so there are few surprises and lots of noise and ballyhoo. 

This year was very different. The Covid-19 pandemic made large gatherings too risky. So each party produced four two-hour broadcasts, presented on four successive evenings. That was enough. Each session was tightly programmed with several pared-down, pre-written speeches interspersed with short videos. The candidates were officially nominated and each accepted. The finale each evening was a key-note speech by a key personality. We got the message and the tone, enough to make a choice on election day (if we hadn't already made up our minds in this very polarized political season.) 

I hope this kind of presentation continues in the next presidential election. Maybe it's not as much fun for people who like a big party or candidates who thrive on live audience feed-back. But it's plenty for me. 


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