Today at the virtual office, the reports that Donald Trump had knocked Milwaukee — the host city of the upcoming Republican National Convention (which he might not even attend) — kicked off a quadrennial debate in the Intelligencer Slack channel: What’s the point of holding big national political conventions anymore? Below is the brief resulting chat that followed.
Chas Danner: We’re fast approaching a time when these conventions are background non-events.
Ed Kilgore: About damn time.
Benjamin Hart: Why do they exist at all? Waste of time, money, attention …
Ed: (a) Media interest, (b) free advertising, (c) great locus for fundraising events.
Ben: Yeah, it was a rhetorical question — but it’s all so outdated and pointless. At least cut it in half.
Ed: I’ve been advocating for the extinction of these events for many years and thought we had gotten there in 2020.
Jonathan Chait: Disagree. I think conventions have a useful role in conveying party ideas to low-info voters.
Ed: An exceptionally inefficient way to do so.
Jon: Just basic things like which party wants to ban abortion, which party wants to spend more on poor people. That’s stuff people need to know.
Ed: Same answer.
Jon: I don’t know if ending the conventions will lead to a more efficient way to convey that.
Ed: It could and should.
Jon: What way is that?
Ed: The “messaging” content of conventions is set weeks or even months before the convention. Just have a big event (paid or free) that broadcasts it. You don’t need 3,000 delegates and all the other trappings left over from deliberative conventions.
Jon: Sure, the key is for all the networks to cover it.
Ed: I think they’d cover an event of the type I am describing. And it would not require a four-day event.
Jon: I don’t think having a few thousand people converge on a city for a few days is a giant social cost; groups hold big conventions all the time.
Ed: At a huge cost to taxpayers, by the way, since business and professional convention expenses (even one a year outside the U.S.) are tax-deductible. I think the parties keep doing this strictly out of inertia.
Is it the worst thing going on in U.S. politics? Of course not. Is it still a stupid thing to do? I’d say so, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been to more of these damn things than anyone else here. 2020 offered the perfect excuse to at least streamline conventions and make them largely virtual. The question is whether there’s any need to backslide now.
Jon: I just don’t see the cost to taxpayers as amounting to anything in comparison to the educational value.
Ed: We’re just going to have to disagree on this one, Jon. Paid party ads through multiple media channels could provide the same “educational value,” as would staged media events (like the debates).
